Category: Photography Tutorials

Knowing how to automate changes to multiple images in Photoshop is essential. Cropping, or white-balance correcting a folder full of images one-by-one is tedious and unnecessary. This photography tutorial will go through Photoshop Actions, and the Automate-Batch feature to automate the same operations for an infinite number of images. Tutorials on Photstoric.

Step 1: Make a Working Copy

Open the folder that contains the files to edit. Create a copy of one of the files in the folder. This file will be your dummy or maquette for making changes.

Step 2: Create an Action

Select Window – Actions. Then click the Create New Action button. Actions are saved series of Photoshop operations so that common or complex steps can be accessed later or used for automated tasks.

Step 3: Name Action

Enter a descriptive name for the action.

Step 4: Record Action

After creating a new action, the red record button will now be active. Every operation made will be recorded in the action. In this tutorial, the image has been resized to 700 pixels wide and the image has been toned. Any combination of operations and effects can be applied.

Step 5: Flatten Layers

After every operation has been completed, flatten all the layers so that the image will save as a jpeg. If you started with psd file and you want to keep the layers, don’t flatted them.

Step 6: Save & Close the Image

Saving the image while still recording the action will allow Photoshop to quickly run through each image in the Batch without a save dialog box popping up for each image. Also, close the image while still recording for the same reason.

Step 7: Stop Recording Action

Stop recording the action by clicking the square stop button. No further operations will be saved and the action will be complete. If an operation was missed, delete any steps and begin recording where the mistake was made.

Step 8: Delete the Working Copy

Delete the working file copy that the action was preformed on in the folder of images.

Step 9: Open the Batch Automater

Under file, click Automate then Batch.

Step 10: Batch Automater Settings

Match the settings in the above images. Choose the action set and the specific action. The source is folder, and choose the folder with the images. Be careful that only the images you want changed are in the folder. If you’re worried, create a copy of the entire folder to run automater on.

Step 12: Run the Automator

Press OK and the automator will begin quickly running the action on every image in the folder.

Conclusion

Using Automate – Batch is the fastest way to make the same changes to multiple images in Photoshop. It is an enormously powerful tool, and will speed up any photographers work flow.

For other automate questions, please post on the Digital Editing Forum. Requests and suggestions are encouraged for future tutorial topics and should be submitted to the Requests topic.

It’s often impossible to remove all the dust from family photos, lenses, historic images or negatives before scanning or taking the picture. Luckily, Adobe Photoshop has the post-processing tools to clean any image. This photography tutorial will explore the use of the Clone Stamp Tool and its options to effectively remove dust and scratches from any image without decreasing its quality.

Curated historic photography on Photistoric.

Step 1: Load the Image

Load the file into Photoshop.

Step 2: Clone Stamp Tool

In the Tools Panel select the Clone Stamp Tool.

Step 3: Clone Stamp Tool Options

The settings for the Clone Stamp tool can be found in the upper left corner of the window in the Options Panel. Set the hardness to 0% and the size to a diameter that will just fit around the dust specs. Alternatively, the stamp size can be made bigger with the close bracket ] key and smaller with the open bracket [ key.

Step 4: Clone Tool Sampling

First, Identify areas of dust. To begin using the Clone Stamp Tool, sample a dust-free area by holding alt and left-clicking. Crosshairs will appear while holding alt. The Clone Stamp Tool works by duplicating a circular area and blurring the edges. When removing dust, the tool essentially just pastes a small part of the picture without the dust, over the area with the dust. For the best results, sample from a dust-free area very close to the area that needs to be repaired without overlapping it. You will want to match the tone and gradient if possible. You can continue to clone other dust specs from the same sample area, but it is recommended that you sample in different areas so that obvious visual repetition does not occur.

Step 6: Covering Hairs

For strings of dust or hair, sample above or below with the Clone Stamp Tool, then click and drag across the dust string.

Alternative Methods of Removing Dust

There are other methods of dust and scratch removal in Adobe Photoshop. Many of them apply a blanket filter that softens the image, and wipes away film grain and other details along with the dust and scratches. These filter methods can be further refined for minimal damage to the non-dusty areas, but the Clone Stamp Tool method outlined in this tutorial will ensure a localized treatment that maintains the integrity of the image.

Conclusion

Once the basics of the Clone Stamp tool are understood, removing dust from photographs is simple. Continue using the clone stamp tool to remove as much dust as desired. Use the same process for dirt, blemishes or other imperfections and impurities. This method can be time consuming, and exhaustively removing every speck can be nearly impossible. A little dust here and there, in the opinion of Photistoric, will not take away from the quality and emotion of an image.

For other dust removal methods or questions, please post on the Film & Negative topic of the Photistoric Forum. Requests and suggestions are encouraged for future tutorial topics and should be submitted to the Requests topic.