Actions?

[Melissa6169]

What are "actions" as shown here ?

Would this be the same thing as "presets" in Lightroom?

On this particular website it says that their actions only work with Photoshop CS2 or later, and that you should have knowledge of "layer masks"?

Just curious

[thyme4me]

Hello Melissa. Let’s see if I can help you a little bit here. I have Totally Rad actions and I love them. These actions create an image to change in appearance. Are you familiar with actions at all or where they are located on PS? They are simple to install and very easy to use.
Layer Masks allow you to specify exactly what parts of a photo you want to change with a particular layer or group of layers. A layer mask is basically just a grayscale image that’s used to determine the strength of how the layer applies. Where a layer mask is light, the layer it’s attached to will show through. Where the layer mask is dark, the layer it’s attached to won’t show through.
If you have questions or would like to try a sample, by all means write to them requesting an action. They are very friendly and very accomodating. If you purchase their actions they will give you instructions how to download them, explain actions, using layer masks, adjusting opacity and give individual detail of what the action will do for you.
I do not have Lightroom but I think presets are very similar to actions. Have you tried Lightroom? There is a free trial you can download. There are also several sites that have free presets for you to try.
Maybe if you try both you can figure out which is best for you. Anymore questions feel free to give me a shout. HTH!

[katrinak]

Presets and actions are similar but you can't use them interchangeably. Presets work in Lightroom to alter your photo in some way while actions only work in the PS version they were designed for.

[sarahorton]

looks like your question was answered, but i just wanted to add that i have the totally rad actions too and they are well ... totally rad
love them!

[Melissa6169]

Kris - thanks so much for the detail, I'm gonna have to read up more on the layering masks, cause these actions are awesome. No, I'm not familiar at all with actions and it doesn't look like I can do that in PSE5 (I could be wrong). For Totally Rad. they said I'd have to have CS2 or later. I love the look it give the photos....it makes them pop. I love their action called "Oh Snap!".

Thank so much for getting back with me. Looks like I have some things to learn.

[Starlite9711]

This Video tutorial by Cassie should help with understanding actions, and creating your own actions. All of her tutorials are awesome!!!!
Video Tutorial

[Cassie Jones (1gr8muggle)]

Originally Posted by Starlite9711

This Video tutorial by Cassie should help with understanding actions, and creating your own actions. All of her tutorials are awesome!!!!
Video Tutorial

Bailey, you are so sweet to point out the tutorial. Unfortunately it's for PS only. You can't create custom actions in PSE. They really want to give people SOME excuse to buy CS3.

Hey Melissa!
I so want those totally rad actions, but I need CS3 first! Gotta save some $$! I use some PSE actions found at www. ezactions.com John, the maker, is way nice and helped me a ton in getting one of the actions to load correctly into PSE 5.0.

I also use virtual photographer which is free and can be found here: http://www.optikvervelabs.com/download.asp

I hope this helps!

[deanie]

Joey, my friend, I think I just got into a lot of financial trouble by going to ez actions web site. Which ones do you have and which are your favorites... ok, Lightroom, CS3, actions.....money....retirement....

[Starlite9711]

OOps...didn't notice you were using PSE. Well theres an excuse to get PS!!! Sorry for the confusion!!

Originally Posted by deanie

Joey, my friend, I think I just got into a lot of financial trouble by going to ez actions web site. Which ones do you have and which are your favorites... ok, Lightroom, CS3, actions.....money....retirement....

LOL! So sorry! I have a long expensive list too!

I have the focus select and I used it here:


I have the sunset color sketch, but I don't really like it. I need to play with it more.
I have the vivid color pro and like it a lot, but I have been doing this to my photos now instead:
duplicate layer, top layer turn to hard light at 38% opacity, flatten image, hue/sat master 15 (saturation), unsharp 89% w/ radius of 3 & threshold 2.

I find that a lot of the actions can be achieved with the free virtual photographer filters & increased PSE knowledge (I have SO much to learn!). I do, however, still want the acid wash action & maybe 1-2 of the b&w conversions as I am looking for some dramatic b&w looks.

I just buy the actions al a carte as that is what I can afford!
The actions are easy to install & if you need help, John is there to help with every step! I would love to hear what you end up getting and see how you used them!

[deanie]

I have been doing very much the same to my photos as well, sometimes I use soft light, and if they are too dark I may use a layer set to screen and adjust the opacity to where I like it. Been trying out some of the sharpening techniques in Scott Kelby's book and they are really cool if you need something special. I thought I'd buy just a few of these now and play around with them My son is a university professor so I can get CS3 quite cheap. Like the fact I could use any I buy on that software as well.

[hguenthe]

Actions was one of my main reasons for upgrading to CS3 along with the warp tool. They can save you a lot of repetitive steps which I find good for my aging memory which will forget steps.

Just a reminder for anyone thinking about upgrading.. if you purchase/purchased a Wacom tablet (Bamboo Fun & above), you get the advantage of Wacom Privileges which includes getting CS3 for 50% off. It is a privilege that you just enter your tablet information on Wacom's site and it takes you directly to Adobe's store with the discount applied. Very easy to do and still have the comfort of ordering through Adobe directly. Since I don't qualify for educational discounts, this saved me a bundle! .. a bundle to play with in my favorite store.. DD.

[deanie]

Joey, been playing around with virtual photographer this afternoon (still sick-not to creative) and been having a lot of fun. If lightroom is anything like this then I have to get my son to apply his discount on both CS3 and lightroom!

[katrinak]

I'm just going to chime in here with Lightroom and the multitude of free presets out there

[deanie]

Well, I'm going to spend almost a month with the kids in Seattle-maybe Lightroom should be the first investment, since I can use that with PSE. Have you felt any need to upgrade to CS3, Katrina?

[katrinak]

Originally Posted by deanie

Well, I'm going to spend almost a month with the kids in Seattle-maybe Lightroom should be the first investment, since I can use that with PSE. Have you felt any need to upgrade to CS3, Katrina?

I really want to upgrade...I'd like the ability to group layers, work with shadows, run actions, and more that I don't even know yet. I need to upgrade my computer, finish buying the house we've put an offer on, and move before I can consider it though

[Starlite9711]

totally off topic, but Good luck Katrina with the house buying! Stressful and exciting!!!

[deanie]

Saw you make a reference to buying an old house-will you have to do much to it, what style is it...after living in a charming historic town, in an old house for 25 years, I am now plopped down in suburbia and really miss everything that goes along with historic preservation.

[bluelemur01]

An action is a pre-recorded set of things that Photoshop will automatically do to your pictures if you run the action. It's like a macro.

For example, let's say that to make your photos look "awesome" ,you have to do 10 different things to it in a specific order, and it can get tiresome to keep clicking the same old mouse commands to each photo. So the action simplifies things by automatically doing ALL of those things for you automatically when you open the photo, select the action, and run it.

A layer mask is really cool. Sometimes you want to change only parts of your image. One common example is if you want a person's skin to look very soft and delicate, but you want the eyes to look sharp and bright. You would make two copies of the image, and layer one on top of the other. You'd make the top one really soft and the bottom one really sharp.

Then you'd add a layer mask to the top one. You could then erase parts of the upper image and reveal the sharper one below. So you could erase the eyes on the soft upper image and reveal the sharpened eyes on the lower image, and you'd have the soft skin with bright sharp eyes.

The layer mask allows you to erase and also to un-erase wherever and whenever you want on the image. So if you erase TOO much around the eyes, you can go back and un-erase by changing your brush tool.

If you just layer the images without a layer mask, you can certainly erase the top one, but then you can't un-erase as easily.

good luck!
Jennifer

Originally Posted by deanie

Joey, been playing around with virtual photographer this afternoon (still sick-not to creative) and been having a lot of fun. If lightroom is anything like this then I have to get my son to apply his discount on both CS3 and lightroom!

I hope you get to feeling better soon! I love virtual photographer! You can control the filter a bit with the sliders too.

CS# & Lightroom are on my looooooong wish list!

Get well soon!

[cedarhil]

I love Mia Bella actions ( she offers for elements too) by Leah Profancik. I also use her textures which are awesome. I think what ever you do, just get used to using them and know how to adjust them to your own taste. I have lightroom too but go to my actions because I am used to them and find it faster.

[Britgirl]

forgive me if its been mentioned, but I have photo blast actions -with my elements 4. and they really really rock. I LOVE the fact you can tweak them to your own preferences too. they arent free but they arent scary money either. you can buy bundles or each one individually.

[cedarhil]

Melanie your photos are always so natural too. Thanks for sharing

I need to check these other actions out!

I would love for Cassie to make/sell some actions (for PSE) here at DD. Hint! Hint!