Coincidentally, I found this through Flickr's forum and checked out there. Yes, this is very, very, very great to learn how to create actions because this owner made many tutorials about that. You can check out there whatever you want to know and then you will learn step by step. Me, too, still learn more and more. There are so many great tutorials, installing actions, template-Paper-Patterns, etc.
Cretead by Rita, Owner of CoffeeshopBARISTA ACTION FOR PS AND PSE1. Open the image you wish to process.
2. File then Duplicate (opens a copy of your file to work on so your original does not get altered, great to see Before/After)
3. LEVELS: Add a Levels Adjustment layer. Use your black eyedropper to click on something black to remove any color cast. You can also click on something white with the white eye dropper. If your photo looks worse, then reset and click somewhere else until you get the look you want. Then adjust Level's sliders to taste. I usually move the midpoint over to the left a bit to lighten the midtones.
4. DODGE/BURN: Add a new blank Layer above Levels and call it Dodge/Burn. Fill it with 50% gray and put the blending mode in Overlay or Softlight. Type B to get your brush tool and use a low opacity (10% or so) soft brush and paint over anything you want lightened. I usually paint over skin and eyes to brighten them a bit. Then, using a low opacity soft black brush, paint over anything you want darkened. I usually darken the background some, or you can use this method to paint a vignette around the edges of your photo. Increase the opacity to 25% or so if you are
doing a vignette. If you completely mess up, then just Edit then Fill Layer then 50% gray and it returns your layer back to the original setting, and repaint.
5. CONTRAST: Select Background, Ctrl-J to make a copy. Change the blending mode to Soft Light and move the opacity down to 25%.
6. SHARPEN: Select Background, Ctrl-J to make a copy. Run the Unsharp Mask over this layer to sharpen your image. I usually start with Amount 125%, Radius 1, Threshold 3. Put the blending mode into Luminosity. Adjust opacity as needed.
7. Color Saturation: Select the Dodge/Burn layer and add a new Hue/Saturation layer above it. Put the Saturation setting on 20 and change the blending mode to Color, Opacity 20%.
8. B&W/Muted Color: Now add a Gradient Map Adjustment layer on top. Make sure it is set to Black, foreground to transparent. This is a great way to turn your photo B&W. Now adjust the opacity of this layer to 0% to keep your photo color, 100% for B&W, or anywhere in between for muted colors. You can also make a B&W image with “colorized” parts. Just adjust the opacity to 100% (so your photo is B&W) and use a soft black brush (opacity of choice depending on how vivid you want the colored parts to be) and paint over anything you want in color.
9. Now you can adjust all of your layers to taste. The opacity's I gave you are just a starting point so don’t be afraid to change them.
10. Flatten your image and save! Rerun the action on this image once again to get a really vivid photo.
If you want to install
BARISTA ACTION FOR PS AND PSE, you can check out blog of coffeeshop.
Enjoy experimenting with actions !!
Labels: Actions, Adobe Photoshop tutorial, Photography
