Most photographers would rather be out in the field with a camera up to their eye rather than sitting behind a computer editing their work, and this means a streamlined workflow that delivers great results in a hurry.

In this quick tutorial from the popular Sandra D Imagery YouTube channel you’ll learn how one pro uses the Photoshop Actions panel to dramatically accelerate the editing process with no sacrifice in results. Sandra is an Australian photographer with a passion for inspiring others with easy-to-follow post-processing tips and techniques.

In barely minutes you’ll how Sandra is able to concentrate on her creative vision by harnessing the power of Photoshop’s Actions Panel to automate repetitive tasks—whether she’s applying conventional enhancements or working on composites. In other words, “Save time and get more done!”

Sandra explains why she prefers Actions to keyboard shortcuts or digging through menus to find the particular tools for the specific task at hand. As she says, “Photoshop Actions speed up my everyday workflow, help me focus on what I want to do, and not worry about finding the appropriate shortcut key.”

She pulls up her photo of a beautiful scene with a compelling foreground, interesting building further back, and an attractive sky with some amazing clouds. Her goal is to turn this really nice shot into one that’s truly spectacular.

The first thing Sandra always does is to engage in thoughtful “housekeeping” by duplicating a layer. She opens Photoshop’s Actions panel and clicks on the “Duplicate Layer” option in a dropdown menu that appears. Now she can continue with her edit which in this instance begins by adjusting Levels.

Obviously, you can start with whatever enhancement you want.She then does a bit of “brush work” to add more atmosphere to the sky, and she does so with this recommendation: “Whenever I do brush work it’s always done on a non-destructive blank layer; never on a pixelated layer.”

Sandra walks you through all the remaining steps for getting the job done. And don’t hesitate to rip her off by using this approach in your workflow from now on. Be sure to visit the Sandra D YouTube channel when the lesson concludes and take a look at her other instructional videos that will make your edits more effective and productive in the future.

And don’t miss the transformational tutorial we featured with another post-processing expert who demonstrates how to use Photoshop’s Dodge and Burn tools to bring dull photographs to life.

Dedicated photographers invest heavily in gear and the time spent perfecting their craft, which why there’s nothing worse than have our hard-earned images lost, damaged, or stolen. Today’s important tutorial from Anthony Morganti explains how to protect photos with a new and oft-ignored Lightroom tool.

Morganti is an adept shooter and globally popular post-processing expert worse comprehensive tutorials have helped thousands of photographers elevate their skills. But what’s the point of creating spectacular images if you don’t keep them safe?” This is what you’ll learn how to do in the next 15 minutes.

Simply put, “Content Credentials is a way for you to identify an image as yours.” Sure, you can add a watermark on a photo or  copyright info in the metadata but that stuff can easily be stripped away. Content Credentials, on the other hand, is theoretically persistent, or as Morganti says, “It’s like a permanent record that an image is yours.”

Another reason to use this feature is that you that you want to be honest and make it clear when AI was used during the editing process. If everyone took this approach AI wouldn’t receive such a bad rap from those who claim that these assisted images are “fake.” Or maybe you’re entering a contest that precludes photos created with AI, in which case Content Credential will prove the authenticity of your entries.

As you’ll see, Content Credentials also makes it easy for others to find the social-media accounts you use to display or sell your favorite work. You can link images to any account you wish and broaden your online reach for more notoriety.

Finally, there are other ways that Content Credentials gives you piece of mind by providing a more lasting record of your ownership than metadata and other methods can guarantee. So now that you understand the why, it’s time for the how and that’s what you’ll learn in the remainder of today’s lesson. Morganti begins by walking you through a quick-and-easy edit from beginning to end, while illustrating what information is stored in Content Credentials, where to find it, and other key tricks.

We suggest that you join the 400K subscribers to Morganti’s instructional YouTube channel so that you can remained informed of new or overlooked image-editing tools and techniques.

Then check out  the recent tutorial we featured with another post-processing expert who demonstrates a unique technique for cropping photos to any aspect ratio in Lightroom, and then expanding them with AI.