Despite their checkered reputation, actions are a great way to speed up your Adobe Photoshop workflow. There are a lot of resources out there that offer free actions, however the quality is highly variable. Some are crafted by excellent post-production experts and can help you develop a better workflow. Others promise to perfect an image in a single click and are a waste of your time.

The best way to use actions in Photoshop is to create custom ones to fit your workflow. In this tutorial you will learn how to analyse your workflow and find the parts to turn into actions.