If you weren't already aware, Photoshop has these great features called Actions. Actions can be used for many things, including doing the mundane tasks you don't feel like doing, creating amazing effects, and maximizing productivity.
I recently had the pleasure of a little thing called Batch Processing. I'm a dedicated designer, but there was no way I was going sit in front of my computer for hours changing the Hue/Saturation for every single image for my forum. What is Batch Processing, you say? Well, it's something that processes a batch,and I'm going to show you how to do it.
When you create an action you need it to do one thing, whatever that "thing" may be. In my case, I needed to change the Hue/Saturation for 80+ images from aqua to my "trademark" teal. You may need to create an action for a different purpose; however for now lets all agree we are going to change the Hue/Saturation. Now, to follow along you'll need something to work on. Grab a small image, like an icon.
Now go to Window - Actions and make sure it is checked. If it is, you should see a tab in the Layers Palette labeled, of course, Actions.
Click on the arrow button to enter the Actions menu and then "new Set." This will create a folder for your newly created action (the folder is not mandatory, but it does help with organization.)
Now go back to the Actions menu and choose "New Action." Have an idea of the steps you'll need to take and their order before recording an action. Since this is a fairly simple action, you will master this in no time at all.
Now for the recording part. There will be a small circle icon between the square and the triangle at the bottom of the palette that you will need to click. Now Photoshop will record everything you do until the end of the Action. If you have an error, simply stop the Action by pushing the square icon and go back to your last step taken.
For this tutorial, the first thing to do is change the Mode of the image to RGB, since .gif files are saved in Index mode which don't respond well to colorization. Go to Image - Mode - RGB with the Action recording.
Next, we'll have to strip the image of it's current color to make adding our (my) own color easier to apply, so go to Image - Adjustment - Desaturate.
There will be a naked grey image left to which we need to add some color. While still recording your action, go to Image - Adjustments - Hue/Saturation. I keep the rose color settings saved in a .ahu (Hue/Saturation) file already so all I have to do is press Load and select Rose.ahu, but you can achieve this color by using the sliders.
Our final step is to save it for the web. Make sure your action still recording and go to File - Save For the Web and set your file type and optimization settings. I use the standard GIF settings. Select your destination directory and save.
Now you can press the square button on the actions tab and stop recording. To put your newly created action into action, we'll need to do a Batch Process. A batch process will take all the images in a specified directory and apply whatever changes were recorded in the action.
Begin by going to File -Automate - Batch and make sure the name of the Action Set you just made is in the first dropdown list and the name of the Action is in the second. Set the third dropdown box (next to Source) to Folder and use the Choose button to find your duplicated or created folder of images. For destination, you can leave it set to it's default "None" to have the action applied and saved in the source folder, or save the "actionized" images into a separate folder. Click OK once you have everything set to your liking..
Now you can sit back and watch your images color themselves because you're using Actions and Batch Processing to do your tedious work. - 16651
I recently had the pleasure of a little thing called Batch Processing. I'm a dedicated designer, but there was no way I was going sit in front of my computer for hours changing the Hue/Saturation for every single image for my forum. What is Batch Processing, you say? Well, it's something that processes a batch,and I'm going to show you how to do it.
When you create an action you need it to do one thing, whatever that "thing" may be. In my case, I needed to change the Hue/Saturation for 80+ images from aqua to my "trademark" teal. You may need to create an action for a different purpose; however for now lets all agree we are going to change the Hue/Saturation. Now, to follow along you'll need something to work on. Grab a small image, like an icon.
Now go to Window - Actions and make sure it is checked. If it is, you should see a tab in the Layers Palette labeled, of course, Actions.
Click on the arrow button to enter the Actions menu and then "new Set." This will create a folder for your newly created action (the folder is not mandatory, but it does help with organization.)
Now go back to the Actions menu and choose "New Action." Have an idea of the steps you'll need to take and their order before recording an action. Since this is a fairly simple action, you will master this in no time at all.
Now for the recording part. There will be a small circle icon between the square and the triangle at the bottom of the palette that you will need to click. Now Photoshop will record everything you do until the end of the Action. If you have an error, simply stop the Action by pushing the square icon and go back to your last step taken.
For this tutorial, the first thing to do is change the Mode of the image to RGB, since .gif files are saved in Index mode which don't respond well to colorization. Go to Image - Mode - RGB with the Action recording.
Next, we'll have to strip the image of it's current color to make adding our (my) own color easier to apply, so go to Image - Adjustment - Desaturate.
There will be a naked grey image left to which we need to add some color. While still recording your action, go to Image - Adjustments - Hue/Saturation. I keep the rose color settings saved in a .ahu (Hue/Saturation) file already so all I have to do is press Load and select Rose.ahu, but you can achieve this color by using the sliders.
Our final step is to save it for the web. Make sure your action still recording and go to File - Save For the Web and set your file type and optimization settings. I use the standard GIF settings. Select your destination directory and save.
Now you can press the square button on the actions tab and stop recording. To put your newly created action into action, we'll need to do a Batch Process. A batch process will take all the images in a specified directory and apply whatever changes were recorded in the action.
Begin by going to File -Automate - Batch and make sure the name of the Action Set you just made is in the first dropdown list and the name of the Action is in the second. Set the third dropdown box (next to Source) to Folder and use the Choose button to find your duplicated or created folder of images. For destination, you can leave it set to it's default "None" to have the action applied and saved in the source folder, or save the "actionized" images into a separate folder. Click OK once you have everything set to your liking..
Now you can sit back and watch your images color themselves because you're using Actions and Batch Processing to do your tedious work. - 16651
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