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Author Topic: CS3 actions  (Read 1657 times)

Jeremy Roussak

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CS3 actions
« on: April 25, 2009, 10:04:15 am »

I'm probably just missing something obvious here because of my ignorance of PhotoShop, but...

How do I select a layer in an action other than by using its name?

I'm trying to create an action in PS which will have a preliminary bash at blending bracketed exposures (not making an HDR), using a couple of layers and a mask. The two shots are put into PS using Lightroom's "edit as layers in Photoshop" command. The problem is that the layers have different names in different images, since they have the names of the original files. So my recorded action, which contains the names which the layers happened to have when I was recording it, doesn't work when I run it again, since the layers have different names.

Is there a way of telling PS to "select top layer", or "select layer 1", or (best) "select next layer down" in an action?

Thanks

Jeremy
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Michael Bailey

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CS3 actions
« Reply #1 on: April 28, 2009, 10:36:38 pm »

I had just the same issue a while ago. I think the only way to solve it is to use shortcuts. Alt-. (period) and Alt-, (comma) pick the top and bottom of the layer stack. I forget which is which. There's also a shortcut for selecting all the layers from the selected one down.

One other thing which might matter: Photoshop terminology uses "front" and "back" instead of "top" and "bottom" when talking about layers. That threw me for a minute.

Here's one source for lists of shortcuts:

http://morris-photographics.com/photoshop/shortcuts/

MB
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Jeremy Roussak

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CS3 actions
« Reply #2 on: April 30, 2009, 02:39:54 pm »

Quote from: Michael Bailey
I had just the same issue a while ago. I think the only way to solve it is to use shortcuts. Alt-. (period) and Alt-, (comma) pick the top and bottom of the layer stack. I forget which is which. There's also a shortcut for selecting all the layers from the selected one down.

One other thing which might matter: Photoshop terminology uses "front" and "back" instead of "top" and "bottom" when talking about layers. That threw me for a minute.

Here's one source for lists of shortcuts:

http://morris-photographics.com/photoshop/shortcuts/

MB
That's great, and solves my problem. Thanks very much.

Jeremy
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