Using Actions in Photoshop

This morning I snapped a few photos of the girls right after I woke up.

I don’t know where I got the motivation, b/c in the morning I’m a SLUG.

Anyway, I decided to make the splurge and purchase some Photoshop actions to use for photo editing. I’ve been wanting to for awhile, to make editing so much easier, but I couldn’t really validate spending the money. Maybe if I was working as a photographer again I could.

Then I thought, well hell, the pictures of our babies are priceless. I want to capture the moments and I want them to be beautiful. And sometimes the picture that I take just doesn’t translate from real life to digital photo. The actions help me bring that natural real life look back.

For example, just check out this photo of Summer. Her eyes are a really pretty blue and in the orignal photo, they are so dull.

Before (top), After (bottom)

normally it would take me forever fiddling around with different settings, and working with a million different layers, to get a look that isn’t even close to the after in this set.

Here is another photo of both girls (man is it HARD to get them both in frame and looking at the camera.)

I added a bokeh overlay to the last image…

There is more work to be done, but I love how it came out after just a few clicks of the mouse.

(actions by Paint The Moon Photography – I used the Essentials and Miracle Makeover actions on this photo)

I bought the actions in a bulk package and saved a few bucks.

If you like to edit photos before printing or posting I highly recommend finding some good actions to help you out. The time you save more than pays for itself after a few uses