Useful PS6 actions: De-noise, contrast masking, et al

[DJ Dubovsky]

Stephen,
I finally got around to giving the action a try and I am totally impressed. It works great. There is a very noticable difference but the quality of the image seems to stay intact. Thanks for letting us in on it.
DJ

[carrie]

ok, what's up with this? I'm doing something wrong (again). I downloaded the denoise action, but I can't load it into actions palette. Anybody know what I'm messing up here?

[Stephen M]

Carrie, I'm not sure here...Photoshop Actions (scripts, macros) are new to quite a few users, so please forgive me if this sounds like a lecture - with luck this may help others, if not yourself. <g>

Action files need to be decompressed and if on the PC must also end in a .atn filename extension.

Although they are cross platform, some users distribute them to Mac with no .atn extension and sometimes .sit compressed, while PC users may distribute a .zip compressed file with the action having a .atn filename extension. Some users just distribute a .atn extension and .zip archive to serve both platforms.

Actions can reside anywhere, and are loaded into the Actions palette via the Actions palette menu. When loaded into the palette, they are stored in a temp file with your other settings in later versions of Photoshop. If you change an action and wish to save it back to a .atn file, then the save Action command from the palette menu must be used (as the Action is in the temp file and not a live link to the original .atn file that was loaded).

Unlike plugs/filters - .atn files do not tie up memory by simply loading them into the application.

Actions are usually work from older to new versions, but the simple act of saving an older action from a later version of Photoshop will render the action unusable for earlier versions, even if no edits were made to the action (each version tags the file with a code which locks out earlier versions).

More on actions can be found here:

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binar...V_links.html#A

Hope this helps,

Stephen Marsh.

[DJ Dubovsky]

Carrie,
I may be able to solve your problem. Did you go to that link and drag that action on that page to your file?? I did, because that was what it said to do, thinking that was the action, and of course Photoshop didn't recognize it. Turns out when I went to Explore to look for it, what I got was not the action but a short cut to the action.

Go to that page again and click on that highlighted action and you will get a parent directory of actions. Choose iDeNoiseHilSO2.1.atn from the list and click on it and you will get the download dialog box. Everything should be fine.

It wasn't until I tried to load it yesterday that I discovered there was a problem and then I thought of your problem with it and figured you did the same thing I did.
Let me know if that works for you.
DJ

[carrie]

Ok, I managed to ge the 1st group of actions from the start of the thread, but the DeNoise one I can't open still. I had to extract the 1st one befor it worked. The other...well, I'mstill not sure I understand what you mean DJ. How exactly did you drag it? I don't see the 'parent directory' either.

Thanks Stephen for all the info. My downloaded files do have the extention .atn

C

[DJ Dubovsky]

Just go to the site where the action is. When you see the highlighted action, click on it. That will bring you to the parent directory that holds the actions. Just click on the one I told you in the previous post.

What I did is read the site instructions and it says something about click and drag the action to your desk top. I dragged that link to the actual actions page not the actions them selves.
DJ