Vanessa Pike Russell Photography

vanessapikerussell.com

Photography and Graphic Design

vanessapr [ FS FI INT ]

Feed – Subscribe
to photos by Vanessa

HOME: DOWNLOADS : ACTIONS

Downloads: Photoshop Actions improve productivity and speed up workflow.

[ Read my tutorial on actions, what they are, how to load them and how to make your own. ]

In the tutorials section I wrote a tutorial on Adobe Photoshop actions and gave a brief overview on just how handy photoshop actions can be. In this update I have created actions for use with portraits and some for general use (increase contrast, increase saturation, merge with black and white version of original).

I have often looked at photos and thought 'how did they do that' and after spending hours working out my own methods of achieving a certain look I decided to create an action so that I could help speed up my workflow and automate some of the advanced photomanipulation tasks which may be repetitive in nature.

Note: You will need to have access to Adobe Photoshop 7, Adobe Photoshop CS2 or CS3 to be able to use my actions. If you don't have Adobe Photoshop you can download it and try it for free for 30 days or buy it online. If you have Adobe Lightroom and would like me to custom make some presents for you please contact me via email or flickrmail. If you would like me to custom make some Adobe Photoshop actions first send me a link to the photos you want to manipulate and an example of the effect you want to achieve. I love a challenge!

I have been busy creating some photoshop actions and I wanted to test them out on a variety of photos to see how they perform. If there is anyone who might be interested in having their photos featured on my webpage in a before and after section please email or flickrmail me. As a thank you I will email or flickrmail each participant a copy of the actions used and the 'after' photos used. I will make sure to watermark your photos with whatever information you wanted on them - whether on the photo or in the border. There will be no confusion as to whose photos they are - with a link back to your flickr account or website. Actions in this series includes:

Baby Soft

What it does: soften the skin tone and create that baby soft look that is so popular in child photography today. It is also good for photos where the skin is red or dark and you prefer soft portraits

	Original image by Bea Pierce Below is a series of images created from a photo by Bea using the Baby Soft set of Adobe Photoshop Actions (.atn) I developed. There was no tweaking of the end result. What you see is the result from pressing the 'play' button for each action and then saved. Some images were created by running one or more actions. You may need to run an action such as babysoft I more than once to achieve the effect you are looking for.

Babysoft I	BS Apply Image Soft

Babysoft blurred	Babysoft desat diffused

Babysoft gentle	Babysoft increase exposure

Babysoft increase exposure (x2)	Babysoft more red warmth

Babysoft more red + babysoft	more red with babysoft bw v1

red skin to tan	smooth skin

with soft light	soft merge

with softmerge bw_v1	with softmerge bw_v1 (x2)

softmerge bw v2	babysoft x2 (run twice)

softmergebw_v1 (x2)	more redw + babysoftbw1 (x3)

babysoftbw1x3_warmify	babysoftbw1x3_warmifyx2

bluebayou	colour pop for underexposed

drabtofab	warmify

Black and white

o Standard BW actions - blue filter, green filter, red filter, high contrast blue filter, high contrast red filter, infrared, maximum black, maximum white etc oHigh Contrast -o if your black and white photos appear dull and lifeless try this action. o Cross process version- similar to high contrast but with a cross process feel

Colour Pop

What it does:

Colour pop enhances contrast and colour of photos straight out of the camera or after editing. Several variations based on the colours you wish to enhance - eg. increase vibrance of red dress and increase/decrease vibrance of other colours for contrast. It also includes colour filters - beach theme, warmify, cool, green, blue, yellow etc

Get it here

Duotones

Actions within this group includes duotone variations: chocolate, dark chocolate, sepia, blue, vintage, plum and more. You can see samples of duotones

Frames

Includes fake ttv, white-black, white-black with your name. canvas prints, motivational poster, outer edge with high contrast selection from photo, burned edges, plain white 10% border and others. You can view some examples of ttv here.

High Pass

Adding a depth to your photos. Series of High Pass actions [ download it ]

Orton

I have created actions with several variations of Orton Effect which is based on a blurred layer with different blend modes and hue/saturation adjustment

Resizing

I like to automate the boring, repetitive actions such as resizing and file manipulation. With this group you can set the dimensions of your photographs, resize for online use and more. [ download it ]

Touchups

Quick and easy touchups - a photographer's best friend.

Included in this group is an action with which you create a duplicate layer with blur and paint out the parts of the photo you want to retain from the background - great for reducing noise or creating a dreamy effect

If you are interested in my actions please read this.

If you have used my actions please let me know what you thought.

BS Apply Image Soft

Babysoft desat diffused

Babysoft more red warmth

smooth skin

soft merge

with softmerge bw_v1 (x2)

more redw + babysoftbw1 (x3)