SF Photo Collage -- FAQ

SF Photo Collage FAQ

by Hugh Stockton and Adrienne Cleveland

Where can I find detailed instructions for using the actions?
Can I turn off the instructional messages that appear when I run the actions?
How can I erase the edges or other parts of an image in my collage?
Can I alter the appearance of the drop shadow?
Why do I see this error: "The command... ...is not currently available?"
Can I use these actions on full-sized photos?
Will these actions work with Photoshop Elements?
The actions are behaving strangely, and none of these questions and answers help. What now?
I have a different question. What now?

Where can I find detailed instructions for using the actions?

For Photoshop CS2 and later

For Photoshop CS1 and earlier

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Can I turn off the instructional messages that appear when I run the actions?

The instructions are there to help you get started, but once you get familiar with how they work, you may want to turn them off for speed and convenience. Here's how:

Let's say that you want to turn off the instructions in the "Resize Current Layer" action.

First, in the Actions palette, open the action by clicking the little arrow to the left of the action name.
Now click the checkmark to the left of the "Stop" step to remove it. From now on, the action will not display the instructional message when you run the action.

How can I erase the edges or other parts of an image in my collage?

There are several ways to do that:

Edit the image before you add it to your collage. ...OR...
Use masking on the image's layer. Here is a tutorial. ...OR...
For CS2 and later, if the image is already part of your collage, click its layer to highlight it. Then run the "Edit Current Layer" action, and edit the image as you please.

Can I alter the appearance of the drop shadow?

You bet.

Before adding the drop shadow

Click the empty rectangle to the left of the "Add Drop Shadow to Layer" to put an icon in it. You can ignore the warning about this being undo-able.

From now on, when you run the action, a Layer Styles dialog will open, and you can make whatever adjustments you want. If you find a look you want to use all the time, you can open the action and re-record the "Set Layer Styles" step inside.

After adding the drop shadow

Find the layer in the Layers palette, and double-click the words "Drop Shadow." This will open the Layer Styles dialog, and you can adjust the appearance of the drop shadow.

Double-click the words 'drop shadow' to make adjustments

Why do I see this error: "The command... ...is not currently available?"

Your image mode is probably not compatible with the actions. Examples of incompatible modes are indexed color and multi-channel. Convert your image to one of the other modes, such as RGB, CMYK, Lab, or Grayscale before running the action.

Also, if you are using Photoshop 6 or 7, make sure your image is in 8-bit mode. 16-bit mode is fine for Photoshop CS.

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Restart Photoshop

People have reported that sometimes, especially right after loading a new action, Photoshop behaves strangely, and that after closing Photoshop and restarting it, the problems go away.
Close some Programs or Restart your Computer

If you've used the actions successfully before, but they aren't working today, your computer might be short on available memory. If you're running other programs, close some of them and try again. If you're still having trouble, there could be problems caused by programs not releasing memory after they terminate. Restarting your computer may help.
Contact Us

If you need more help, contact us at shutterfreaks@shutterfreaks.com.

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