Hidden (Quick)actions in Photoshop

As most know, there are many ways to accomplish a task in Photoshop. As updates and versions have certainly replaced the original photoshop released in 1990. Some methods are straight forward time honored tools found in many other programs such as the magic wand tool. Other methods are not so obvious such as the quick actions panel.

If you are not familiar with the Quick actions panel:

• Go to Photoshop Help
• Discover
  • You may type in 'quick actions' or you may see the panel if you hit the [back] arrow

Quick actions are a single keypress function to accomplish quite a few tasks such as:

• Remove a background
• Select background
• Blur background (not well developed at this time)
• Smooth skin
• Adjust lighting
• Duotone
• Black/White Background
• Charcoal

As well as several others.  Some features of the quick actions panel require several additional keystrokes if you were to apply this feature manually. A few quick actions such as Duotone allow customization of the effect being placed.

Although not technically a quick action, it is also worth mentioning here mentioning the Landscape mixer under the Neural filters menu. As of today, it is still in the beta version and you may need to download it from the cloud and turn it 'on'. 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The landscape mixer can turn a spring landscape into an autumn or even a winter landscape. This feature has sliders that will allow you to adjust how much or how little of an effect that you wish on an image.  You may choose presets, or you can simply adjust sliders to your taste. A word of caution however, this feature does compress your image and can obscure certain details in your image. 

While quick actions or the landscape mixer may not work for every image, it is certainly worth knowing that these options exist for potential workflow enhancements.