It's All About the Actions....

So, I am going to attempt to explain how I learned what I did to edit the family photos we took last week.  First let me start off by telling you what I have to work with.  My computer runs on Windows 7 and I have Photoshop Elements 8 installed on it.  I took the photos with my Nikon D90 using my 50mm f1.8 lens.  This lens is a must have for portraits... I can't tell you how much I love it.  And it's affordable... for either the Nikon or the Canon the lens is less than $125.  A professional photographer recommended the 50mm f1.4 lens, which I imagine is way, way, WAY better, but it costs 3 times a much as this one, so I will wait a while to upgrade.   If you don't want or need to know how to do this, just skip the reading and scroll down to see the before and afters.



Brayden (before)



Brayden (after)

 So the first Photoshop tutorial I read came from this website/blog.   I can't remember how I first found this blog, but I love it.  She covers all kinds of fun and creative things... photography, photoshop, simple sewing, crafting, recipes, and she makes fonts out of real people's handwriting.  How cool is that?   The exact article can be found here.  Unfortunately for me, Amanda works in the full version of photoshop, so not all the commands are the same for PSE.   Amanda gets her "actions" from the Pioneer Woman Blog/Website.  I will admit, I've heard of Pioneer Woman, but never really visited her page.  Holy crap, have I been missing out! 



Ian (before)



Ian (after)

 Okay, so now you should click on over to the Pioneer Woman website following this link.  You'll find a page with lots of links on it depending on what type of operating system you have and what version of PSE you have.  I downloaded both sets of actions that work with my computer and then clicked on over to another article to get the instructions on how to install the "actions".   I watched the video tutorial on how to install the actions into PSE, followed the instructions, and it worked perfectly.


Megan (before)



Megan  (after)

Once you've installed the actions in PSE it's play time.  They should show up on the right side "effects" listing.  You can pull up your photo in the editing pane, create a duplicate layer, and click on the different actions to see what they do.  There is one for starting over, which takes your picture back to the original, and one to flatten the image so it can be saved as a jpeg. 

Okay, if you are still with me, this is the big one.   The edit that made me go "WOW"!   The worst part about it, is that I can't remember how I did it.  This is the first photo I played around with.  I was so in love with this pose of Taylor but the picture was so washed out and dull.  It was so disappointing.  So I felt like I had nothing to lose and starting layering action upon action upon action... and I started over a few times too... but in the end this is what I came up with.  I LOVE it.  I mean, I really, really LOVE it.


Taylor (before)




Taylor (after)

 So, there you have it.  Everything I know about PSE actions, (which really is very, very little).  Over the next few weeks I'll probably be scouring the internet looking for more websites with different actions I can download.  I know I've just scratched the surface with this stuff, but I'm itching for more!   The next time I can spend an hour on the computer together with my brother-in-law Matt, I plan to pick his brain like crazy... he's fresh out of Graphic Design school and will definately be a pro at this kind of stuff!  Watch out Matt!  ;-)