photoshop action/_ set 100

earlier this year, a friend of mine asked if i would do an "engagement session" with her and her fiance. on one hand, i was honored, on the other...i was totally freaking out. i had never done anything like that before. luckily, i knew just where to turn for inspiration - studio 222.

since my "debut" session with kim and ryan, i have had the opportunity to shoot at several events and even hold a few portrait sessions. each session or event has given me a chance to learn something about myself, as well as, my photography. 

so far, i have learned three things: first, i love doing portrait sessions. as an amateur photographer i enjoy having the time to take and re-take when necessary. second, i work better without a flash. the flash slows me down, which probably means i need a better one. suggestions? 

finally...or third, i really enjoy editing. like, a lot a lot. i will spend hours playing around in photoshop and never stop to look at the clock. unfortunately, i often end up feeling somewhat limited by how little i know about the software. this, ladies and gents, is where tutorials have become especially helpful (as well as enlightening).

{point and click} in the process of searching for photoshop tutorials, i stumbled into the wonderful world of photoshop actions. evidently CS4 comes with several of these presets. with that said, audience do not be fooled... this doesn't even begin to account for the hundreds of free presets and scripts that can be found online. 

this afternoon i discovered the design mag blog (a community for designers). here is what they have to say about actions: 

photoshop actions can be extremely helpful for experimenting with different effects and for saving time during the photo editing process. of course, the ideal situation would be to take photographs effectively in the first place. however, as a designer you are likely to find yourself in situations where you won't be the one taking the photos, and you'll need to work with something that isn't exactly what you need. in these cases, the actions featured here may be helpful for your photo editing. 

heard! however, i would like to add that most of the actions listed on the design mag site are created by artists from the deviant art community (always be sure to give credit where credit is due). 

with that said, today's post features set 100, an action created by 'night-fate, a bonafide 'deviant of many talents.' she writes, "i make [photoshop actions] randomly using curves, saturation, solid color fills and random layer mode effects. and sometimes lighting effects." 

{more action!} set 100 contains eight sets of actions. each action uses a different color fill and saturation degree. i used all of them in the sample piece above. then i chose some of my favorite from the batch to display below. 

_action 1

_action 2

_action 3

_action 4 

_action 5

_action 6

 

_action 7

_action 8

...and just for fun: guess which action i used on this one!

for instructions on how to install and use photoshop actions just click here. stay tuned for a post on curves...peace!