Action items? Build once use many

[Steve Uffman]

as a guy who made his career automating repeatable complex processes , I finally am spending some time trying to build the necessary actions to automate the routine. "ie build once, use many" . With new desktop, I have shrunk the cycle time substantially within images...now I am trying to figure out how to shrink the backlog ....Actions look like a great way and they are easy to build in CS6 ...and I have several but wondering how others are using them for productivity. Seems like knowing what is as important as how. So I am interested in hearing " how " others use them for productivity.

Thanks in advance.

wish I could build an action that goes through the LR-CS6-Nik and back

[WIlliam Maroldo]

I do a great deal of OOTB imagery, using fractalius, NIK colorefex, a number of Topaz plugins like Adjust, Clean, Simplify, deNoise, Oil paint filter in CS6, pixel bender in CS5, and I almost always incorporate multiple plugins into actions. Not only does this save a great deal of time since an effect can be obtained with one click, but it is difficult to remember what multiple steps where needed to create a specific resulting effect that I really like. I will have a list of what plugins where used, and equaly important, their parameters. I spend time working up a workflow, sometimes 10 or more steps,(not only plugins but usual photoshop stuff like saturation, contrast, etc), create an action, and with one click I'm good to go. This is also useful to almost instantly determine what images work best with a particular effect. One thing to do is make sure of is making a copy of the action folder, which might take a bit of digging into the photoshop program files, since I have had photoshop crash and erase all the action files. I might also add that I use actions to resample images to specific sizes, convert to jpegs, and a host of other non-plugin tasks. regards~Bill

[Steve Uffman]

Thanks Bill ....I have stuff like you with Nik but have not thought through whether I could record and action in PS that would run dfine, a color efex recipe and then back to CS6.....I do some things set up now to do watermarks, web sizing and a few things such as matting and framing.....really trying to see what routine things folks create actions for so I am not overlooking some things that are non plugin.

[Charles Glatzer]

Steve, Actions with Smart Filters is the way to go to automate routine tasks. Both will work with NIK filters.

Chas

[Roger Clark]

I rarely make actions. Every image is unique. For example, applied curves and sharpening are unique to each image in my opinion. I might create an action to resize, e.g. for web output.

Roger