Thread: Actions

Hey ladies, I was just curious what all your thoughts were on using actions on your photos. Do you just make your own or do you download any? Any favorite places to find some good ones?

Up until last night I had never used any...but I found a whole whack of pretty cool free ones and was just playing around a bit with. I feel like a whole new world has opened up to me! LOL

But, a part of me kinda feels like its "cheating" or something. Like, using other peoples actions it making the art/photos I'm taking less of my own? Ya know what I mean? On the other hand, I really suck at PPing, so having actions available to use is great. I don't know, just curious as to what you ladies think!!

I have used actions before. I don't use them often, but I have a few that I really like.

One of the nice things about actions (aside from the speed they get stuff done), is that you can use them to learn how to PP your photos. Many actions will save each step in a different layer. And those you can tweak to your liking and learn how different adjustments affect your overall image.

That's my $0.02 worth.

Best,
GiGi

I use actions, but only because I'm not too familiar with Photoshop yet, so I don't know how to properly PP my images without them. Unfortunately, PS classes are really spendy, so I can't afford to take one just yet. I do always take a stab at PP my images without actions first, and those that I do use, I try to use them minimally.

The free actions on these two sites are my faves.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/photography/

http://www.thecoffeeshopblog.com/

I recorded my own action to help speed up my workflow...otherwise, I don't really use actions, other than a black and white one here or there if I can't seem to get the right contrast I'm looking for. After awhile, I noticed that actions were making my pictures look muddy and dull...

I've recorded some of my own actions that use and tweek religiously in my images. I have some free B&W ones and use them for the same reasons Lisa mentioned above. I also have some purchased actions from PurePhotoshop Actions that i love and have found helpful in my processing. I do try though to achieve the look i want myself first before going to some of the actions i have. HTH

I do most of my processing without using actions, but after I've finished a clean edit, I often run a lilly blue action and then tone it down quite a bit. Sometimes I feel it takes away from the image. I have a ton of actions, but I prefer not to use them most of the time. Actually, I use coffeshops web rounded corners quite a bit, and mcp's free burnt edges, things like that.