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Quick Tip: Apply a Vintage Effect to Several Images Using Actions

Quick Tip: Apply a Vintage Effect to Several Images Using Actions

on May 21st 2010 with 46 comments
Tutorial Details
  • Program: Adobe Photoshop CS3+
  • Difficulty: Beginner
  • Estimated Completion Time: 5 - 10 Minutes
Download Source Files

Final Product What You'll Be Creating

Have you ever wanted to apply the same effect to several images at once? This is an issue that most designers face at some point in their career. In some situations, you might be able to apply an effect individually one photo at a time. That takes time however, and if you have dozens or even hundreds of images to process, that is simply not possible. The solution is to create an action and apply it using a batch process. In today’s quick tip tutorial we will demonstrate how to create an action and apply it to several images using Photoshop’s batch process function.

Step 1

In my particular case , I decided to apply a vintage effect to all the photos in a folder on my machine. So the first step is to open a folder with all the photos you want to apply an effect to.

Step 2

Next, choose a random photograph and open it in Photoshop.

To apply the same effect to all the photos you will need to create an action. Go to the actions panel and press the New Action button. Name it Action 1.

Press record.

Step 3

In this step I will detail all the steps I took to apply a vintage effect to my images but you should feel free to apply any effects that you see fit, depending on your project. Keep in mind that you are recording so every step you take from this moment on will be recorded until you press the Stop button.

Apply an Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation.

Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur: 4 px. Layer Blending Mode: Soft Light. Opacity: 70%.

Go to Image > Adjustments > Variations (2 clicks on more cyan ). Blending mode: Overlay. Opacity: 80%.

Go to Filter > Other > High pass: 3 px. Layer Blending Mode: Soft Light.

Go to Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map. Opacity: 60%.

Go to Adjustment Layer > Photo Filter: 15%.

Now let’s save our work as a JPEG. This is very important because it needs to be recorded as an action. Name it as Copy as shown below.

Next, close the document. When prompted to save the changes in a PSD, select No. This is necessary because otherwise Photoshop will ask you the same question for all your photos.

Step 4

Now the action is ready. Press the Stop button.

Step 5

Go to File > Automate > Batch. Select Action 1, go to Source and select the folder in which your photos are located. Check Suppress File Open Options Dialog and press Ok.

Step 6

Sit back and watch as Photoshop does all the work for.

Conclusion

That’s it! We’re finished! Hope you learned something new!

Tags: Tips
 
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My name is Loredana Papp . I am a Romanian freelance artist with a passion for art. I love both traditional art and digital art as well.  

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  • http://ds.laroouse.com esranull

    nice post thanks a lot

  • chetan

    good one.

    • chetan

      esranull.. u made it to the top :P congrats.

  • http://www.scottcorgan.com Scott Corgan

    Oh vintage, you’re my friend! These actions have amazing results!!

  • damian

    Nice Effects , And Cute Model !

  • http://aevion.net AEVION

    Very useful tip, should save me lots of time down the road. Thanks!

  • jake

    i did not know this…very usefull ! thanks a lot

  • http://johnmichaelrose.net John

    Thanks. Always wanted to use the actions but I never did because I felt that each image needed a one-on-one touch and there is no quick answer to every photo. Yet, I see how this works, especially for a photo shoot where all the photos are generally the same.

  • Paulo

    Great, like it!

  • isometricx

    Nice girl :)

  • http://pagegardens.com/ Page Gardens

    These are a great timesaving trick!

  • http://www.altafk.com Altaf

    basic but nice results

  • Dru Kelly

    Awesome tutorial! But I can’t replicate the steps in CS5 as the “Variations” option is not available under the Image > Adjustments Menu. Any workaround on this?

    • Hunter

      It’s still in the 32-bit version. And the obvious workaround is to just use color balance and notch up the cayn.

  • http://webme.co.il leon

    Amazing article!
    thanks.

  • mzz

    LOL i used this post for tips on the vintage effects rather than the actions tutorial to apply the effect to several photos..
    does anyone know if this is a good vintage effect? or is there anything missing? cuz i mean applying the same effect to multiple photos might cause unwanted effects in a few of the photos.. right? or not..

    • jake

      well u can use the batch option , for example, to resize pictures not necessarily to apply a vintage effect

    • http://tombremer.net misterbremer

      The results are good–lots of steps though… If you like this color toning, google cross processing tutorials, or lomo actions. There is a ton of stuff out there that give similar results, but each one sort of has its own unique look.

  • http://www.twitter.com/lituup Aerodynamic

    lol. Look at you using CS3.

  • wguerrero

    What’s happening? Where is the picture #6 in Step 3? There is a empty gray box instead

  • http://www.reedd.com Reedd

    Nice girl + good tutorial = Amazing results

  • mug25

    There are a lot of holes in this tutorial — what layer do we apply the gaussian blur to? What layer do we apply the high pass to? Are we duplicating layers? Flattening them?

    • dinamicdesigh

      ctrl+alt+shift+e

    • Sodatheif

      I agree, I couldn’t figure out this tutorial as far what layer you are applying effects to.

  • http://www.gwipdesign.com Gwip

    I agree with Mug25 here, although it’s easy enough to figure out what you need to do to apply the next step someone that’s new to PS would be 100% lost here. I also don’t like that almost every tut I come across for actions is destructive. These actions should be set into groups with all the layers in tact so that you can go through and fine tune parts when it doesn’t agree with certain images. As it stands I see this as a throw away action that would be useful for a single shoot that has all the same lighting and feel.

    PSDTUTS is supposed to be one of the premier sites for PS help. So please stop encouraging destructive techniques, that’s not how we should start out our new users.

    Sorry for the little rant. I do enjoy the final outcome but it could have been achieved in a better manner.

  • JuSt_GoPs

    nice one buddy

  • Framboos

    I agree with Gwip: these adjustments could have been added as adjustment layers to keep the original intact.

    Also, saving and closing inside the action is not necessary if you use the Image Processor instead of Batch. It gives more flexibility for the desired output files.

    So just create the action with all the adjustments as adjustment layers, stop the action and then go to
    File > Scripts > Image Processor and select the source folder, output folder, select what you want to output to – JPG, PSD and/or TIF and in which size (it can resize in this step as well) or just leave it at the original and below that you can check which action to apply.

  • bolong

    Hey uhm i’ve got a problem with the action sets though, was wondering if anyone could help me with this. So yeah, I saved the image titled “copy”, closed it and stopped the recording. In the end after I apply the action to the whole batch, everything saves under “copy” and replaces the previous copies so I only get 1 image titled “copy”.

    Any part I might have done wrong? Thanks!

  • MONARCHY

    why do all of PSD’s tuts have missing holes?

  • http://www.start-design.org abdo

    nice one thank you

  • http://www.wawmp3.com Yucef Debbab

    thanx for this nice Tutorial,,

  • http://bt.ma oussama larhmich

    Wow Nice Tutorial , we need more :p lol

  • oliver

    this tutorial helps a lot!

  • Ben

    Wow. Everyone needs to calm down. These tutorials may not be perfect, but to someone who’s never used actions before, it’s still something amazing. Instead of being agressive, and ranting, be constructive, maybe?
    And @Famboos: What’s the point of using adjustment layers when you’re saving at as a jpg? The layers are all flattened, it’s all the same.
    @Gwip 25: Anyone who’s 100% new to photoshop shouldn’t be learning how to apply actions then, shouldn’t they? Simple.

  • Tarq

    I have a small problem, I can’t seem to make this tutorial work. does this tutorial use different layers. Every time you change the blending mode and opacity, is it on different layers or the original image?

  • piya

    same question to ask… if we have to apply every effect on different layers or on orignal one? m going through every step safely but still not getting same result as yours… i’ve worked over both orignal one and by making new adjustment layers too (one by one)… whats the problem.. please sort it out..anyone!!

  • piya

    finally i got the same result as yours… by lukin’ step no. 4′s action pallete.. i watched it closely n found missing steps… i worked with actions for the first time..really gr8 to know… thanx for this amazing tutorial…!!

  • Madhuri

    Heyy thanks ya.. always wondered if there is a way to give the same effect to all pics together.. Thanks fo the tut.. Really saves a lot of time..

  • http://facedesign.us/ geraldo

    I really liked this post I’m starting a course of Photoshop and this is serving me much thanks.

  • http://graphicriver.net?ref=flamedidea flamedidea

    hi, i got lost when you were applying filters to the image,
    also did you duplicated the original image every time you add filter and change the blend modes?
    you only show images of the upper part of the layers pallet, please shoe me how you arranged the layers? ^_^

  • http://barbourjacket.wordpress.com Barbour Fan

    These vintage effects still seem to be quite popular and I think this is a really good version of one. Nice and simple to understand. Thanks

  • nero

    thank you so much for this tutorial! it is very helpful!

  • http://www.navindavintage.com navinda

    Thank you very much for sharing this tut.

  • http://designknots.com mark

    Nice tutorial for vintage action…

  • Leon

    Sorry, this is a really crappy tutorial.
    So many holes in it, that it’s even a disaster for the more advanced uses

  • David Griffin

    went threw all actions as stated…. worked on one picture(last one in folder) and didnt do anything to the rest… checked it again to be sure… same result. am i missing something… using cs3.. followed from what i can tell word for word.