Order of adjustment layer for actions

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Sergey Sorokopudov

Order of adjustment layer for actions

Beitrag von Sergey Sorokopudov »

Hi all

I recently bought PL17 (MacOS version) and currently creating action for sharping final images before uploading to the vendor for printing.
My action is like this (I have single layer TIF image as starting point):
1) Duplicate background layer (this dup I'll call Copy in the text below)
2) New adjustment layer for Copy - Hue/Saturation (I'm desaturating Copy)
3) New adjustment layer for Copy - HighPass
4) New adjustment layer for Copy - Curves (to increase black contrast and reduce white halos contrast in high-pass-ed Copy)
5) Move 3 adjustment layers inside Copy group
6) Set Overlay method for Copy


I have issues with 5 and 6 - when the action is played back it actually doesn't move adjustment layers under Copy and overlay is set for the top adjustment layer, which is not what I'm really looking for. All layers (Background, Copy, Hue/Saturation, HighPass, Curves) are on the same level.
So I have to open each image and move the adjustment layers manually.

The only workaround I know is to replace adjustment layers with ordinary (destructive) adjustments. That is a working approach, but I miss ability to adjust contrast and amount of high-pass when reviewing images before finally send to the lab - I have to delete the Copy and replay the action again with dialogs ON (or have another version based on adjustment layers).

Any suggestions how to group adjustment layers under the Copy layer automatically? Or, maybe I shall follow another approach for actions?

Thank you
--Sergey
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Hoogo
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Re: Order of adjustment layer for actions

Beitrag von Hoogo »

At first I thought that in this case there would be no copy needed at all, "view > panels > adjustment layer" allows all the adjustments in one layer, and "overlay" for all is still possible. Unfortunately, each adjustment is treated as a n individual layer with an individual overlay... But "view > panels > adjustment layer" is still very useful here.

I'm not sure how movements of layers are treated in actions. In former versions it was necessary to use the menu commands for this instead of the mouse, so I am used to this and still do it always this way. You find the necessary commands for it n "Layer > navigation" and "Layer > management".

Find an action attached. MERGE it to your list of actions. I hope my presets fit to your description.

By the way: An adjustment layer "unsharp mask" with blending mode "darken" or "lighten" can be very helpful against halos, you can use a black brush to remove it by painting into the mask.
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Adjustments for sharpening.zip
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Sergey Sorokopudov

Re: Order of adjustment layer for actions

Beitrag von Sergey Sorokopudov »

Thank you for quick reply, I'll check.

I use high-pass for paper prints and unsharp with darken/lighten for web. That will be my second action to be created.
Sergey Sorokopudov

Re: Order of adjustment layer for actions

Beitrag von Sergey Sorokopudov »

well, thank you again - much appreciated.

Final steps are (further optimizations and another versions are for next days :-) )
1) Dup layer
2) Desaturation
3) HighPass
4) Curves
5) Menu Layer->Navigation->Activate Previous Layer (we are on HighPass)
6) Menu Layer->Navigation->Activate Previous Layer (we are on Desaturation)
7) Menu Layer->Navigation->Activate Previous Layer (we are on Dup)
8,9,10 Menu Layer->Management->Add Next Layer To Selection (selecting dup plus adjustments)
11) Group
12) Draw isolated for the group
13) Overlay for the group

it works!

Thanks!
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