Textures in Actions

phiredesign

Junior Member
I am not a photographer, by any means, but I am working on some actions to mimic vintage photographs... well, retro is more the word. I am a designer so my actions are finished at this point, but one thing I have never looked in to and have up until now never even thought of, is actions that implement textures.
Is there any way in Photoshop to have actions call the use of a texture? OR more specifically, is there any way to call textures in the action but from a relative path? Any other actions it is no problem, but since I am assuming that the action will be calling a .jpg image file I need it to call the relative path of the image so that i can send the action in a zip to my sister and she can use it without too much hassle.

Thanks for any advice guys!
 
Good textures to create that "vintage" feel are rarely one file added to the original photo.

It can be done in some many ways, and the big thing is that each image should look different. For me it starts with saturations and levels, then adding texture from photos using overlay channels and then keep playing.
 
The end result is just the creation of all the layer with some predefined effects, with the intention of the user (my sister) editing them before flattening the saving the final version. So no, it's not an all in one effect that will duplicate the same look for each photo. They may be similar, but the end result is completed determined by the users preference.
 
The quickest way to do it is to have a 2 layer photoshop file. Put the photo on the 1st layer and hunt for an 'old paper' image and put this on the 2nd layer (above the 1st Layer) then set the 2nd layer to multiply. Then your sister can just change the 1st layer photo each time.
 
Is it just me or is no one reading? I stated that i know photoshop, and that i just wondered if anyone had ever tried to or if it was possible to pull an image(texture) into a file using an action. I didn't ask for a tutorial on blending modes and textures or creating vintage images. Jeez...guys.
 
EDIT: mrp2049 has put some good input into your thread. He did this for free. If the people that know the answer are too busy to reply, is that really something you should be complaining about?
 
phiredesign said:
Is it just me or is no one reading? I stated that i know photoshop, and that i just wondered if anyone had ever tried to or if it was possible to pull an image(texture) into a file using an action. I didn't ask for a tutorial on blending modes and textures or creating vintage images. Jeez...guys.

And as I said, to get the best result for photos you need to judge it per image. So actions for this sort of thing are not the best route.

But anyway as I'm a helpful sort....

80+ Photoshop Actions for Giving Your Pictures a Vintage Look | Freebies

Warn your sister to be careful as there will be no control over end result, so it will be touch and go. Darker images behave different to lighter images. Images flooded with certain colours will be have differently. The last thing you would want is to have a photo which has lots of sky, click the action to go and then it looks vintage, yet the sky is purple.

The best thing for you/her to do is to play around with results, making notes of results you like and how you did it, then......drum roll.

Create new action.
Click the record button.
Repeat the process.
Click the stop button.
 
Back
Top