How I Edit My Photos, Instructions. (Using FREE Actions.)

[Camilla and Darwin]

I get a lot of questions about how I edit my photos, or just how my photos look so vibrant. I thought I'd put together this discussion to show you guys how to edit your photos easily and quickly. 

First off, I use photoshop actions. Photoshop actions are editing options you can select and push "play" on, that will do a whole bunch of adjustments automatically. They cut time down, and makes things extremely easy. These are the actions I use, and they are free. They are from the Pioneer Woman and she has both photoshop and elements actions available. 

Photoshop actions: 

http://thepioneerwoman.com/photography/2010/03/actions-update-2/

Photoshop Elements actions: 

http://thepioneerwoman.com/photography/2010/03/pioneer-woman-action...

So, here is my photo editing process on a portrait, using only the actions from the pioneer woman. Usually I will do additional things, such as skin smoothing or sharpening. But these are adequate when you want to do a photo quickly. This whole process took me about 1 minute. 

When you install action sets, they will be in a sidebar in the toolbar. You select the action you want then press the "play" button. You can then adjust the opacity in the layers section.

First, here is my original image, a portrait of my sister Naomi. (she's so cute isn't she.) As you can see it's pretty dark and not colorful. 

The first step is to use the "bring on the eyes action" this will create a new layer and all you have to do is choose your brush size and paint over the area of the eye you want boosted. Usually I will paint the eye (not the whites, just the iris and pupil) at 100% opacity then adjust it downwards until it looks normal. after I've painted it on. I usually end up leaving it at about 45% opacity.

Before and after "bring on the eyes" as you can see her eyes are more bright now.

Next I will use the "boost" action and the "slight lighten" action. You will lower the opacity in these as well, until it looks good to you. For this I used 100% boost opacity and about 60% lighten. Such a difference!

Finally, select the "warmer" and set it at about 30% opacity, to bring some warmer tones to the photo. Then I went to image>adjustments>vibrance and nudged the vibrance slider up a little. If you don't have a vibrance function you can use Image>adjustments>hue/saturation, slide the saturation up a little bit. 

The original and the finished image

And I wanted this to be in black-and-white, so I used the "black and white beauty" action set.

I hope this was helpful, and I would say to anyone who has photoshop or elements, try it! It makes editing very simple. 

[Ann Kendig]

Great instructions Camilla and thanks for posting. I will have to bookmark that link and check it. Mike

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Thank You, Camilla.  Great and useful post. Yes, I am one that has asked you how your colors look so vibrant!  

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Question:  Is this a downloadable program?  That's what I am looking for on this link.

I have CS2--so I think it will be compatible... but not sure what I am looking for

[Camilla and Darwin]

The actions are compatible with photoshop and photoshop elements. I think you just download them, and they will be in the program next time you open it. I do think that cs2 will work, but I'm not sure.

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

That's my problem. On this site, I can't seem to find the tools. I see a lot of beautiful examples.
Do you have the actual link where it gives the tools? I've done searches, checked all the drop down menus-

[Camilla and Darwin]

What do you mean, gives the tools? The action sets just utilize the tools that your photoshop/elements already has. So it just combines a bunch of actions such as using the curves, levels, dodge, burn, etc. tools in your photoshop.

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Okay, makes sense. I thought maybe they were added dls. Yes, I do recognize those commands and use them. Not as well as you though :)

[Jean, Rylee and Cooper]

Thank you Camilla.  Do you have to have photoshop?  I just have Aperture and use it very infrequently.  

[Camilla and Darwin]

You can probably find free action sets for aperture, but these are only for elements and photoshop. I would google "free aperture action sets" and see what comes up.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Great discussion, thanks Camilla. Beautiful demo and Naomi is gorgeous. I think it's not as easy for some of us, that would be me but I will try at some point. I think you may be besieged by people, like me, intrigued by all this and skin smoothing and the face lift option. You are fortunate to have such great models at hand and you are very talented.

[Anne & Mr. Haley]

I have spent all morning trying to install these Actions.  Even uninstalled PSE9 and reinstalled it.   I never seen the tools in PSE9. 

[Jarka, Monty & Auggie]

Ann, did you follow the directions for installation? I have PSE9 and it worked the first time around.

If you have Windows 7: http://www.texaschicksblogsandpics.com/photography-page/installing-...

If you have XP: http://www.texaschicksblogsandpics.com/photography-page/installing-...