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About this lesson
Delve into Photoshop’s one button solution to repetitive editing tasks.
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Quick reference
Topic: Conditional Actions
Delve into Photoshop’s one button solution to repetitive editing tasks.
When to use
You don’t need to be a scripting guru to become a power user in Photoshop! If you have the same editing task to do over and over again then this tutorial is for you. Not only does Actions solve this problem, but Conditional Actions can make the process even more responsive.
Instructions
Conditional Actions example
- Open your actions Panel Menu/Window/Actions Panel
- Create two actions: One that effect the background layer and, one that effects layer 0.
- From top right of the panel choose the dropdown ‘Insert Conditional Action’.
- In the options:
If: Background image
Then play action: Choose the actions that use the background image.
Else play action: Choose the action that uses action that deals with layer 0.
- Press OK.
Always play the Conditional Action first. If there is just a background image then it will use that, otherwise it will use layer 0.
Login to download- 00:04 Actions are a wonderful tool that helps you automate certain tasks in Photoshop,
- 00:08 but like me you've all run into instances where the action fails to complete.
- 00:13 Because either your document or
- 00:14 one of your layers differs from the initial recording.
- 00:17 For example, when you're recording an action for
- 00:19 the first time, if your main layer was the background layer, and
- 00:22 you made a change to it, Photoshop takes note of that.
- 00:25 So, if you go back to player action on a document where the layer is
- 00:28 called layer zero,
- 00:29 instead of background, the action may fail depending on the steps that it takes.
- 00:33 Or, what if you're running a batch action, and
- 00:36 only want to focus on landscape images from that set.
- 00:39 Something like that would usually require scripting,
- 00:41 which most users are not familiar with, but now in Photoshop CS 6 13.1,
- 00:45 we have a new tool at our disposal, conditional actions.
- 00:49 Let me show you how this works.
- 00:51 So here, on the right, I have my actions panel open,
- 00:53 which you can activate down at the window menu if you don't see it.
- 00:56 For this example let's say you're working on a project that requires a large, white
- 00:59 border around your photos, some of which you may have already opened and saved.
- 01:03 Some may be the background layer while some may not be.
- 01:06 And, as you're wanting to automatically apply this effect to all of your photos,
- 01:10 creating an action sounds like the best idea, but like I mentioned earlier,
- 01:14 if some of the layers are the background layer and
- 01:16 some of the layers are layer zero, you're gonna run into some issues.
- 01:19 Now, right now the image is the background layer and
- 01:21 playing back this action results in an error.
- 01:24 And, even if I continue the process I don't get the result that i'm looking for.
- 01:28 So, to solve this you're now able to create a conditional action to
- 01:32 determine which action should be run.
- 01:33 The action that converts the background layer into an editable layer, or
- 01:37 the action that already contains and editable layer.
- 01:39 Creating a new action just like you would normally, you now have the option of
- 01:43 inserting a conditional action from the menu at the top right of this panel.
- 01:46 Where you're going to be presented with simple if, then, else options.
- 01:51 In the if drop-down, you cal tell Photoshop to check if the document is
- 01:54 landscape, square, RGB or if the layer is background or pixel.
- 01:59 Let's choose the background option.
- 02:00 So now, we have the If set.
- 02:02 If the layer is the background then we need to tell Photoshop what to do.
- 02:06 So, let's choose the action that deals with the background layer.
- 02:09 And then, in the Else dropdown,
- 02:11 we can choose the action that deals with the pixel layer.
- 02:14 Now, once you have the conditions set up, press Okay and then stop your action.
- 02:17 This action is only going to be the conditional action.
- 02:20 So now, no matter if your image is the background layer or an editable layer,
- 02:24 playing the conditional action will always give you the result that you're after.
- 02:28 And, trust me, when you're running this action on hundreds of images,
- 02:32 not running into an error is going to be fantastic.
- 02:35 And, this is just one example of
- 02:36 how conditional actions can help your workflow.
- 02:39 Imagine being able to determine if your photo is landscape or portrait so
- 02:43 you can apply your watermark in the exact position that you're looking for.
- 02:46 Those of you who use Action(s) are going to love this.
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