Quickie Action Share | Blogged Edges {freebies}

 made these quickly while I was *trying" to learn something. This was a fail for what I was attempting to do, but I thought...some CS4 users out there might like them. :) It's a set of 4 fast Blog Edge actions...it resizes and sharpens and adds a frame. Black, Brown, Khaki and Gray. I have a feeling these will only work in CS4. I used the Smart Sharpen as the sharpening filter and it hangs up in other versions for some reason. But it can't hurt to try.

The resize is to 775 pixels wide. But you can change that. Go into each action, and double click on the SECOND image size you see listed- double click. Now change the width to something that is perfectly suited to your own blog.

If the sharpening is too heavy- well change that too. Simply double click in the action where it says Smart Sharpen. Now adjust it to your taste. I use this on unsharpened images usually- so the sharpening might be too strong for others. It's a freebie, what can I say? :) (download at bottom)

DOWNLOAD HERE ---->   AMP Blog Edges

Color Pop Preset for Portraits for Lightroom and ACR! {freebies}

So here is a preset I made for Lightroom to help me in my workflow. I love it so much, I thought I'd share. It pops the color a little bit and is easy on the skin tones. This changes vibrance, saturation, HSL settings AND calibration. So be mindful where you use this if using other presets. If your other presets adjust any of these things- it could change these settings. This does not affect brightness, or exposure or anything. The samples below are on a sooc raw image and then ran completely untweaked to illustrate what it does exactly. It's subtle but it's solid. Hope you love it as much as I do!

LR Color Pop Portrait Preset

ACR Color Pop Portrait Preset

I heart Faces! {Texture Challenge} Week 4

Another challenge {week 4} at I heart Faces! This week's theme is texture.

So here is my entry! Using a Florabella B&W action AND one of her gorgeous textures. I couldn't bring myself to remove the scratch on my daughter's face (self-inflicted from a tantrum lol). I try to leave as much history as I can in my photos. Remains of the day, I guess. So I left it. This was a capture on her way for her very first haircut. :)

AMP Sepia Vintage Action for Photoshop and Elements! {Action Freebie}

Here is a little Sepia Vintage Action that I made for PS and PSE. Tested in CS4 and Elements 6. As always, a lot of layers..because I love to tweak. I am a control freak. I want to control it all. I encourage users of my actions to also TWEAK. Don't play and then flatten- blahhhh!

 The beauty of me keeping all these layers open for you, is so you can adjust the opacity of EACH layer to taste. Or turn them off entirely. Everything has a mask. Use those beautiful things! On a white mask, I like to take a soft black brush at 25-35% opacity on the haze layers (I do this on any action with haze layers) to add depth to focus...pull the viewers eyes back in. I swipe eyes, hair and clothes especially, sometimes two times at that opacity.

If the sepia is too strong at the default 40%, bumping it down to 20% sometimes is just the thing. I also find that I might like to lift some of the Sepia off the skin but nothing else. That's where my soft black brush at 30% opacity comes back in. Use that mask. I mask. A lot.

Also I find that when using 'play' actions (play, not workflow actions)...that you really should prep your image before applying a 'play' action into the mix. I try to get the colors where I want them, I do my eye pops, skin fixes...all that good stuff BEFORE I run a play action.

My actions are simple. I am not a Photoshop guru. Actually I have had Photoshop since September 2009. (yup less than 5 months) Before that I used Elements 6. I still use PSE6 as my tester for the Elements versions. I hope you enjoy my freebies from time to time, as I learn this very useful photography tool- Photoshop.

Now here's the good stuff!!

(remember my edited version WAS tweaked! i don't run and flatten- i tweak)

AMP Sepia Vintage for Photoshop

AMP Sepia Vintage for Elements

A little screen shot:

TIP: Too much color? Turn on the Bleach layer. Lower the layer's opacity if you want some more color back, or increase the opacity to remove more color. Use a soft black brush to paint back color in specific spots. OR hit CTRL + I and invert the white mask to a black one. Then use a soft WHITE brush to selectively remove color from specific areas of your image.

One more sample with how I did it:

I had the Sepia layer turned down to 20% here. Plus I masked it off her face at 35% one time. I had the Vanilla and White Haze layers turned on. Left opacity at default. But also used a soft black brush at 30% on of those layers on face, I swiped her eyes again to keep them from getting washed out. I had to bump the Midtone Lift layer quite a bit and also bumped up the Shadow layer quite a bit. I masked the Vignette layer completely off her face with a soft black brush at 100% opacity. And a few other tweaks here and there. I didn't realize until I was done tweaking, it looks a little Florabella-ish. hehe

Have fun!! See you again soon!

Next FREEBIE will be a Color Pop for Lightroom and ACR.

amybeth

Cocoa Bean B&W Raw Preset Freebie {Lightroom}

Lightroom Only! {see disclaimer below tho for you ACR users!)

Cocoa Bean B&W Raw Preset Freebie! I love sharing! And I love black and whites. Plain B&W or tinted...love it all. Here is a chocolate tinted one. Actually two. One is for images that are bright sooc (the one called Light) and one is for images that are darker sooc (called Dark). Why two? Speed. No other reason really.  I try one and if it's too dark right off the bat, I reset then start over and apply the other one. BUT you will STILL need to tweak these to your taste. Apply the one that looks most promising right off. Then tinker with Exposure sliders, the Tone Curve sliders...make it work for you!

If you liked this preset and use this preset, drop me a comment or even link me to your plays! Your appreciation means I will keep offering freebies. Next week, I will be offering a Portrait Color Pop preset for Lightroom AND ACR! So be sure to come back! And a week or so after that I plan to offer a fun vintage action with oodles of tints and hazes that come with it. Stay tuned and come back, y'all!

**Disclaimer: If I can get at least 7 posters requesting this Cocoa B&W preset for ACR, I will happily convert these to ACR Presets and share them with you. 7 people need to comment here first though. I need to know if people are interested in them before I take the time to offer them sometimes. <3

Show time!

 AMP Cocoa Bean B&W Preset

I reloaded these this morning (Wednesday 7:50am) as a zip file. They will work now. Yay!

Apricot Cream Action {Freebie}

I haven't posted in a while. I have been working on building my own Lightroom presets and Photoshop actions. And it's going very well! So in all my excitement, I thought I might share a couple Photoshop actions with you (not Elements friendly, I'm sorry). One is an action I made specifically for Facebook. Facebook has a tendency to strip color (I can't help that one) and make pictures soft. I made an action that is size specific to what Facebook sizes the images when you upload and then it sharpens and adds a mask so you can mask off whatever you want less sharp. The other is a soft color hazy action that I just LOVE. It's sooo pretty!

The images below were sized using my FB Resize&Sharpen II action. The one FB action that does not have a I or II after- is Photoshop 7 and under friendly. (not Elements either sorry) The other 2 should work in PS CS versions. I use FB Resize&Sharpen II action and I usually dial down the opacity of the II layer to about 40%.

Samples of my Apricot Cream action! <3

FB Resize&Sharpen

Apricot Cream (PS only)

Apricot Cream for Elements

**Tips for the Apricot Cream action: Don't like haze but love the gentle apricot color pop? Turn off the Cream layer. Don't need the Apricot color? Turn off Apricot layer and leave a light Cream haze on top. I also like to take my brush and mask off the hair from the Lighten layer. Just need a gentle color boost? Turn off the Soft Pop, Apricot and Cream layers. I made this action as adjustable as I possibly could. Just some tips.

Please do not sell any of these. But DO link others to my blog to grab their freebies. Thank you so much!

Oh and feel free to use them for commercial or personal use. Free is free! :D

amybeth

I started a 365 Blog, Y'all!

So I am going to try a 365 a la Amy-style. Making up my own rules. If you want to come by and check out my unfancy blog, with my unfancy pictures, of my unfancy everyday life....pop by! I'll still be posting here too!


http://life-right-now-moments.blogspot.com/


Just plain, ordinary snapshots of everyday life. Can you dig it? :D


Happy New Year, Friends!


Cheers to an amazing 2010!


amybeth