Ok its Linz here again, and i have to say that i didnt think that i would ever do a theory blog. I mean i know almost zilch about cs3 which is the program i am using!! But I have been having a great time playing with actions and I thought it might be fun to share with you.. Now if you are using elements, this is not very useful (sorry) although there are a few actions which can be run in elements, i am just not sure of the wheres and hows.

I am having some internet issues at the moment. So, after I got it uploaded i discovered that I had made my pictures too wide, but there is no way i can manage to take them down resize them and upload them again… not without it taking hours. We continually use up all our downloads so we end up with slow internet… so, please bear with me.

So what is an action? Actions are a recorded series of commands. (i read that on another site but it sounds good right?). But the idea of an action is that it can create a specific effect. Now that effect may be as simple as turning your colour photo into black and white, or as complex as making a ribbon and bow out of a digital paper. Now i am a great google girl, so go do some searches on free photoshop actions and see what u get. At the bottom is a link to a site that I found really useful with lots of free actions.

I have a collection of very old photos taken from the early days of digital cameras. I think it was a 1mp camera, may have been 1.5. But these days the photo quality is shocking. But sometimes the solution for a noisy photo… is to add more noise! The reality is that photos of that resolution are not going to sharpen up nicely so i have to find creative ways to make them useful. Here is a series of experiments with different actions.

I know we all have photos that are special for one reason or another that are hard to use because of the photo quality. Mike’s sister sent me some of his old family photos and I was trying to create an album for his daughter Sarah. The trouble was i didnt have many pictures of her. I found this one, but didnt think my photoshop skills were up to it.

So I tried something completely different… I used the Toy Camera Action which adds lots of noise and a sepia effect… and. not perfect but pretty ok.

and following on from that success made this page

So how do you use an action. First of all go and have a good look at what’s available. download a few different ones. There are some fantastic fill flash actions, Actions to darken/brighten photos. You can create a high key effect. The velvia actions are wonderful for landscapes as they are designed to mimic the effect of velvia film which is apparently very rich in colour. Always remember to work with a duplicate of your photo then you have nothing to lose. Save your actions into a directory.. doesnt matter where, but i keep mine with my scrapbooking. Now when you open photoshop, under windows , is actions or alt+F9. this will open up the actions menu, now bring up the drop down menu and go load actions. Then just head for the directory where you stored them. click on the one you want to try and it will open. Now you have to make it play. It took me a bit of fiddling to get this bit, but essentially you have to click on the arrow so that it opens up, scroll down to the next line and push play. Away it will go…. Some of them ask you for adjustments, some dont. You can always experiment. Sometimes if I think the action is a bit too bright.. or just too much. i will flatten that image, place it over the original and then use the opacity slider to adjust it until I am happy.

I have put in a link for a website which has lots of actions. You can click on most of them and see before and after shots which is quite handy.

http://www.atncentral.com/download.htm

I have really only talked about photo actions here. But there are lots more actions available for scrapping. I have one that makes a ribbon and bow out of a piece of paper, another that creates a torn folded edge. I even have an action that will resize your layout ready for putting on the net. Most actions are free or inexpensive and best of all… they are fun!!