Step by Step: Creative Actions Find out how you can use this issue’s Photoshop gift to transform images

Use our Actions to apply creative effects to an image, then prepare it for printing in seconds

Whenever you take a shot, the image you capture in-camera can be regarded in two different ways. The first is to treat it as an accurate rendition of the scene or subject – a ‘record’ of whatever was presented to you at the time. The second is to see the recorded picture as a starting point for further creative exploration.

In a sense, you’ve already put your ‘stamp’ on the picture with your choice of focal length, composition, depth of field, point of focus and timing, but there may be more you want to convey. This might be a certain mood or atmosphere that perhaps isn’t apparent or obvious in the straight capture, or it might be a particular visual style you want to apply so that the scene is presented as you want it to be, rather than how it actually is.

A great way to explore the potential within an image is by applying different stylistic treatments to it. On this issue’s download is a set of Photoshop Actions that will render a creative new look to any picture in seconds.

1 Install your Actions

In the download’s Gift is a file called DCM 242 Creative Looks.atn. Drag and drop this to somewhere convenient on your computer so it copies across. Make a mental note of where you’ve put it, then open Photoshop CC. When it’s on screen, go to Window > Actions and the Actions Panel will appear. In the top-right of the panel, you’ll see a four-line icon. Click on this and from the drop-down list, select Load Actions...

In the window, navigate to where you put the DC 242 Creative Looks.atn file, and double-click on it. This will load the Actions into the Actions Panel. To see them all, click on the arrow to the left of the file name to expand the folder.

2 Get a new look – fast!

Leave the Actions Panel on-screen, and go to File > Open. Select the picture to which you want to apply one of the Actions, and double-click its name to load it into Photoshop. When it’s on-screen, click the Action you want to use in the Actions Panel, so its name is highlighted. I’ve chosen B&W B-Y Split here.

At the bottom of the panel, click the Play Selection button (the right-facing triangle): this will run the selected Action automatically and apply the new look to your picture. Depending on the complexity of the Action and the processing power of your computer, this could be instant or it might take a few seconds.

3 Save your new-look image

After the Action has run, the result will be a flattened file with a single background layer. This makes it really easy to use, but if you want to keep the new-look picture, you still need to save it. You don’t want to save over the top of the original picture, so to save the new one, go to File > Save As and save it somewhere easy to find. To keep the file size fairly small and the image quality really good, a wise choice is the JPEG format with the Quality set to Level 10 or higher. You must use a new file name, though, so change or append the name of the original file. Once you’ve saved your new-look shot, you’ve completed the main process, but the picture will still be the same size as the original.

4 Prepare a print

At the bottom of the list of Actions are four really useful extras that will resize the picture to make it ready for printing at A4 or A3. These include a crisp white margin around the edge of the image, so if you want to frame it, you don’t even need a mount board – you just need an A4 or A3 picture frame. Once you’ve got the look you want, simply click on the A4 print or A3 Print Action – choosing the Horizontal or Vertical option according to your picture’s orientation – then press the Play Selection button as before to run the Action and resize you shot to A4 or A3 automatically. Your image will instantly appear at the selected size, with a neat white surround.