Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers - Martin Evening [314]
Background layers and bit depth
The lack of a Background layer can also stop some actions from playing. There is not always much you can do about this, other than to convert the current base layer to a Background layer by choosing Layer New Background from Layer before playing the action. This isn't always advisable since you wouldn't want to accidentally flatten all the layers in an important image. Alternatively, you could make a flattened duplicate of the current image and then run the action. You may also want to check the bit depth of the image you are applying the action to. If the bit depth is 16-bit, not all Photoshop filters will work and you will need to convert the photograph to 8-bit per channel mode first.
Action recording tips
Action recordings should be as unambiguous as possible. For example, if you record a step in which a named layer is brought forward in the layer stack, in Playback mode the action will look for a layer with that exact same name. Therefore, when adding a layer include naming the layer as part of the action. Do not use Layer 1, Layer 2, etc. as this may only cause confusion with Photoshop's default layer naming. Also, use the main Layer menu or Layer key command shortcuts to reorder the layer positioning. Doing this will make your action more universally recognized.
Inserting menu items
There are some things which can be added as part of a Photoshop action that can only be included by forcing the insertion of a menu item. For example, Photoshop doesn't record zoom tool or View menu zoom instructions. However, if you select ‘Insert Menu Item’ from the Actions panel fly-out menu, as you record an action, you will see the dialog in Figure 15.4. The Menu Item dialog will initially say ‘None Selected’, but you can now choose, say, a zoom command from the View menu and the zoom instruction will be recorded as part of the action, although frustratingly the image won't actually zoom in or out until you replay the action! I often use the Insert Menu Item as a way to record actions that open certain Photoshop dialogs that I regularly need to access, such as the various Automated plug-ins. This saves me always having to navigate the Photoshop menus to access these specific items.
Figure 15.4 The Insert Menu Item dialog will initially say ‘None Selected’. You can then select a menu item such as Window Arrange Tile, and click OK. When the action is replayed the inserted menu item will be included in the playback list.
Stops and Pauses
When editing an action, you can insert what is known as a Stop. This allows you to halt the action process to display an alert message. This could be a useful warning like the one shown in Figure 15.5, which could be displayed at a key point during the action playback. If you click in the Stop/Pause column space to the left of the action step, next to a step where a dialog can be shown, you can instruct Photoshop to open the dialog at this point (see the red icons in the Stop/Pause column in Figure 15.2). This allows you to custom edit the dialog box settings when playing back an action.
Figure 15.5 The Record Stop dialog.
‘Override Action “Open” Commands’
If there is a recorded Open item, such as an ACR processing step in an action, checking ‘Override Action “Open” Commands’ overrides popping the ACR dialog for each image and simply applies the ACR processing. However, if you check this and there is no open step recorded in the action, this will prevent the action from running, so select this option with caution.
Batch processing actions
One of the great advantages of actions is having the ability to batch process images. The Batch dialog can be accessed via the File Automate menu, plus it can also be accessed via the Tools Photoshop menu in Bridge. You first need to select an action set and action from the Play section and you'll then need to set the Source and Destination. The Source can be all currently open images, the selected images in the Bridge window, an Import source, or a specific folder, in which