Finding the right Photoshop action in DASHBOARD will provide some punch to your shots.

There's always been a kind of a "homebrew" vibe to the movement by photographers to create image enhancement "actions" in Photoshop. If you're not already familiar with actions, they're basically pre-programmed sequences in Photoshop which create a specific look or effect in one simple click. So rather than tweak shadow adjustment here, punch up color there, and increase contrast over there, a Photoshop action will do it all for you in seconds.

Some might argue that actions take all the fun and creativity out of working on your shots in Photoshop, but if you have hundreds if not thousands of images to pore through and edit from a single shoot, they can be a real time-saver.

One of the pioneers of the Photoshop actions movement has been Kevin Kubota, a wedding photographer who has turned one-click tweaks in Photoshop into a veritable cottage industry. For a few years now, his company, Kubota Image Tools, has been cranking out "Action Paks" of 50 or so automated tweaks that do everything from create "classic film effects" such as adding black-and-white film grain to your images, to more edgy, "modern chic" color enhancements.

Some of my favorites are the movie-style actions he's created including the ethereal "Lord of the Rings" effect, the almost three-dimensional "Enter the Dragon," and the cartoon baroque "300esque." Yes, some of these actions are not for everybody and if you overdo it with any of them it could ruin a perfectly good image with too much "tweaky tweaky," as a friend of mine likes to say. As with any Photoshop enhancement, discretion and judgment are essential.

The other problem with actions—like most any Photoshop plug-in—is that they're highly addictive. Buy a few of them and you want more. Get this group of actions and you'll also want those. This is good news to people like Kubota who sells sets of actions for around $180. For the user, though, it's fairly easy to be overwhelmed by too many choices and pretty soon the pull-down tools bar in Photoshop is looking like the take-out menu at your local Chinese restaurant.

To simplify the process and, perhaps, sell a few more "action paks," Kubota has created a new floating menu palette for Photoshop that organizes all his actions under one searchable roof. Called DASHBOARD (not to be confused with Apple's Dashboard) the interface launches with Photoshop and organizes more than 280 Kubota actions including Artistic Tools V1-4 and Production Tools V2. DASHBOARD is actually a revamping of an earlier interface with some improvements from onOne software.

Being someone who tests a ton of software for a living, having a clutter of programs on my hard drive is an occupational hazard. And, for the most part, I like the way that DASHBOARD makes sense of all my Kubota actions. In particular, the fact that DASHBOARD is keyword searchable helps a lot in sorting through the various, occasionally oddly named tweaks.

In some respects though, I think DASHBOARD could be better organized visually. For instance, when I call up the Color Effects, they don't seemed to be sequenced or grouped in any discernible way, such as alphabetical or by type of color adjustment. The same goes under Creative Effects where I'm not sure why Blue Dawn follows 300esque which is strangely preceded by MyEdge.

On the other hand, I really like that when you single-click an action it will call up a brief description of what that action does. For instance, while working on some images of boats I shot in Miami, I clicked on the Hawaiian Punch action which brought this description: "This lively effect will pop color and add a vivid tropical life to images." Sounded perfect.

Perhaps the best thing about DASHBOARD is that comes free with any Kubota Action Pak. Also, customers who purchased any Action Pak since the release of the first version of DASHBOARD in March 2008 get a free update to the new version of DASHBOARD.


THE BOTTOM LINE

If your addiction to Photoshop actions is getting out of control, the new DASHBOARD interface from Kubota Image Tools may help you get a handle on your problem. If not, there's always Dr. Drew.

Kubota Image Tools DASHBOARD

www.kubotaimagetools.com Pros: Provides an easy, searchable interface for all your Photoshop actions from Kubota Image Tools. Cons: Could be better organized visually. Pricing: Free with Kubota Action Paks ($179)