3-Minute Makeovers

eZine image: 

As a professional photographer and mother of three, I snap thousands of photos every month, and I want those photos to look great, whether they end up on a wall or in a scrapbook. The first step to a great photo is capturing a meaningful moment, and my new eBook, 40 Top Tips for Better Photos,

shows you how to make that moment look even better by paying attention to lighting, background, and perspective.

The second step to a great photo is post-processing. Of course, if you’re like me, you don’t have hours to spend playing around in a photo-editing program, so I’ll let you in on a little secret: I never spend more than 3 minutes adjusting a single digital photo. How do I do it? I use shortcuts called Photoshop actions to perform routine edits. (An “action” is a series of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements commands that have been grouped together, so you can perform the entire set of steps with one click of a button.)

To play around with the actions that come pre-installed in Photoshop, go to Window > Actions. If you buy or download new actions (files ending in .atn), installation is super easy. Click here to learn how to do it on a PC; on a Mac, simply drag the .atn files on top of your Photoshop icon, and they'll load into the appropriate menu.

Now that you know a bit more about what actions are, here are a few examples of what actions can do for you!

Make the Colors Pop

Even a well-exposed photo can benefit from a simple color boost that lightens shadows, improves contrast, and increases saturation to produce a brighter, more vibrant photo. You can find dozens of color-boosting actions on the Internet, but here are two that I recommend.

1. Maggie Holmes’s Color Action Set is easy to use and extremely versatile.

It includes four actions that produce increasingly vibrant results—from subtle to striking—so there’s something for everyone. These actions are available for Photoshop and some versions of Photoshop Elements; check out Maggie’s blog for more details.

	Photo specs: 50mm 1.8 lens, ISO 500, shutter speed 1/2000, aperture f/2.0
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Beginner Tip: If you're a Photoshop newbie, make sure you save your file as a copy, so you can keep the original intact. Then pick up Renee Pearson's eBook (advertised at the bottom of this page), to learn some helpful tricks for working with Photshop Elements 7.

Advanced Tip: If you already know your way around Photoshop, I recommend running these actions on a duplicate Layer so you can adjust the opacity, if needed, before you flatten your image.

2. Brenda Acuncius’s Color Boost Action is a one-size-fits-all solution.

It runs in phases, asking you to make opacity adjustments along the way before it automatically flattens your image and moves on to the next phase. Depending on what you do at each phase, you can achieve an infinite number of results. This action is a great choice for advanced Photoshop users. Learn more on Brenda’s website.

	Photo specs: 50mm 1.8 lens, ISO 500, shutter speed 1/1600, aperture f/2.5
Click image for larger view

Apply a Special Effect

Some photos call for special treatment, and there are hundreds of Photoshop actions that can help you get the job done. Try a vintage wash, an antique treatment, or an urban color tint. Play with opacity, or try applying multiple actions to a single photo. Just have fun, and experiment until you’re happy with the results. I created these samples using two of Brenda’s special-effect actions. You can see more samples on my blog.

	Photo specs: 50mm 1.4 lens, ISO 250, shutter speed 1/640, aperture f/3.2
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Create a Custom Action

Sometimes a color boost or special effect is just too much. For these situations, I use the curves tool to achieve a very subtle color enhancement. To do this, go to Image > Adjustments > Curves. In the Curves window, you’ll see a diagonal line across a grid. To brighten your photo, grab the upper-right section of the line and pull up slightly. Then add some contrast by pulling the bottom-left corner directly to the right. (See the screen shot below for an example.)

	Photo specs: 50mm 1.8 lens, ISO 250, shutter speed 1/1250, aperture f/2.0
Click image for larger view

	Screenshot This shows the Curves tool in action. It may look slightly different if you have Photoshop Elements.
Click image for larger view

Advanced Tip: I’ve even turned this slight curves adjustment into a custom action. Because it’s just one step, it’s perfect for batch editing everyday photos that I’m planning to scrapbook. To create your own custom action in Photoshop, follow these simple directions:

Voila! You have a custom-made action that you can apply to future photos.

Note: Many thanks to Rachel Gainer, who assisted greatly with this story, particularly with the descriptions of how things work.

Need More Editing Tips?

If some of the tips in this article, such as “run your actions on a duplicate Layer,” made no sense whatsoever to you, then you need Simple Special Effects for Digital Photos: 10 easy tutorials in Photoshop Elements 7 by Renee Pearson. This beginner-oriented eBook will walk you through 10 basic photo tricks, such as rounding the edges of a photo and selectively colorizing an image, and it will also open your eyes to how powerful and versatile Photoshop Elements can be.