Conditional Actions

The next thing we're gonna do is we're gonna make what's called a conditional action. And a conditional action is just like it sounds. It's an if this then that. So I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna do something pretty clever here, just to separate what's happening from here and here and this is also another good practice, is to make an action in here that's called image size. And what I'm gonna do on this purposely, is I'm just gonna do something like this and then I'm gonna do at the very end and then press record, but guess what? I'm not gonna record anything. What I was doing there was just separating the fact that we have a curves dodge and burn from the rest of what I'm about to do. This is what I call a placeholder. All it's doing, it's not even going to be an action, we don't even want it to play anything, it's just a placeholder to divide it. Because what happens is, if you make an actions pack, whether it's for you or if it's for somebody else, and you get 40 actions in here, ...

you're gonna go, like, cross-eyed looking at where, where are these actions, they're all over the place, which one do I check, which one do I select? Because they're, you won't be able to find the ones that you wanna find. The minute you put page breaks in here like this, it allows you to go from one to the next without trying to dig through all of your actions. So now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna make a new action. I'm gonna make an action that does an image resize that's gonna resize the image if it's horizontal. So I'm gonna go make a new action and we'll do horizontal resize and we'll just call this 1,200. Actually let's do it smaller, let's do on how big this image is. Press record. Now I'm gonna go to Image and go to Image Size and I'm gonna change the width of this to 800 pixels. Basically what I'm doing is I'm making an action that's gonna resize my image and make it smaller, maybe for the web, make it for something that's a little bit easier, and then press OK. And then I'm gonna press stop, because all I needed that to do if we go back in our history states here, all I needed that to do was just resize my image, just make it smaller for the web, okay? So I'm gonna go back, now I'm gonna make another one. Let's do this. Let's make a duplicate of this with our history state, let's crop this and make it vertical, just a vertical image like this. You'll see why in a second. So now I'm gonna record an action on this one and it's gonna be vertical resize, we'll just call it 800 also. I'm gonna go to Image, Image Size, change the height to 800, OK, stop. So all I've done there is I made two actions, one that's a horizontal resize and one that's a vertical resize. So now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna make a conditional action and the conditional action is gonna be smart enough to assess the image that I have based on the parameters that I tell it to assess and select the appropriate action based on what I'm telling it to. So I'm gonna go ahead and press Insert Conditional, actually let me do this, I'm gonna make a new action and that new action's gonna be called Master Resize. Here I'm gonna Insert Conditional. If the current document is landscape, then play this, else play this, okay? So if the current document is a landscape, a landscape-based image, select horizontal, or else play vertical, press OK and then stop. And all it's gonna record in there is an if this then that statement. So if I open up this image here and I press, ooh, and I press play on that master resize, it's automatically gonna assess the image and automatically make it smaller. If I press play on this one, automatically resize that image, automatically make it smaller. So it's a conditional action. Now if for some reason though, this is really important to know, what I would do with these is probably put some kind of star there or something, maybe three stars, I don't know what that looks like to you, but watch what happens if I open up a new folder, a new action set and call this Other Actions and I take this master resize outta here and I put it in here and I press play. It's still gonna work (laughing), it shouldn't have. What happens here is if, if for instance, this actions folder is not present on my machine it will not work, because what this is doing is it's saying, and we can read this here actually and see why it's still working, if the current document is landscape then play this action, the action is horizontal resize of set CL actions lesson. So let's just, before I do this I'm gonna go ahead and cover myself. Any time you make actions it's a really good idea to save them, this right here, this whole panel right here in Photoshop is a temporary spot and it's kinda held within the cache. So if the cache within Photoshop dumps you will lose everything you built here, okay? That's, like, start writing this down. So what we wanna do is we have CL actions lesson, we're gonna click on the hamburger icon and we're gonna save Save Actions. Just save them. Photoshop will automatically put them where Photoshop's presets are for actions and press Save. That's all you need to do to ensure that you always have these actions and they don't go away when the cache gets purged. So now if I were to delete these actions, delete 'em, and then click on this action, watch what happens. Boom, that's what I was looking for. The command If is not currently available, why is the command If not currently available? Well that's because this action has to have those other actions to interact with it. If those actions aren't there it won't work. So we don't wanna break them apart, we wanna keep them together, we always want to keep them together because they interact with one another. So we'll go ahead and press stop. And I'm gonna go ahead and just, right here, if you ever wanna load your actions, right here we can go to Load Actions and there's our actions. This is also, if you ever wanna deliver these actions to somebody else, maybe you have a friend you wanna give them to or you wanna start selling 'em, this is the action that you're gonna want to disperse to the masses. So you could copy that to your desktop or wherever you wanna put that, that's your action. So I'm just gonna go ahead and load this and now we have that CL actions there. I'm gonna go ahead and drag this master resize back into this one and I can go ahead and delete that folder set. So now they're all back together, they're all comfy, they're all back together, they're all happy.

Class Description

Adobe® Photoshop® CC® is a valuable tool for photographers, but it can also be intimidating. In this all-inclusive 20 lesson course, you’ll go from opening the program for the first time to creating images that really stand out. Join Blake Rudis, Photoshop® expert and founder of f64 Academy, as he shows you how to maximize your use of Photoshop®. Topics covered will include:

Week 1
• Class Introduction & Bridge, Adobe Camera Raw, Setup Interface, Cropping and Layers
Week 2
• Layer Tools, Masks, Selections, Clean-Up Tools and Shapes & Text
Week 3
• Smart Objects , Transforming, Actions, Filters and Editing Video
Week 4
• Custom Creative Effects, Natural Retouching, Portrait Workflow, Landscape Workflow, and Composite Workflow

Don’t let the many aspects of Photoshop® prevent you from maximizing your use of this amazing app. Blake will help you develop the confidence to use your imagination and create the images that you will be proud to share with your clients.

Software Used: Adobe® Photoshop® CC® 2018

Lessons

1Bootcamp Introduction 2The Bridge Interface 3Setting up Bridge 4Overview of Bridge 5Practical Application of Bridge 6Introduction to Raw Editing 7Setting up ACR Preferences & Interface 8Global Tools Part 1 9Global Tools Part 2 10Local Tools 11Introduction to the Photoshop Interface 12Toolbars, Menus and Windows 13Setup and Interface 14Adobe Libraries 15Saving Files 16Introduction to Cropping 17Cropping for Composition in ACR 18Cropping for Composition in Photoshop 19Cropping for the Subject in Post 20Cropping for Print 21Perspective Cropping in Photoshop 22Introduction to Layers 23Vector & Raster Layers Basics 24Adjustment Layers in Photoshop 25Organizing and Managing Layers 26Introduction to Layer Tools and Blend Modes 27Screen and Multiply and Overlay 28Soft Light Blend Mode 29Color and Luminosity Blend Modes 30Color Burn and Color Dodge Blend Modes 31Introduction to Layer Styles 32Practical Application: Layer Tools 33Introduction to Masks and Brushes 34Brush Basics 35Custom Brushes 36Brush Mask: Vignettes 37Brush Mask: Curves Dodge & Burn 38Brush Mask: Hue & Saturation 39Mask Groups 40Clipping Masks 41Masking in Adobe Camera Raw 42Practical Applications: Masks 43Introduction to Selections 44Basic Selection Tools 45The Pen Tool 46Masks from Selections 47Selecting Subjects and Masking 48Color Range Mask 49Luminosity Masks Basics 50Introduction to Cleanup Tools 51Adobe Camera Raw 52Healing and Spot Healing Brush 53The Clone Stamp Tool 54The Patch Tool 55Content Aware Move Tool 56Content Aware Fill 57Custom Cleanup Selections 58Introduction to Shapes and Text 59Text Basics 60Shape Basics 61Adding Text to Pictures 62Custom Water Marks 63Introduction to Smart Objects 64Smart Object Basics 65Smart Objects and Filters 66Smart Objects and Image Transformation 67Smart Objects and Album Layouts 68Smart Objects and Composites 69Introduction to Image Transforming 70ACR and Lens Correction 71Photoshop and Lens Correction 72The Warp Tool 73Perspective Transformations 74Introduction to Actions in Photoshop 75Introduction to the Actions Panel Interface 76Making Your First Action 77Modifying Actions After You Record Them 78Adding Stops to Actions 79Conditional Actions 80Actions that Communicate 81Introduction to Filters 82ACR as a Filter 83Helpful Artistic Filters 84Helpful Practical Filters 85Sharpening with Filters 86Rendering Trees 87The Oil Paint and Add Noise Filters 88Introduction to Editing Video 89Timeline for Video 90Cropping Video 91Adjustment Layers and Video 92Building Lookup Tables 93Layers, Masking Video & Working with Type 94ACR to Edit Video 95Animated Gifs 96Introduction to Creative Effects 97Black, White, and Monochrome 98Matte and Cinematic Effects 99Gradient Maps and Solid Color Grades 100Gradients 101Glow and Haze 102Introduction to Natural Retouching 103Brightening Teeth 104Clean Up with the Clone Stamp Tool 105Cleaning and Brightening Eyes 106Advanced Clean Up Techniques 107Introduction to Portrait Workflow & Bridge Organization 108ACR for Portraits Pre-Edits 109Portrait Workflow Techniques 110Introduction to Landscape Workflow & Bridge Organization 111Landscape Workflow Techniques 112Introduction to Compositing & Bridge 113Composite Workflow Techniques 114Landscape Composite Projects 115Bonus: Rothko and Workspace 116Bonus: Adding Textures to Photos 117Bonus: The Mask (Extras) 118Bonus: The Color Range Mask in ACR

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Reviews

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!!!!

Sonya Messier

I'm been using Bridge, Adobe Raw and Photoshop for 12 years. I thought I knew those programs until I started to follow Blake and do this Photoshop CC Bootcamp. This course is AMAZING. I love the way Blake teach, brakes down concepts and tools... excellent teaching qualities! I'm half way in this course and I change all my workflow already. Much better results and better use of what Adobe offer me. This course is an investment! When I will be done, I will listen it again. Great job and congratulations on your success Blake!

1,500+ classes ranging from fundamentals to advanced techniques.

Conditional Actions