Understanding Adobe Photoshop CS4- P11: Learning Adobe Photoshop is essential to success in digital media industries. Photoshop is a gateway into several related technologies. From digital image acquisition and processing to typography and compositing, Photoshop is often your fi rst introduction. If you can master this program, you can go on to success with several other technologies. With this in mind, it is important to learn Photoshop with one eye on the present and the other on the future. | 288 Chapter 15 Actions and Automation 7. On the topmost layer make a Levels adjustment by pressing Command Ctrl L. Bring the black and white Input sliders toward the center. Move the gray slider until the midtones are brighter. 8. Change the blend mode of the top layer to Screen mode. 9. Press Option Alt to select the previous layer. 10. Press Command Option F Ctrl Alt F to run the Zoom filter again with options. 11. Set the amount to 30 and click OK. 12. To achieve the look you need to fade the filter choose Edit Fade Radial Blur. Lower the Opacity of the effect to 30 and click OK. 13. In the Actions panel click Stop. Experiment and create your own looks. Virtually every menu command or button can be recorded. Actions can be duplicated modified and deleted. Be sure to explore all the options in the Actions panel submenu. Be sure to dissect actions made by others to get ideas of what is possible. With a little practice and imagination you ll be amazed at what you can accomplish. If you want to check out the actions you just created compare them to a set I ve saved in the Chapter 15 folder. Automate Commands 289 Saving Actions Actions are stored in a temporary cache. If you delete the set load a replacement or experience an application crash your new actions could be overwritten. Therefore it s important to save your actions so they can be backed up and reloaded in the future. 1. Click an action set. You can use the one created in the previous exercise. You must click the whole set not just an action in that set. 2. Go to the Actions panel submenu and choose Save Actions. 3. The Photoshop Actions folder inside the Presets folder will be chosen by default. If it isn t manually locate it in your Presets folder. 4. If you add to the set later just be sure to resave it to the same location with the same name. Automate Commands Photoshop offers several commands for speeding up professional imaging workflow. You ll explore each option available as of this writing. If you
