You got the latest quad duo core processors fixed onto your motherboard with the fastest bus speed that is available in the market now. You also got a monstrous graphic processing card that have enough power to run your 3D games concurrently over and over again. And you got tons of photos that need some adjustments to them, which will take some couple of light years as you had to do them 1 by 1.

Can Photoshop do the repeating photo editing tasks automatically for you while you have your coffee break? Yes.

Can Photoshop automatically sharpen, adjust tone of photographs, add borders, etc… without you stuck to your chair for hours? Yes.

How do Photoshop do batch and automated processing to your photographs? Although it sounds like a complicated process, all these can be done in just a few minutes only!

To automate the process of photo editing, you need to know how to use “Actions” in Photoshop. The Action palette can be found just beside the “History” tab.

Basically “Actions” are self-recorded processes that will reperform all the recorded steps when called or activated.

For example, I recorded a process of me changing a colour photo to black and white and named it as “Change to Black and White”. I saved the process and the next time I want to change another photo to black and white, I do not have to do all the steps again. I just call the “Change to Black and White” process out and everything is done automatically!

Step 1: To record a process, first locate the “Create New Action” button.

Step 2: Next, choose a name for the process and select a function key. For example, Shift F2 is selected, everytime you press Shift F2, you will call the process. If there is no function key tagged to a process, just simply select the process in the Action Palette by double clicking it.

Step 3: Once you click ok, you will see the recording button turn red and you can proceed to do the necessary actions you want to record. Once done, click the square “Stop” recording button and the process is created!

The recorded actions will allow you automated function in Photoshop, however with this, you still have to open a photo one by one and edit it. But with batch processing, you can actually call out an “Action” and apply the recorded processes to the photos in a folder. This way, you can simply put all the photos in a folder, called out the “Change to Black and White” process and all the photos in the folder will turn black and white!

Just simply go to File>Automate>Batch.

A screen will pop up. Choose the required action, select source folder and select destination folder. Just click ok and Photoshop will perform the required “Action” on all the photos in the folder while you grab your coffee.

Tips: Imagine how much time you can save now!

For “Actions” that deal with sizes of the photos, ensure the photos placed in the source folder are of same dimensions to ensure all results stay constant. For example, adding a 10 pixel border to a small photo will differ from adding a 10 pixel border to large photo.