What are Photoshop Actions?

I have had many people ask me

"What are Photoshop Actions?"

Today I am going to tell you that they will

be your best friend when it comes to editing

your pictures.  Now, please remember,

I am not a professional photoshop action

user, however, I LOVE playing around 

with them & I am sure you will too.

Actions, or Plug-ins as they are sometimes

called, are basically a time saver (which we all need)

when you are editing your pictures.  Instead of editing

each picture and doing 10-20 different steps to each photo,

you click on one cute little button & watch your computer

do all the work. Then, all you need to do is play with 

the opacity and sliders to get the look you want.

You can make your pictures have a vintage look,

sepia, black & white, vibrant color, soft color-

anything your heart desires for the perfect photo.

To begin, you need to have some sort of 

photoshop software.  Either Photoshop Elements

of Adobe Photoshop work great.  And, by

the way- Photoshop Elements does 90% of what 

Photoshop does for a fraction of the price. If you are just

starting out- Photoshop Elements is the way to go. Please

read the use of each action before you purchase it or 

install it. Some are only meant for Photoshop, and not

Photoshop Elements, so read carefully!

You can go to either link to download a free trial version 

to practice with for a month. Anyway...

You will also need to know how to place the 

actions in your Photoshop program.  The best tutorial

I have found online is from Hummie's World.

Okay, so now here are some examples-

My cute little girl Morgan-

Do you notice how dark my first picture is- straight out of 

my camera?!  It really needed some help.  So I changed the 

lighting level a little bit, clicked on the Allure action from

Florabella and the computer did the rest- easy right- 2nd

picture.  Then, I decided I wanted it a little bit brighter

& warmer, & I wanted her eyes to stand out more, so I did

various different actions on top of each other to get the look

in the 3rd picture.  I love that the picture is clear, but

also gives her the soft & sweet look of my cute girl.

Now, some of my favorite actions are from Florabella and

Oh So Posh Photography's Actions, and Get Totally Rad,
 but these do cost a pretty little penny.
So, if you are just starting out, here are some great 

places to get AWESOME FREE photoshop actions

Coffee Shop Actions

so many fun ones to choose from

& you only have to download the ones 

you really want.

The Pioneer Woman

She has so much useful information

on her website!  I love her actions too.

MCP Actions

Check out these free actions & a free

texture applicator one too!  So cool!

With texture-

And, from

Photo Tuts, there are 

100 free actions- (only download

the ones you know you will use so your computer

doesn't run too slow)

and a tutorial on how to create your 

own actions in Photoshop.

I hope this helps you better understand 

what Photoshop Actions are, and makes

editing your pictures easy and fun.