Enhance Your Photos With Photoshop Actions

I snapped this photo of Georgie out in the snow this past weekend.

This is the unedited SOOC (straight out of camera) image. I wanted to use it as an example today in a brief tutorial on using Photoshop Actions to enhance your photos.

I was very new to photography when I first started blogging. Luckily, I had a copy of Photoshop that I used for my job. But my Photoshop knowledge was limited to resizing and basic editing for yearbook printing.

But then, I made a discovery that saved me from the certain doom of Photoshop ineptness.

ACTIONS!

No, not like Lights, Camera, Action — Photoshop Actions. Basically, actions are pre-made sets of edits that you can run on your photos and then adjust to your liking.

They are super-easy to use and there are many free Actions that you can download online.

Here are some of my favorites:

You can also check out the I Heart Faces freebie page for more free downloads.

Ok, so once you have your Actions installed, how do you use them?The following tutorial is for the full version of Photoshop. The look and location of items may change, depending on the version of Photoshop you use. I’m using CS4 for Macintosh.

It’s easy, really. First, you need to open the Actions Pallet in Photoshop. To do this, go to Window –> Actions.The default view for the Actions Pallet looks like this:

 

You probably have some Default Actions that came with your version of Photoshop. The actions you downloaded should then be listed.

My Pioneer Woman actions are shown first.

Step 1: Click on the Action you want to run.

Step 2: Press the Play button.

Step 3: Follow the instructions on any prompts that come up.

Step 4: Change the opacity of each layer to change the way the photo looks.

See how just changing the opacity of the Soft Light layer brightens up this photo?

You can run multiple actions on a photo to enhance it further.

Taaaaa Daaaaa!

But wait — there’s MORE! The Button Mode makes it EVEN EASIER to use actions!

Here’s how to set it up:

Click the flyout menu in the Actions Pallet — this menu is where you can find all the options. Click on Button Mode to enable it.

Now, your actions are all shiny buttons! All you have to do is click on one to run it!

Follow the same steps to edit the photo.

Once you’re finished, you may need to click on the action again to end it. If the button is red, you need to click it to stop the action.

And here’s the final, edited photo of Georgie in the Snow:

I used the Pioneer Woman’s Fresh and Colorful action to enhance the color and warm up the photo.

I run Fresh and Colorful on practically every photo I post on this site.

Do you use Photoshop Actions? What are some of your favorites?