Have you seen the new Radlab Photoshop/PSE plug-in?

[vfleslie]

Learning how to use actions has been on my to-do list for a while. I'm in PSE 8, with no intention of moving to full Photoshop. I don't plan to spend hours tweaking photos (just so you know where I am coming from).

Last year I saw that the Totally Rad site had a sale during the Black Friday time frame. I am waiting and watching to see if they have one this year.

I'd planned on purchasing Totally Rad Actions 1, but now I think I will get Radlab instead. All the reviews are good. It was released within the past month.

What do you all more experienced scrappers think?

Leslie

[JALong]

I wish I knew more about it. I am anxious to hear what everybody has to say!

[rsdtmd]

I don't know anything about it but it looks really cool. I like how you can preview all of the actions before applying one, that alone would save a ton of time. Way too pricey for me, so I'll stick for the free actions for now.

[maureenreynolds]

It looks great but I agree, I'm more of a "free" type of woman or at least under $5. especially now that I know I can put my own favorite actions down in a PSE folder under layers. But this thread has reminded me to use some of my textures so thanks for asking!

[vfleslie]

Tiffany Tillman just posted a 15% off coupon code good through September 29 on her blog. If this is not cool to post (mentioning a non-DD blog), let me know and I'll take this down.

I think I'm going for it. Every review I've found has been good. I have to wait for payday so it will be close to the end of the sale.

Leslie

[Nancy Beck]

I'm embarrassed to say that I haven't downloaded any actions yet. I've looked a couple of times when various ones have been mentioned on others page details, but I wondered how difficult they were to install? I had a heck of time installing Katie's drop shadow styles. I use PSE and am not very technically savvy. It's amazing that I ever got interested in digital scrapbooking.

[beatricemi]

I have seen these and they look awesome! Agree about the price tag though-probably will need to wait!

[maureenreynolds]

Ok Leslie. We'll now expect a report back from you after you use them. ok?

Nancy some of what makes me hesitate besides price is the ease of installation. Some are a snap but you never know that til you buy them, do you!

[anke]

I'm too cheap to spend that kind of money myself but I did like the way they look. I have heard people mention them a lot!

[snard]

There are so many free actions out there at "Coffeeshop" "MCP" etc that I can't justify spending the money.

[esther_a]

... and Pioneer Woman's actions. I can't justify the money either.

[cedarhil]

I have them , and I honestly think my free presets in lightroom are much better.

[esther_a]

I just found "Polaroid GENERATOR V2" and "Instagram Filters as Photoshop Actions"!! Many hours of freebie fun to be had here!!
I also prefer to use LightRoom. Every photo is different and even though the photoshop action creates amazing effects on particular photos I can never seem to replicate it on others. I prefer LightRoom because I can run a preset (same idea as an action) but then have better control over tweaking it to achieve what I want with the lightroom controls.

[vfleslie]

but Lightroom costs $$$ too, right? I have ACDSee.

I am kind of confused. Actually, what I most want to do is make everything look like it came out of "National Geographic" . You know...... salvage the indoor pictures taken with the point and shoot. I don't want to spend a lot of time doing it every time either. I am organized and can figure out almost anything but I don't want to spend a lot of time tweaking every single photo. Too many other obligations and interests . The "artsy" effects might be nice but I won't know if I'll use them until I have them, kwim?

I have time to decide. Thanks for the input.

Leslie

P.S. I haven't spent much on digital supplies this year because this is the year I am upgrading ny equipment and skills:
my camera to a DSLR (Canon T3i kit with zoom lens)
Design Principles thru Masterful Scrapbook Design (which has helped me a lot)

I'm comfortable with spending a little $$ on making my photos look better if it will save me in the long run time-wise. If free can be fast once I get it down, then that's good. I have such a backlog that I don't want to spend a lot of time doing it (once I learn how to do what I want)

[esther_a]

Well, LightRoom is designed to work with RAW files, so it's probably not going to help much with underexposed P&S images. I think the best way to edit older photos is just with photoshop auto-tone, auto-contrast, auto-color and your own manual adjustment layers playing with levels or adding a copy of the photo in a new layer with blending modes like screen (to lighten) or soft-light (to add contrast). Sometimes the photos will just be better converted to b&w.

[anxela]

If you shoot in Raw, then Lightroom is the way to go (though you can do much in Adobe Camera Raw too...)

[Elena]

I don't shoot RAW, just JPG, but I love using Lightroom to fix my photos and add effects and there are lots of freebies out there for that

[maureenreynolds]

Leslie, I wonder if you're not asking too much from your old p&s pictures? I speak as one who 'downgraded' to her iPhone4 camera -no mor p&s for me. My photos will never be like the ones taken with a dslr, but that's ok with me. Once you have your new camera, I think you'll probably see a world of difference.

I can't find a gallery for you so I can't see what you've been doing so far or what editing program you're using, CS, PSE, etc. For me in PSE, I haven't found that I can batch edit a group of shots taken at different times in different lights. Most of mine are one photo, one edit. I'm not sure if yours are the same way.

While I don't have Lightroom, I am going to try the free download I have from my PSE9 purchase mainly for the cataloging capabilities. I would suggest trying a free download and then see if LR might be the way to go esp with the new camera? hth somewhat. Just my ideas so ymmv.

[vfleslie]

Thanks a lot everyone! I think I am going to go with Lightroom instead. I had ignored all the Lightroom talk before (mostly heard about it on the Paperclipping Roundtable and The Digi Show podcasts), figuring with PSE, ACDSee and FotoFusion, I didn't need *another* program. But it looks as though I just might! I can get the educational discount which brings it down to about $90. I think I'll start there. LR looks fast and all the reviews say the learning curve is easy.

Thank you very much for your advice, Leslie

(no, I don't have a gallery posted. I use a hodgepode of digital supplies, since I dabbled in digital scrapping for a couple of years before finding DD) Plus, I'm slow. And I'm backlogged!