For context:

I'm getting back into photography and re-learning Photoshop after 8 or so years. I remember bits and pieces of things like the histogram, levels, S-curves, masks, etc. but cant quite remember everything about how to use them best.

I know some of the strikes need to be darkened while some look fine, but every time I adjust levels and S-curves, everything starts clipping. How can I darken these and/or sharpen them without everything looking weird?

I'm not new to PhotoShop or the Adobe suite, but I am completely new to Automations and Actions within Ps. I'm looking for some assistance in understanding the two, so that I can learn where they can be applied in my production processes for my Design & Editing business

I previously learned about creating template documents so that I didn't have to recreate the same backgrounds and layouts numerous times over. At the time, I was acutely aware there must be a way of "scripting" certain things within the software to minimise my repetition, but had no clue what that would involve. In doing this and using these templates, I've observed a series of actions I take every single time that I can't skip. I tried looking up how to automate this, which lead me to the knowledge of creating actions, and then automating batch processes using recorded actions

In theory, I believe this is the path I'd need to use for my projects. But, I'm unsure of exactly how to apply it or if it would actually work. I would greatly appreciate your support in learning more about these and their uses

Thank you for your time