Albums and Actions

I'm starting to use actions in Photoshop more and more and really like how they convert simple shots into something striking. I want to use them more and more in albums but I've got some questions. Do you take one action (or combination of actions) and run it throught an album, do you mix actions throughout the album or do you minimize the number of shots that have been processed with actions so as not to have too many?

Actions don't do anything that can't be done without them...they are just a string of commands. Yes, sometimes it's nice to have a pre-made action but really, that's like putting the camera in auto mode.

Actions are great tools for speeding up your workflow because you can automate repetitive commands. I haven't bought any actions (although I might consider it) but I have many that I made myself.

As for how many shots to 'spice up' for an album...that's up to you.

I have purchased actions from Kevin Kubota (vol 2 is my favorite) as well as david jay's brilliant preset settings for lightroom and bridge. I do a lot of my editing in lightroom now and use the presets a lot to speed up my workflow a lot. I can do a 14hr weddng shoot in about 6hrs now.

As for album's, I try to keep the photo's on each 2 page spread similar. But mix it up throughout the album.

Big Mike wrote in post #4212657
Actions don't do anything that can't be done without them...they are just a string of commands. Yes, sometimes it's nice to have a pre-made action but really, that's like putting the camera in auto mode.

If by 'auto' you mean, do exactly what I want, when I want, how I want and do it quickly.

Pretty poor comparison, imo.

It seemed to me that the OP was referring to actions as if they were the effects that the pre-made actions create. To me it read similar to "Do you use a lot of B&W & Sepia effects in an album?" or something along those lines.

My point was that you can use Photoshop to create those effects without buying an action from someone...and that just using the ready-made actions is sort of like using a camera in auto.

Of course, we know that actions can be customized to to anything we want them to...which isn't anything at all like auto mode.