Introduction to the Actions Panel Interface
Blake Rudis
Lessons
Bootcamp Introduction
16:22 2The Bridge Interface
13:33 3Setting up Bridge
06:55 4Overview of Bridge
11:29 5Practical Application of Bridge
27:56 6Introduction to Raw Editing
11:00 7Setting up ACR Preferences & Interface
07:39 8Global Tools Part 1
16:44Global Tools Part 2
20:01 10Local Tools
22:56 11Introduction to the Photoshop Interface
07:13 12Toolbars, Menus and Windows
25:07 13Setup and Interface
11:48 14Adobe Libraries
05:57 15Saving Files
07:39 16Introduction to Cropping
12:10 17Cropping for Composition in ACR
04:44 18Cropping for Composition in Photoshop
12:40 19Cropping for the Subject in Post
03:25 20Cropping for Print
07:34 21Perspective Cropping in Photoshop
07:11 22Introduction to Layers
08:42 23Vector & Raster Layers Basics
05:05 24Adjustment Layers in Photoshop
27:35 25Organizing and Managing Layers
15:35 26Introduction to Layer Tools and Blend Modes
21:34 27Screen and Multiply and Overlay
09:15 28Soft Light Blend Mode
07:34 29Color and Luminosity Blend Modes
12:47 30Color Burn and Color Dodge Blend Modes
07:43 31Introduction to Layer Styles
11:43 32Practical Application: Layer Tools
13:06 33Introduction to Masks and Brushes
04:43 34Brush Basics
09:22 35Custom Brushes
04:01 36Brush Mask: Vignettes
06:58 37Brush Mask: Curves Dodge & Burn
06:53 38Brush Mask: Hue & Saturation
07:52 39Mask Groups
05:52 40Clipping Masks
04:11 41Masking in Adobe Camera Raw
07:06 42Practical Applications: Masks
14:03 43Introduction to Selections
05:42 44Basic Selection Tools
17:41 45The Pen Tool
11:56 46Masks from Selections
04:22 47Selecting Subjects and Masking
07:11 48Color Range Mask
17:35 49Luminosity Masks Basics
12:00 50Introduction to Cleanup Tools
07:02 51Adobe Camera Raw
10:16 52Healing and Spot Healing Brush
14:56 53The Clone Stamp Tool
10:20 54The Patch Tool
06:38 55Content Aware Move Tool
04:56 56Content Aware Fill
06:46 57Custom Cleanup Selections
15:42 58Introduction to Shapes and Text
13:46 59Text Basics
15:57 60Shape Basics
07:00 61Adding Text to Pictures
09:46 62Custom Water Marks
14:05 63Introduction to Smart Objects
04:37 64Smart Object Basics
09:13 65Smart Objects and Filters
09:05 66Smart Objects and Image Transformation
10:57 67Smart Objects and Album Layouts
11:40 68Smart Objects and Composites
10:47 69Introduction to Image Transforming
04:34 70ACR and Lens Correction
09:45 71Photoshop and Lens Correction
14:26 72The Warp Tool
11:16 73Perspective Transformations
20:33 74Introduction to Actions in Photoshop
09:27 75Introduction to the Actions Panel Interface
05:06 76Making Your First Action
03:49 77Modifying Actions After You Record Them
11:38 78Adding Stops to Actions
04:01 79Conditional Actions
07:36 80Actions that Communicate
25:26 81Introduction to Filters
04:38 82ACR as a Filter
09:20 83Helpful Artistic Filters
17:08 84Helpful Practical Filters
07:08 85Sharpening with Filters
07:32 86Rendering Trees
08:20 87The Oil Paint and Add Noise Filters
15:08 88Introduction to Editing Video
06:20 89Timeline for Video
08:15 90Cropping Video
03:34 91Adjustment Layers and Video
05:25 92Building Lookup Tables
07:00 93Layers, Masking Video & Working with Type
15:11 94ACR to Edit Video
06:10 95Animated Gifs
11:39 96Introduction to Creative Effects
06:08 97Black, White, and Monochrome
18:05 98Matte and Cinematic Effects
08:23 99Gradient Maps and Solid Color Grades
12:20 100Gradients
04:21 101Glow and Haze
10:23 102Introduction to Natural Retouching
05:33 103Brightening Teeth
10:25 104Clean Up with the Clone Stamp Tool
08:07 105Cleaning and Brightening Eyes
16:58 106Advanced Clean Up Techniques
24:47 107Introduction to Portrait Workflow & Bridge Organization
14:47 108ACR for Portraits Pre-Edits
21:27 109Portrait Workflow Techniques
18:46 110Introduction to Landscape Workflow & Bridge Organization
12:17 111Landscape Workflow Techniques
37:36 112Introduction to Compositing & Bridge
06:59 113Composite Workflow Techniques
34:01 114Landscape Composite Projects
24:14 115Bonus: Rothko and Workspace
05:15 116Bonus: Adding Textures to Photos
07:05 117Bonus: The Mask (Extras)
05:18 118Bonus: The Color Range Mask in ACR
04:54Lesson Info
Introduction to the Actions Panel Interface
So for this segment on actions, you're not gonna see me working with too many different images like we've done before with all the varied photographs that we have been looking at. We just need dummy images to work on so that you can understand what actions are. So we're gonna start very basically just talking about the actions panel, what it is, where it is, how to find it, and where to put it when you're working. So right here it's gonna look like a little play icon. I'm gonna go ahead and just get rid of that and act as if it was never there. So how do I find that? I can press Alt or Option and F9, and it will appear, but if I did not know that hot key just out of nowhere, I could go to Window and go to Actions and you can see right next to that Actions we have Alt F9. With the Actions, I like to leave those in the secondary toolbar, like you see along the side here, where I have all my other toolbars or special toolbars, I should say, and I'll drag it and just put it right inside he...
re. Really cool aside, everything that's on this panel, that we're having in the Creative Live Bootcamp, was created from an action at one point, so you can see that as you get good with these things you can even start developing panels. Again, giving away the farm, good job, Blake. So, I'm gonna go ahead and just open up the Actions here, and just show you what happens inside the Actions. By default, Photoshop is gonna have some default actions in there that you can go ahead and click on and press play, and it's gonna do something to work. And those are all there by default. You have a vignette here. You have some water reflection type. I don't know, I haven't even looked at these things. It's kinda cool, but what I'm gonna do is I'm just gonna go ahead and delete this, just drag this and drop this, and put this right into the dump folder there. So if by chance you have a image that is over top of a panel like this, like the Actions are no longer visible here because the image is too big, if I click and hold on this, because we have enable floating window docking set in our preferences, that'll be under Edit and then under Preferences, and we go to I believe it was Workspace, enable floating window docking, make sure that's checked. I can just grab this, pull this up to the top, and it will force itself behind there so I can see what's going on. So really looking at the actions, and you can just break this whole thing down and look at what you see here. Down here we're gonna have all of our buttons to make this thing operate. We're obviously gonna have a stop button, so that once we are recording we can stop it. We have a record button, just like you would see on a VCR, if you're old enough to know what that is, and then a play button to press play on any of the actions that you have set, and then here you have a folder to create a new set of actions, and here is a new action within a set of actions, and then the ability to delete by just clicking and dragging and deleting as you saw I did with that one before. So I'm just gonna go ahead and clear this out, and delete this out completely. Up here, in this upper portion, we have something called button mode. We have the ability to make a new action set, which is the same thing as that. We have the ability to, a new action, which is the same as that, and a new action set, which is the same as that. We can duplicate actions, delete actions, play actions. Here's the start recording, which is the same as that. Record again, if we ever need to go back into a recording. Inserting menu items, there are some actions, there are some things that can only be inserted into an action if you go to insert menu item. Insert stop, this is that modal control, that modal stop control. And then here we have insert conditional actions, insert paths, so you can look through these, and let's just go ahead and first of all, I'm just gonna grab whatever, let me just open up a set of actions here. These would be the actions that you have in your actions palette, so I'm just gonna open up this one that says textures, 'cause I want to show you something here called button mode. Button mode will, instead of making it look like some type of folder structure with drop-downs, it takes the folder structure away, and just gives you colored buttons. Now these colored buttons are important to know because we can set a color for our buttons if we want, if we're in button mode. The only problem that I find with button mode is that it's only really conducive for one set of actions at a time. If you've got 15 sets of actions in here, you're not gonna see any delineation here anywhere between the actions that you might have and the actions that you just pulled in here because there's no folder structure here that tells you you're in a different set of actions. So I tend to stay away from button mode as a personal preference, but I know a lot of people that really do enjoy button mode because maybe they only use one action set at a time. If you're the type of person who only has one action set open at a time, button mode is great. I, like I said, do not care for button mode too much.
Class Materials
Ratings and Reviews
Robert Andrews
Blake Rudis is the absolute best in teaching photoshop. His knowledge and how he presents the instruction is clear and concise - there is NO ONE BETTER. Yes, his classes require some basic skills, and maybe I'd organize the order of (or group) the classes in a different order, but, let me be clear - if anyone is to be successful or famous in the Photoshop world, it should be Blake Rudis. I strongly recommend his teaching. I started photography and post processing in 2018, and because of this class, I'm know what Im doing. The energy you get when you create something beautiful is profound, it makes you bounce out of bed (at 4AM) like a 5 year old, to go create. It's a great ride! Thanks Blake, & Thanks Creative live.
a Creativelive Student
Amazing course, but don't be fooled into thinking this is a beginner's course for photographers. The problem isn't Blake's explanations; they're top. The problem is the vast scope of this course and the order in which the topics are presented. Take layers for example. When I was first learning Photoshop (back when we learned from books), I found I learned little or nothing from, for example, books that covered layers before they covered how to improve/process photographs. These books taught me how to organize, move, and link layers before they showed me what a layer was actually for. Those books tended to teach me everything there is to know about layers (types of layers, how to organize them, how to move them, how to move them two at a time, how to move them two at a time even if there are other layers between the two you're interested in, useful troubleshooting tips, etc. ) all before I even know (from a photographer's point of view) what it is the things actually do. The examples of organizing, linking, and moving mean everything for graphic designers from Day One, but for photographers not so much. Blake does the same thing as those books. Topics he covers extremely early demand a lot of theoretical imagination for a photographer who doesn't already know quite a bit about what he is talking about. Learning about abstract things first and concrete things later only makes PS that much harder to understand. If you AREN'T a beginner, however, this course is amazing. I thought it would be like an Army Bootcamp, taking you from zero and building you into a fit, competent Photoshop grunt. Now I think it's more like Army Bootcamp for high school varsity jocks. It isn't going to take you from the beginning, but the amount you'll get out of it is nonetheless more than your brain can imagine. I've been using PS for years to improve my photographs, and even to create the odd artistic composite or two. The amount I've learned in the first week is amazing, and every day I learn something -- more like many things -- which I immediately implement to improve my productivity and/or widen the horizons of what I can achieve. If you ARE a photographer who's a Photoshop beginner, I'd take very seriously the advice Blake gives in the introduction: Watch one lesson, and practice the skills and principles you learn in that one lesson for two weeks. THEN watch the next lesson. You can't do that of course without buying the course, so it's up to you to decide whether you'd like to learn Photoshop and master Photoshop all from the same course. Learning it first and mastering it later will cost more money, but I think you'll understand everything better and have a much more enjoyable ride in the process. As for me? I'm going to have to find the money to buy this course. There is simply way too much content in each lesson for me to try to take on all at once, but on the other hand I don't want to miss anything at all that he has to share.
Esther Gambrell
WOW!!! I've been purchasing CL classes for several years now and have watched HOURS of "How-To Photoshop" classes, but this is the first one I've actually purchased because of the AWESOME BONUS content!!! SERIOUSLY??!!?!? A PLUG-IN??? But not only that, Blake is SO easy to understand, and he breaks down concepts in different ways to connect with different people's learning styles. I REALLY appreciated this approach because I am a LEFT-BRAINED creative that has an engineering background, so I really connected to what Blake was saying. THANK YOU FOR THAT! There are TONS of Photoshop courses out there, but I found this one to be the most helpful in they way Blake teaches concepts so that you know WHY you're doing what your doing. I feel like he taught me how to fish with Photoshop to feed me for a lifetime instead of just giving me a fish to feed me for one day. This is the BEST overall PS course out there!!! Thank you!!!!