Let's look at another of Photoshop's built-in actions, this time from a different action set. I'll load in the Frames action set by selecting it from the bottom of the Actions palette's menu, just as I did with the Image Effects set on the previous page:

This loads the Frames set into the Actions palette for me, directly below the Image Effects set. I'll twirl open the Frames set by clicking on the triangle to the left of the set's name so we can see all of the actions inside of it. As the name of the action set implies, each of these actions will create a frame effect for us:

If you look closely, you'll notice that the Vignette action we ran from the Default Actions set is also found here in the Frames set. You'll also find the "Frame Channel - 50 pixel" and "Wood Frame - 50 pixel" actions in both the Frames set and the Default Actions set. Of course, there's lots more frame actions available in the Frames set, and running any of them is as easy as selecting the one you want and clicking the Play icon at the bottom of the palette, just as we've done a couple of times already.

Let's try out one of these frame effects. Here's a photo that I want to apply a frame effect to:

We've already seen what the Vignette action does, so this time, let's see what sort of effect the Photo Corners action will give us. I'll click on Photo Corners in the Actions palette to select it, then I'll click on the Play icon at the bottom of the palette:

Notice here as well that the dialog box toggle icon to the left of the Photo Corners action's name is empty, telling us that Photoshop will run through this entire action from beginning to end without popping up any dialog boxes asking us for information. And sure enough, after clicking the Play icon and waiting a couple of seconds for Photoshop to complete the steps, my image now has a photo corners effect applied to it:

As with many of the effects actions that Photoshop comes with, the end result probably won't win any awards, but if you don't have a lot of time and need something fast, they can certainly be helpful. Plus, if you're a beginner, playing these actions and checking out the details of each step is a great way to learn! In this case, we ran an action named Photo Corners and photo corners is what we got. Considering that we had to do absolutely nothing ourselves to create the effect other than play the action, and that the action is included for free with Photoshop, it's hard to find fault with it.

Having said that, I'm not a big fan of the colors that this action uses. I could probably live with the white photo corners themselves, but the gray background does nothing for me. Wouldn't it be great if we could edit the action and customize it ourselves? Well, guess what? We can! Editing an action is easy! At least, it's easy once you've figured out which steps you need to edit. We've already seen how we can view the specific details of an action by twirling open the individual steps, but an even easier way to see exactly what's going on with an action is to play each step one at a time! We'll see how easy it is to step through an action next!

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