What Actions?
I received an email from MomShot’s reader and mother of two seriously adorable twins and five other stunningly beautiful children, Stesha . You know how I love my questions!!! Thanks for sending it in.
Stesha said:
What photoshop actions do you use and prefer?
Well, Stesha that’s a great question. Since I’m a cheapskate I only have free actions. I haven’t found room in our current budget to purchase any of the cool action packages that are out there. But within that limitation, there are many options available. I have both of Pioneer Woman’s action sets but tend to only use a few of them regularly.
I almost usually always use her actions called Define & Sharpen as a first step. Then I often use Boost. I really like vivid colors so that one is my favorite. I like to play with some of her others like PW’s B&W but I don’t use that regularly. I also use the Slight Lighten or Slight Darken if my exposure is not quite how I want it. From her 2nd set I like to play with some of the actions like Seventies, Sepia, Sunshine, etc. Those are more fun things to play with than my regular standbys.
After I’ve got the photo how I’d like it I usually save it as a .PSD file and then use the Flatten action to get rid of all the layers and save as a .JPG so I can work with it in either a collage for my 52 week project or upload to Flickr to be used online on MomShots.com.
A few other actions that I use are the Triptych and Diptych action from the Coffeeshop. She also has other storyboards that I really like to use occasionally. The Coffeeshop also has some actions that relate to color but I don’t use them very often. I suspect that I will use them more after my daughter is born because there are a few that give the photo that soft pink glaze that I think is sometimes really cute on little girl photos. Those just haven’t really gone with my sons’ photos very well. I really should go through her list of actions and figure out if there are anymore that I could use.
If you are in the market to purchase actions there are some really great ones available. MCP Actions, Eye Candy and Totally Rad Actions all have really great packages for sale.
I just did a Google search and came across quite a few other places that have cool free actions like these. I am kind of excited to search some more and see what other gems I can find!
Do you have any favorite Photoshop actions? What’s your favorite process using Photoshop actions?
February 28th, 2010 at 3:11 pm
Thanks, Jessica for taking the time to answer my question. Silly as it sounds, I didn’t know there were free actions out there. I guess I need to do better research.
My favorite action would be the storyboard. I’ve never used it before, but I’ve seen it in “action” on the blogs of others, and I really would like to try it one day soon. My twins are having their 1st birthday party this weekend, so this would be the perfect opportunity!
Hugs and Mocha,
Stesha
February 28th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
Hi! I am just wondering how do you do all of your picture collages? Or maybe you call them storyboards. I dont know but I am always wanting an easy way to make some, just like the simple 3 picture one you have above! I have Photoshop cs4, lightroom 2, and the plain old picasa. I am VERY new to all of the editing software and everything! Thanks
March 12th, 2010 at 8:43 pm
Hi! I am just wondering how do you do all od your picture collages? Or maybe you call them storyboards. I dont know but I am always wqnting an easy way to make some, just like the simple 3 picture one you have above! I have Photoshop cs4, lightroom 2, and the plain old picasa. I am VERY new to all of the editing software and everything! Thanks :);