Photoshop Tutorial for Fashion Design (Part 22)
History Palette, Actions Palette, Colorize

The History palette has a number of very important functions. It separately records and lists each change made to a document which allows you to use this palette as an undo command. To undo, just click to select the desired listed state. When an earlier state is selected the image will return to the appearance it had when the change was initially made. And you can see that all the changes made after the selected state are dimmed. If you continue to work from the selected state all dimmed states will be discarded and replaced with new.

In addition, you can use the History palette to create a snapshot to capture a particular document state as you continue to work. Snapshots don’t depend on the History list which allows you to go back to the captured state even if it’s no longer listed in the history. For example, I can take a snapshot of my current state by clicking on the snapshot icon at the bottom of the palette: Create new snapshot. You can see “Snapshot 1″ listed on the top of the History palette. Now I can go back in history and select a previous state, make some changes to the document, and if I don’t like the new results, I can click on my snapshot and the image will return to the appearance it had when the snapshot was taken.

Note that the History palette always keeps snapshots of the time the document was initially opened or created. So you can always go back to that point.

By default, the History palette lists only 20 states. This can be changed in the
Adobe Photoshop Preferences: Preferences > Performance and in the Performance window go to the “History & Cache” section. Drag the slider to the right
to increase the number of states and to the left to reduce the number of states. Keep in mind that increasing history will result in larger memory consumption so you have to make sure you have plenty of RAM before you increase the number of states.

You already know that the History palette is also used as a source for the History Brushes. Just to remind you: to set the source, simply click on the left section of a respective state or a snapshot. And finally, it is important to know that the History palette is document specific. Meaning, if I select another document to work with, the History palette content will change to reflect the currently active file.

Next to the History is the Actions palette. The Actions palette offers, although not critical, but very convenient features. One of the features records everything you do within the program which can later be applied to an image with a simple click. For example, I want to recolor this coat and apply some texture using filters. To recolor my coat, first I need to select the layer I want to work with, choose the color, and I’m going to use the Hue/Saturation Colorize command: go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation. Check Colorize in the option window and play with saturation and lightness to match your midtones to the selected color. Click “OK” to apply. For texture, I will use Filter Gallery. I’m going to check different effects to see if anything works for me. I actually like Rough Pastels so I’m gonna go with that effect, and click “OK” to apply.

I would have to repeat everything I just did for every layer that has rendered parts of my coat and you can see I have quite a few. With the Actions palette, I can record all the editing I just did and then apply changes to each layer with a couple of simple clicks. Adobe Photoshop comes with a default set of actions. In this segment, I’m going to show you how to start your own set, how to record, apply and change actions if necessary.

To start a new set, click on the “Create new set” icon at the bottom of the palette. It looks like a folder. Name it and click “OK”. Now, inside that set we are going to create an action that will recolor the coat and apply the filter effect. Before recording, make sure the right layer is selected, choose the color, and make sure that your newly-created set is active, highlighted in blue.

Next, click on the “Create new action” icon at the bottom of the palette. Give it a name and click “Record”. Keep in mind: once you click that button, Adobe Photoshop will record anything you do within the program. So make sure you have a good idea of what kind of editing you want to do to your image. I already know that I’m going to use the Hue/Saturation Colorize technique. Click on Colorize, adjust saturation and lightness, click “OK”. Next, do the texture: Filter > Filter Gallery, and I’m going to go with Rough Pastels. Maybe slightly adjust the options like the stroke length, scaling, relief, and click “OK” when you’re done. Now that’s all I need to do so I’m ready to stop the recording. Just click on the “Stop playing/recording” button at the bottom of the palette.

And now I’m ready to use this action to apply changes to other layers that have rendered parts of my coat. First click on the layer thumb to select. Make sure you have the proper action selected in the menu. In my case it’s “Coat”. And then simply click on the “Play selection” icon. You can see how much faster it was to recolor the rest of the coat. In addition, under the action, you can preview all the commands and settings that you’ve used to edit your image.

Adobe Photoshop also allows you to duplicate, delete and modify your actions. For example, I can delete the Filter Gallery command from my action. Just click and drag to the Delete icon at the bottom of the palette. And I can also add a new command to an already existing action.

To add a new command to an action, first make sure the right action is selected. Choose a layer, and click the “Begin recording” icon. This time I’m going to use something simple, like Image > Adjustments > Invert. Once you’re done adding all the commands that you wish to, simply click on the “Stop playing/recording” icon at the bottom of the palette.

In addition, you can use only part of the action to make changes to your image. For example, I need to invert the rest of my coat. So I’m going to click on the Invert command within the action, choose the layer and click “Play selection” When you’ve created a set actions that you’ll be using on more than one occasion it’s a good idea to save. To save the set, first click to select, then go to the palette menu and choose “Save Actions”. Keep the name as is, it will be located in the Actions folder within Photoshop preferences, so just click “Save”.

Once you’ve saved your set, you can load it at any time. Simply go to the palette menu, choose “Load Actions” click on the desired action in the list and click “Load”. And just like with all the palettes, you have your shortcuts to the most commonly used features at the bottom of the palette and a full list of features in the palette’s menu.