Step 5: Make layer

We're working our way through the Photo Corners action in Photoshop by playing each step individually from beginning to end, looking for the steps that control the colors the action uses so we can edit them, and we're getting a good idea of how actions work. The fifth step in the action is Make layer, and if I twirl it open to view the details, we can see that a new blank layer is going to be created and given the name "new background":

I'll play the step by once again holding down Ctrl (Win) / Command (Mac) and double-clicking on the step in the Actions palette, and a quick look at the Layers palette shows us that we do in fact now have a new blank layer above the other two, and this new layer has been named "new background":

Step 6: Fill

Moving along through the Photo Corners action, we come to the sixth step, Fill. This one looks interesting. I know that Photoshop's Fill command is used to fill layers or selections with color, and if I twirl open the action to view the details, it looks like this step is going to fill our new layer with gray. I think we've found the first step that controls color in the action!

Let's play the step by holding down Ctrl (Win) / Command (Mac) and double-clicking on it to see what happens. Sure enough, the "new background" layer becomes filled with gray. Since the "new background" layer is currently above the other two layers in the Layers palette, it blocks the two layers below it from view and our entire document window appears as solid gray:

We now know that this is the step we'll need to edit to change the color used for the background in the Photo Corners frame effect! Let's keep going.

Step 7: Move current layer

The seventh step in our action is Move current layer. "Current layer" refers to the currently selected layer, and since our currently selected layer is the "new background" layer that was filled with gray a moment ago, the name of this step makes it fairly obvious that the "new background" layer is about to be moved to a new location in the Layers palette. If we twirl open the step to view the details, we can see that it will be moved into the "layer 1" position, which will place it directly above the Background layer:

I'll play the step by Ctrl+double-clicking (Win) / Command+double-clicking (Mac) on it, and we can see now in the Layers palette that the "new background" layer has swapped positions with the "photo corners" layer, making the "photo corners" layer now the top-most layer in the layer stack:

Since the "photo corners" layer is now at the top of the layer stack, the image on the layer is now visible in front of the gray background in the document window:

Step 8: Select layer "photo corners"

The Photo Corners frame effect is beginning to take shape. Step 8 in the action is a simple one, Select layer "photo corners". This step is so straightforward, in fact, that there are no extra details for us to view which is why the step doesn't have a twirly triangle beside its name. This step should simply select the "photo corners" layer in the Layers palette:

I'll hold down Ctrl (Win) / Command (Mac) and double-click on it to play it, and we see in the Layers palette that the "photo corners" layer is now selected:

Step 9: Make layer

The ninth step in the action is Make layer. Since the fifth step in our Photo Corners action was also named "Make layer", we know from what we saw in Step 5 that this step is going to create a new blank layer for us. By default, new layers are added directly above the currently selected layer, and since the "photo corners" layer was selected in the previous step, this new layer will be placed directly above it, which will position it at the very top of the layer stack. If we twirl open the step to view the details, we can see that the new layer will be named "4 corners":

I'll Ctrl+double-click (Win) / Command+double-click (Mac) on the step to play it, and the Layers palette now shows us a new blank layer named "4 corners" directly above the "photo corners" layer:

We'll continue making our way through the Photo Corners action next, and when we're done, we'll see how to go about editing the action!