Regarding use of PS Actions in Elements. Short answer is NO.

I have checked and unfortunately no. It can work to a degree, but one of the biggest drawbacks is you can only have 1 Action per Set, and there are several actions in these Sets. Also, in the main set, the Actions “calls” another action that’s in the Set to run, and this is the huge blocker, since all they layers created in the Super Set are actions ‘called’ to run.

Very limited, hence Elements being a lot cheaper than Photoshop.

Here is what I found:

“Can Photoshop Actions work inside Elements?

Those who are interested in creating Elements-compatible actions in Photoshop should be aware of these requirements:

• Actions cannot call another action.

• Action Sets may only contain a single action.

• Some Photoshop functions and modes are simply not available in Elements, and actions which refer to them will not work in Elements.

Before a Photoshop action can be used in Elements, the following steps must be taken.

For all versions:
• You must create a 64×64 pixel PSD file and place it in the same folder with a group of actions. For each action you want to call, you must create a layer in the PSD file with an image to represent the action. This is the image that will show in Elements’ Styles and Effects Palette. Each layer in the PSD file should be named to correspond with the Action it calls.”

Trev

CAN ACTION BE RUN ON NORMAL IMAGE, NOT PORTRAIT?
Asked in Tangents:

Yes, no problem, not strictly for portrait. Great especially if lots of greenery in image with the Open Up Colors layer.

Sample of an image. I had to re-export so dimensions slightly different as I had cropped the 'After' shot.

I merely got color and exposure pretty good [nothing else done] in Lightroom, exported then ran the action set.
Opened colors, shadows, lips, etc. 'secret sauce' action on top.

Added lots of contrast in the sky, I did duplicate a layer and masked it and just bought sky back in.

Before:

After:

Sample where shot under-exposed

In this sample where Neil had deliberately under-exposed for ambient to show what it looked like before he bounced flash, I took the liberty of processing this ambient only image purely with just that action set to see what I could come up with.

And here it is:

Before:


After:


I did run the 'Smooth Warm Skin' action from the second set to smooth, warm up her face, but that action is so subtle it's not over-kill.

Trev.

EDIT: I uploaded a new version of 'After' as I thought it was not re-sizing right, but realised after it had been, I was just refreshing instead of going back to main forum then checking, sorry.

Trev,
In your post above titled, "Sample where shot under-exposed," you used a shot where Neil underexposed his subject. Did the action set alone bring the subject exposure back up or did you adjust that in Photoshop first, before applying actions?

Julie from Tangents Post # 11 here: http://neilvn.com/tangents/2011/11/09/photoshop-actions-secret-sauce/
was experiencing trouble in using the set to get an image up.

She unfortunately did not realise the action set is designed as a final tweak and tried to edit her image, taken under difficult circumstances, 'as is'.

She kindly sent me the file, and it's with her generous permission I can post here what I did to try to bring it up.

Normally you would do everything you can in a RAW converter with localised area brushing on an image like this for best results, but I only did as much to bring down over-exposure and then under-exposure to a degree, as I wanted to show a screenshot of what I did with the Masks since using masks was new to her.


First, the Lightroom Settings used:
WB: As is
Exposure -1.00
Recovery 10
Fill Light 5
Blacks 5
Brightness Default
Contrast Default
Clarity +10
Vibrance +20
Saturation +5
Tone Curves
Highlights 0
Lights -10
Darks -10
Shadows -5
Lens Correction/Enabled Profile Corrections
Camera Profile from Adobe Standard to Camera Standard

RAW was opened directly up from LR into Photoshop [right click on image, select Edit in.... chose Photoshop, but selected Edit Original with Lightroom Adjustments] and the action 'NEIL'S SUPER SET - RUN 1st' was run.

Edits done on layers:

Open Shadows: 90%
Light Tonal Range: 40%
Dark Tonal Range: 100% but brushed 3 faces, left the bright face as is
Open Up Colors: 100%
Teeth Whiten: Brushed 100%, I also turned off the 'Curves 1' Mask which protects around teeth [Shift/Click on the Mask itself] as it was so small an area and not much difference was showing so I gave it the full see through then having to turn layer opacity down to 60%
Eye Whites: No
Eye Crisp: No
Lip Gloss: Brushed 100% on woman's lips, Layer opacity back to 30%
Remove Blue: Brushed bit where clothing in shade so not as much blue.
Fill Light: This was the important part.
Brushed in at around 30%, but kept gently brushing all over dark areas.
Eye sockets, shadows on faces/noses/sides of faces, over jeans, hand in shade. See the Layer Mask.

Layer Edits:


Original File:


Exported from Lightroom:


Final Edit:


Julie, thanks for allowing this to be posted. :)

Trev

Stephen,

That's OK. :)

Trev

Just ran on mine, CS5, all fine.

Bit strange, since Mezzotint is a filter under Pixelate. Check your filter list, see if you have it, but highly unlikely you don't.
That action only calls things already in Photoshop so it *should* be fine.


I may get Neil to run his, he is on a Mac.
Trev.

I'm not having much success running the actions. When I try to run the Run Me First and several of the others I get errors that "Delete is not available" or "Invert is not available". I'm using CS5 on Mac Snow Leopard and have used other actions and created a few of my own.

FWIW, I'm editing 16-bit RGB opened in CS5 from LR. I've tried several different images but always get the same errors.

Any thoughts on why it's not working?

Trev,

I re-downloaded and re-loaded the actions again.

Mezzotint appears as a sub-folder inside both Old Vintage BW and Old Vintage Color actions, but when I click Play at the Old Vintage BW and Old Vintage Color folder level, the script stops at Mezzotint. I keep getting the above error. The action runs through the first two commands, duplicate current layer and set mask, and then stops at Mezzotint.

I am running Photoshop CS5 (12.0.4) on Snow Leopard (10.6.8).

Trev, Thanks for your reply. I did indeed run the Run me 1st on it's own and got the errors. Then, reverted the image and ran individual blue actions and got the same errors on some but not all of the individual actions.

Stephen,
I only managed to work out that problem, literally just now also, before even coming to this post, just finished explaining on the Tangents.
http://neilvn.com/tangents/2011/11/09/photoshop-actions-secret-sauce/#comment-30492

I've never bothered to edit in 16 bits personally, especially in TIFF. :)

Tangents Post As Below:

=========================================

I think I found the problem regarding the ‘Mezzotint is not currently availalbe’ message displayed.

I can now duplicate the problem and that is you get that message if you run it on a 16-bit file, instead of an 8-bit file which is what 99% of people automatically have without realising.

This Old Vintage Look is designed to be run on a normal 8-bit file, a duplicate obviously of your finished original file as a separate ‘effect’.
I may have completely finished editing a file, save the jpeg, then do a copy of the image so I can have an effect. No different than having a color image then doing a separate BW version.

Can only be run on a flattened image.

There are 2 solutions:
1] Change file to 8 bits first.
On your Menu Bar: Image/Mode/Select “8 bits/channel”


2] Run on a 16-bit file, but when that message comes up, Click ‘Continue’ and a warning message about no pixels being selected will come up, Click OK, then about 2 more warnings regarding ‘Mezzotint not found’ simply click on Continue each time until it finishes.

===============================================

ADJUST layers to suit.

Trev.

Trev,
Good to know we came to the same conclusion. I would still recommend revising the PDF, because some people probably skip reading the forum posts and blog comments and will purchase the actions directly.

Dan,

I stumbled on getting replicas of errors, I changed the name of the action, and guess what, would not run, kept getting errors, so, long shot, but did you change any of the names by any chance, like I did, it won't run then, as it's "looking" for that action set name to call the other actions to run.

If you did not, and still errors, message me above with email address. I may have a workaround, just maybe.

Trev.

Dan,

Left message for you.

Over past years, I too have suffered same result with an action set I may have downloaded from net to try out, and could not fix in previous Photoshop versions I have.

I think 'some' photoshop installs just may have that slight quirk to them, since other people don't have a problem, and when I got CS5 over CS3, I decided to run a couple that played up previously, and yep they worked fine for me then. Go figure!

I even sent the action set to 2 friends [1 PC, 1 Mac] during creation with Neil, as my 'guinea pigs' [they are not into weddings. etc. just nature] so they could test all aspects.

Let us know result.

Trev.

HI Rich,

I am working on completely building a new set, from scratch, without using the 'call to run' action, [step by step instead of just calling an individual action] and hopefully, this will solve that issue.

Obviously with any type of action, there will always be a couple of quirks with Photoshop, and I have also experienced issue in past with a couple of actions I downloaded.

It may take a day or two, but I think building it from scratch, using all adjustment layers instead of 'calling' an individual action to run may do the trick, please bear with me.

Trev.

Dan & Rich,

Gentlemen, I have just emailed you guys a completely re-built new u-beaut action set. :)

Completely done without any 'call to run' commands in the action which I only now suspect may be the cause of your problem.

Everything done on new adjustment layers, creating the Channel/Masks, etc. as I went, I had to spend some time looking at my old individual actions that were used in the original action to see what I had done, forgot, as it was so long ago on some of them.

Obviously the 'Secret Sauce' action of Neil's is still a key ingredient and part of it and works great as normal.

New set is named: 'Neil's Secret Sauce v2.atn'

email will explain a little more. Good luck!

Trev.

These are great guys! It was worth the ten bucks not only for the time these will save, but I'm learning a bit from dissecting the actions as well. Trev, do you have the time or desire to talk a little bit about how you went about creating the mask for Lighten, Darken & Open Shadows adjustment layers?

It looks like you used calculations, but I'd love to hear more on the "why" behind that technique. Again, if you have the time or desire to do so. Thanks!

Rich,

Great stuff, glad to hear it. :)

Now, sorry for such a long post but it's informative.

@ dakeat

Ahhhhh! Calculations, yep, very observant of you! :)

It is also ESP you should mention that, because I was about to explain a certain bug in Photoshop I only discovered late last night which 2 people had, and that's to do with Calculations and editing in 16-bits.

Actually, calculations itself isn't a problem in 16-bit, it's only when you try to use 'Calculations on Calculation' that causes a problem with only 16-bit files.

I never edit in 16-bit personally, but I did test in 16-bit mode, and of course the action ran as expected, so without really doing a full edit on a 16-bit image [slap me up the side of the head if you like] nothing showed up for me problem wise.

2 people said they had big 'squares' showing up on their image, well, it is a bug in Photoshop when editing in 16-bit mode, using 'double' calculations which I do sometimes.

You see, at least one of the actions [especially the 'Dark Tonal Range' layer] called for the running of 'Image/Calculations' on a certain channel to be able to place a mask on it, but in that particular one it does a 'Calculations on a Calculation' [like painting a wall one coat, then giving it another coat for better result] and if in 16-bit mode, that's the result, big squares.... :(

Unbelievably around 20 minutes after I had sent emails last night, with a new version, I was net surfing, googled 'image calculations' or somesuch on a 16-bit file, and I stumbled on this guy explaining the problem and he duplicated it showing how and of course I had that lightbulb 'aaahaaa' moment. Go figure!

Why Calculations: It gives "the" perfect mask result, absolutely beautifully detailed tonal ranges and it is not a hard result if not using masks, like as in using Photoshop's &%^*#@ Dodge/Burn tools. :)

TIP: I tried to make the combined actions with co-help of Neil to run as simply as possible, so I deliberately named the 'Light Tonal Range' & 'Dark Tonal Range' as that to stop confusion about Dodge & Burn, as they are simply like a Dodge & Burn, done in an entirely non-destructive manner, giving an overall desired effect to the whole image.

If you want to 'selectively' lighten and darken [Dodge & Burn] certain areas do this:

Click on the 'Light Tonal Range' Layer with the White Mask, change opacity to 100% [it will look crappy], but then, making sure that the White Mask itself has been clicked on, go Ctrl/I [as in letter "i"] to Invert the mask. It will change to a Black Mask, now, you can merely using various brush opacities, brush over only those parts of an image you want to 'dodge', make lighter.

Of course, do the exact same for the 'Dark Tonal Range' layer to 'burn' in.

I have attached a Layers Palette shot [at Neil's request], showing the layers [it's of v2 action I built for people having specific trouble getting past the very first step of 'Open Shadows], also original will have 'EYE Crisp' layer in different place, but same result, when I saw that, too lazy to replicate it perfectly].



Trev.

Edit: Forgot to show the 'Fill Light Layer'

Hi Trev,
I haven't had that problem the other two gentlemen had, so I will work with the original actions you made.

I also saw the big squares in my image, but as you said, I was in 16-bit mode, not 8-bit mode.

Hi,
I just wanted to write a quick post saying thanks for the help with my file. The picture itself was poor, due to placement of people in a shady spot on a really sunny day. The action set is not expected to preform miracles but it certainly has made a big improvement on a lot of my pictures from this same session. I have found that I actually like to do each action on it's own and then flatten and move onto another action. They have definitley made rescuing my pictures much easier and are worth much more then the $10 price tag!

Thanks again,
Julie

Neil and I wish to convey our thanks for getting back to us re problem you had Julie, Rich & Dan.

Thanks for letting us know issues resolved.

Trev.