5 Tips for recording Actions in Photoshop
- Allow tool recording.
- Create the brush before recording the action.
- Deselect the tool that will be selected for the action.
- Add colour to your action.
- Alt [ ] to move up and down layers.
1. Allow tool recording.
To view the Actions menu click on the hamburger menu on the right in the Actions Panel.
If you don’t have an Actions Panel, Menu item Windows and then tick Actions.
Tick the Allow Tool Recording. This allows you to record the selection of any tool. Extremely important if you want to use a specific brush preset.
2. Create the brush preset before recording the Action.
A perfect example of this is the healing brush tool that I use for every image. It has to be a certain size, only work on current and below layers and pen pressure off. If I had to stop and make these changes every time I run the action that is time wasted. So I have saved that brush preset and included it in the action. So when I run the action the saved healing brush is already selected and I can start editing straight away.
3. Deselect the tool that will be selected for the action.
Before you start recording the Action make sure the tool that you wish to be recorded in the action is not selected.
Why . As the selection needs to be recorded. Once the selection of the tool has been made then select the tool preset that you previously saved.
For example when recording the healing action after creating the new blank layer I need to select the healing brush tool. I make sure before I start recording that the clone stamp is selected. Then whilst recording I select the healing brush then the healing brush preset that I’ve saved.
4. Assign a colour to your Action.
This useful visual can assist when locating layers.
Whilst recording right click under the little eye in the layers panel and select a colour for that layer.
5. To move between layers whilst recording.
Use Alt and [ ] keys to move up and down. Holding shift will allow you to select multiply layers, this is important if you need to places these layers in a folder. Simply clicking on the layers will not always record correctly.