If you weren't already aware, Photoshop has these great features called Actions. Actions can be used for many things, including doing the mundane tasks you don't feel like doing, creating amazing effects, and maximizing productivity.

I recently had the pleasure of a little thing called Batch Processing. I'm a dedicated designer, but there was no way I was going sit in front of my computer for hours changing the Hue/Saturation for every single image for my forum. What is Batch Processing, you say? Well, it's something that processes a batch,and I'm going to show you how to do it.

When you create an action you need it to do one thing, whatever that "thing" may be. In my case, I needed to change the Hue/Saturation for 80+ images from aqua to my "trademark" teal. You may need to create an action for a different purpose; however for now lets all agree we are going to change the Hue/Saturation. Now, to follow along you'll need something to work on. Grab a small image, like an icon.

Next go to Windows > Actions, making sure it is checked. If checked, you should see a tab in the Layers Palette appropriately labeled Actions.

Click on the arrow button to expand the Actions menu and choose "new set." This creates a folder for the action you create (you don't necessarily need the folder, it simply helps with organization.)

Return to the Actions menu and choose "New Action." Before you begin to record an action you need to decide the steps you'll need to take and the order in which you'll need to take them. This is a pretty simple action and soon you will be able to do this is your sleep.

Now for the recording part. There will be a small circle icon between the square and the triangle at the bottom of the palette that you will need to click. Now Photoshop will record everything you do until the end of the Action. If you have an error, simply stop the Action by pushing the square icon and go back to your last step taken.

For our action, the first thing we need to do is change the Mode of the image to RGB, since .gif files are saved in Index mode which don't take too kindly to colorization. So with the action recording, go to Image > Mode > RGB.

Next, we'll have to strip the image of it's current color to make adding our (my) own color easier to apply, so go to Image > Adjustment > Desaturate.

Now that we have a naked grey image, we need to add some color. Make sure your action is still recording and go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation. I have the settings for my teal color saved in a .ahu (Hue/Saturation) file already so all I have to do is click Load and select Teal.ahu, but since you don't have that you'll have to use the sliders. Use these settings for my color:

Woo, we've now SunBlinded the icon! All that's left to do now is save it for the web. Is your action still recording? Good. Go to File > Save For The Web and set your file type and optimization settings. I use the standard GIF settings, but whatever floats your boat, dude. Select your destination directory and save. If your Actions palette looks like this:

You can now stop recording because your Action is complete. Now we will perform a Batch Process to put your Action into effect. This will take all the images in a specified directory and incorporate the changes recorded in the Action.

To begin the process go to File > Automate > Batch and make sure the name of the Action Set you just recorded is in the first dropdown list and the name of the Action is in the second. Set the third dropdown box (next to Source) to Folder and use the Choose button to find your duplicated or created folder of images. For destination, you can either leave it set to it's default "None" to have the action applied and saved in the source folder, or save the "actionized" images into a separate folder. Once you have everything configured to your liking, click OK.

Now you can sit back and watch your images color themselves because you're using Actions and Batch Processing to do your tedious work.