Pioneer Woman Photography Rocks!

My friend Cathy sent me THIS LINK because she thought I would be interested in the free photoshop actions.

I downloaded the free photoshop actions immediately began trying the actions on a portrait photoshoot I had been working on. I was sooooo impressed with the results!

I'm so thrilled with how much time some of these specific actions saved me on my work flow for this photoshoot.

I have tons of actions but sometimes there are so many that it gets overwhelming. This set is just what you need for that quick pop, boost, sharpen, color enhance, and also has a couple great B&W and vintage actions! Download them - I promise you that you will love them!

***Also, see this earlier blog post where I list more FREE PHOTOSHOP ACTIONS!

Here’s a very brief/quick rundown of the actions in this set:

1. Fresh and Colorful: Clean & crisp; works great for shots with skies and color. It has a dialogue box that pops up, so just follow the directions and go. Contains some
sharpening, so be careful about sharpening after the fact.

2. Lovely and Ethereal: Just like the name: soft, with a slight boost of color/contrast, and pleasing. Very nice for faces.

3. B&W Beauty: A nice, straightforward
black & white conversion. Fine on its own, or combined with other actions (”Boost”, for example).

4. PW’s B & W: A black & white with a little more contrast, with some burned edges at the end. Play with the “Light” layer at
the end to get the photo to the correct brightness.

5. Soft and Faded: Mellow, slightly desaturated, effect. Takes some playing around, but on the right photo it can be really nice.

6. Vintage: Old-time, weathered, aged look. It makes a pretty strong statement, so it’s usually not right for everyday snapshots. But used on the right photo, this action can be really dramatic. Also great at decreased opacity.

7. Boost: This is an awesome “pop” for just about any photo. Adds a “boost” in contrast and color, without overpowering the image. I run “Boost” after running many of the other actions in this set and I’m almost always pleased with the final result.

8. Define and Sharpen: Just like the name. Adds crispness and definition.

9. Flatten: I threw in this everyday “revert” tool to make it easy for you.

10. Slight Lighten: If the image is just a little too dark, I’ll run this at the end and it gives it just the brightness it needs.

11. Slight Sharpen: A mild unsharp mask action. Can be used twice in a row if needed.

12. Quick Edge Burn: Doug’s awesome burned-edge effect. NOTE: In many cases, the image needs to be flattened before running Quick Edge Burn or the action won’t work. So do all your other edits and save this for the end. Also, Quick Edge Burn works best when you adjust its opacity and allow the burning to fade into the woodwork a little.

13. Start All Over! Perfect for an indecisive middle child like myself who likes to try
lots of different actions on one photo. Let’s hear it for no consequences–woo
hoo!

Free Photoshop Actions

Free Photoshop Actions shared on my forum....thought I'd share them with you all:

http://www.addictedtodesign.com/free_photoshop_actions.html

Fantastic Free Actions here from Pioneer Woman Photography

http://thepioneerwoman.com/photography/2008/04/actions/


Also a free Lara Jade Action:

http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/exchange/index.cfm?event=extensionDetail&loc=en_us&extid=1374522#

and tons of actions here:
http://www.atncentral.com/

And Childish David's free Actions & Presets are posted here:
http://www.lightonkids.com/actions/free.html

Photoshop Support Free Actions
http://www.photoshopsupport.com/tools/actions.html

More to add (5/20/08)

40+ Photoshop Actions

http://www.photoshoproadmap.com/Photoshop-blog/2008/05/13/40-special-effects-photoshop-actions/

http://finessefx.com/actions.php



(I'll come back to this post from time to time as I find more free ones!)

How to Install Photoshop Plugins and Actions

If you'd like a great little free plug-in I was just reminded that a great one is OptikVerve Lab's VIRTUAL PHOTOGRAPHER:

http://www.optikvervelabs.com/default.asp

How to load Photoshop PLUGINS:

Say you download "Virtual photographer" above:

*Once you download the file it asks you where you want to save it
*You'll be saving it inside your Photoshop program files (mostly likely in your C Drive)
*Go to: C Program files ---- Adobe---- Adobe Photoshop (whatever your version is) ---- find the PLUG IN folder and save the plug in there.
*The next time you launch Photoshop you will see the plug in under your filter menu at the bottom.

To use them you open a photo first and then go to FILTER and find the plug in you'd like to try and click on it.

A plug in is like an extra program added to your Photoshop.
Some programs are stand alone and some are used within photoshop.

There are many free Photoshop PLUGINS so google it and soon you'll be in Plug-in heaven!

How to load Photoshop ACTIONS:

If you want to something like www.atncentral.com to download some actions you would do the same process as above with a slight variation:

*Once you download the file it asks you where you want to save the *.atn file.
*You'll be saving it inside your Photoshop program files (mostly likely in your C Drive)
*Go to: C Program files ---- Adobe---- Adobe Photoshop (whatever your version is) ---- find the PRESETS folder ---then inside there find the ACTIONS folder. All actions get saved there.

Once you place the actions in that folder you have to load them into your actions palette:

Open Photoshop and click on WINDOW and then make sure ACTIONS is checked off. If not click on it.
The actions palette is open now and there a couple ways to load the actions:

Depending upon your Photoshop verision there should be a tiny arrow that you click on and find "load actions" - this will take you to your drives menu... find the actions folder with the instructions above and click on the action that you want to load and repeat the process until you have them all.

Another way to load them that I find super easy is to open your actions palette like I mentioned above and make sure you photoshop window is not maximized all the way...

*Go to your My Computer on your desktop, navigate until you get all the way until you get to your actions folder on your harddrive and open it up. You will have that window and Photoshop open next to each other.
*Drag the actions you downloaded from your ACTIONS folder and drop them right into your ACTIONS palette in photoshop and Viola! they are there!

To use them you open a photo open a photo first and then find the ACTION you'd like to try in your actions palette and single click on the action. Then go to the bottom of the actions palette and look for the symbol that looks like an arrow pointing to the right (looks like a play button) and click on it. And Viola! all of the pre-recorded steps of the action will be carried out.

You can make your own actions too - to carry out repetitive steps that you might constantly used on your photos.

There are soooo many free Photoshop actions out there - but start with www.atncentral.com - they have samples to show you what each action does.


Check out the following 2 sites

Lists of other free goodies:

http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pluginsfiltersfree/Free_Filters_and_Plugins_for_Windows_and_Macintosh.htm

http://www.brownbaron.com/blog/2007/09/12/720-free-photoshop-plugins-and-filters/

Other directions on how to download actions and plugins:

http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/photoshop/qt/installcontent.htm