Apply a Vintage Effect to Several Images Using Actions

want 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.

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.

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.

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.

Now the action is ready. Press the Stop button

  

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.

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

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