COLOR TWEAKS
WORKFLOW BASICS
BLACK & WHITES
PORTRAIT RETOUCHING
Like stepping into a lucid dream awash in glowing color and radiant light. Technicolor Dream World is bold, bright, and lush. It’s a perfect autumn afternoon, as the sun flickers through the trees. It creates rich saturation and a dreamy glow.
Includes 2 actions – one has a modified glow effect (TDW No-Glow)
Learn how to remove the glow effect completely in This Video.
See user-submitted recipes using Technicolor Dream World in our Recipes section.
Subtlety and softness. Prettyizer gives just a gentle kiss of color boost and softness to images. You barely notice the effect, but it’s still there whispering to you… something undefinable and fleeting that adds a bit of romance to any photo.
You can remove the glow effect by following along with This Video Tutorial.
See user-submitted recipes using Prettyizer in our Recipes section.
It’s the warm glow of morning sun. It’s poppies and daisies in a storybook meadow. Super Fun Happy is relentlessly upbeat, and doesn’t have time for negative thinking.
2 photoshop actions – Super Fun Happy also includes a variant with a modified glow (“Super Fun Happy No-Glow”)
See user-submitted images using Super Fun Happy in our Recipes section.
Don’t like the glow? Learn how to remove it in this video tutorial.
“I’m gonna break my rusty cage and run.”
Rusty Cage is warm, soft, muted, and somber. A slow descent into melancholy. Memories of things past. It’s sunset on a sweltering autumn night. Whiskey and cigars and trophy bucks. A smoke-stained 18th-century landscape painting hanging above the mantle.
You can modify Rusty Cage’s glow by following along with this video.
See user-submitted recipes using Rusty Cage in our Recipes section.
Cold steel and weathered chrome. Derelicte is a well-worn piece of machinery. Hard, smooth, and unyielding.
See user-submitted examples using Derelicte in our Photoshop Recipes section.
The photo equivalent of shredded denim and a safety pin through your eyebrow. Retro grit and wacky color. Tones are shifted and twisted to create an extreme effect that’s anything but ordinary.
See user-submitted photos processed with Pross-Crossessed in our Recipes section.
The photo equivalent of shredded denim and a safety pin through your eyebrow. Retro grit and wacky color. Tones are shifted and twisted to create an extreme effect that’s anything but ordinary.
See user-submitted photos processed with Pross-Crossessed in our Recipes section.
We can’t cover your camera in leather, or make it sing that sweet motorized sound as it ejects another instant print, but this action CAN give you all the creamy, muted goodness of the legendary film from Polaroid. It’s also cheaper and more environmentally friendly!
See user-submitted images that use SX-70 in the Recipes section.
Ah, the open skies! Rolling clouds and an infinity of azure. Big Blue will deepen and dramatize skies, making your blues bluer and your whites whiter.
See user-submitted images using Big Blue at our Recipes section.
See Big Blue in action in this video tutorial.
Big Blue uses layer masks – learn how to use the Totally Rad Actions with layer masks in this article.
Your images explode with color and life. Landscapes radiate bold, bright tones as if they’ve just been washed by a springtime rain. It’s two steps to a vacation postcard. Your friends will be Green With Envy.
See user-submitted examples using Green With Envy in our Recipes section.
Check out Green With Envy in action in this video tutorial.
Green With Envy uses layer masks – learn how to use the Totally Rad Actions with layer masks in this article.
Your images are out of balance. Light and dark clash and destroy the harmony you seek. Yin / Yang will help you restore that balance. Quickly lighten and darken select areas in your images to add drama and shape the light. Fill the shadows and tame the highlights. Yin / Yang is your mantra and your tool.
See the power of Yin / Yang in this video tutorial.
Yin / Yang uses layer masks, but never fear – this article explains it all.
See user-submitted examples using Yin / Yang at the Recipes section.
Good Vs Evil is a TRA1 Photoshop Action that operates very similarly (with subtly different effects on the highlights and shadows).
Every photo could use a little help, and Oh, Snap! can help nearly every photo. A subtle boost of contrast, sharpness, and saturation will give any image that extra bit of snap to make it stand out. You’ll use it so often that you’ll wonder how you ever got along without it.
See user-submitted examples with Oh, Snap! in the Recipes section.
Combine a quick edge blur with a customizable vignette to help give your images a definite focal point.
Vignette & Blur includes 3 actions with 3 different edge blur methods (Fast, Standard, HQ), each with a different tradeoff between quality and speed.
Check out user-submitted recipes using Vignette & Blur in the Totally Rad Recipes section.
Sometimes the best solutions are the simplest ones. +Contrast gives images a quick boost, giving them that little extra “ooomph!” that they sometimes need. It’s an easy one-click enhancement.
+ Contrast is two actions with two flavors – one normal (as shown in the samples) and one with less saturation, called “+Contrast (Luma)”
Check out user-submitted images using +Contrast at the Totally Rad Recipes section.
Its a pair of jeans covered in paint, a jeep so muddy you can’t tell what color it is, and that feeling you get jumping into a pool with your clothes on. Sometimes clean, clear, and perfect isn’t pretty. Sometimes you just need to muck it up and add a little character. Give your images that textured high speed film grain look with Grainstorm.
See user-submitted images using Grainstorm in our Recipes section.
The bow on top of a present, a little bit of garnish, that last makeup check in the car, everything needs a finishing touch. Use Sharpen For Web to give your image that last little bit of perfect before posting it online.
You’ve been missing out on the subtle details. Nothing seems as crisp as when you saw it. Your digital is covered in a gray haze. Boutwell Magic Glasses can fix that for you. This one-click action adds back that sense of dimension and detail that was there when you clicked the shutter.
See what other users are up to with Boutwell Magic Glasses in the Recipes section.
The worst name for an action we could come up with. Seriously. I don’t know what we were thinking. Not-So-Magic Glasses adds a thundering boost of depth and clarity, pumping up dull, lifeless images. It’s amazing. Don’t let the name deceive you. The name sucks, but the action rocks.
Check out what other users are doing with Boutwell Not-So-Magic Glasses at the Recipes section.
You want a vignette, but you are also lazy. Run EZ-Burn with a single click and presto! The edges of your photo will be automatically darkened regardless of the shape or orientation of the image. It literally could not get any easier than EZ-Burn.
You can quickly adjust EZ-Burn’s strength using layer opacity. Learn how in this article.
See user-submitted examples using EZ-Burn in our Recipes section.
“… Cause that’s what I was born to do…”
Your photo is too blue. Too pale. Too cold. We can fix that. Warm it up, Kris!
See user-submitted examples using Warm It Up, Kris! in the Recipes section.
It’s getting too hot in here. Everything’s starting to look too orange. Too warm. Cool it down with Cool As A Cucumber.
See user-submitted examples using Cool As A Cucumber at our Recipes section.
Growing up teaches us two things. One, that life is going to get messy, and two, that our moms alway have some special trick to clean up. No matter how bad the grass stains, what you spilled on the carpet, or how awful the haircut you decided to give yourself looks your mom always had some secret method to make things right. Lights-On and Lights-Out are the closest thing to mom’s little secrets that you will ever come with a Photoshop Action. If you accidentally botch an exposure these actions are here to kiss it and make it feel all better.
See user-submitted recipes using Lights-on and Lights-off in our Recipes section.
Your grandfather’s grandfather had to work harder for his photos. The camera was giant. The materials were toxic. the results were anything but guaranteed. Lucky for you, Old Skool gets you the same look with the click of a mouse. Your ancestors would be jealous.
Old Skool includes 3 actions with 3 different edge blur methods (Fast, Standard, HQ), each with a different tradeoff between quality and speed.
See what other photographes are doing with Old Skool in our Recipes section.
A long-lost artifact. A worn and treasured heirloom. When Old Skool isn’t intense enough, there’s Super Old Skool.
Super Old Skool includes 3 actions with 3 different edge blur methods (Fast, Standard, HQ), each with a different tradeoff between quality and speed.
See what other photographers are doing with Super Old Skool at the Recipes section.
Luminous skin and soft details. Deep skies and punchy tones. Magical B+W will seduce you with its lush, impressionistic tones and glowing highlights.
See user-submitted examples with Magical Black and White! in the Recipes section.
Awesome B+W is a similar photoshop action from TRA1 that produces a less tweaky / dreamy tonal shift (not shown).
You want a Bitchin’ B+W conversion that you can use every day, on every image? This is the one. Bitchin’ B&W will never let you down.
Try a sample for free! Bitchin’ B&W is part of our Free Photoshop Actions Sample Download.
See how other photographers have used Bitchin’ B+W in the Recipes section.
Anything but boring! Boring Old B+W can be your go-to black and white conversion action if you want slightly lighter skintones and darker skies. Great for people. Great for landscapes. The only boring thing about this action is how easy it makes great black and whites.
See user-submitted examples using Boring Old B&W at the Totally Rad Recipes section.
All of the sky darkening drama of a traditional red filter with a single click. This action simulates the look of black and white film shot through a red filter, with the added convenience of actually being able to see through your lens, and not losing 3 stops of sensitivity.
See what other users have been up to with Red Filter B&W at the Totally Rad Recipes section.
All the soul-warming goodness of your favorite childhood treat, rolled into one versatile action. Cinnamon Toast creates deep, rich, warm tones, and might even bring a tingly nostalgia for those days when you could pour sugar onto bread and call it breakfast. Works equally well on color or black and white images, too!
See how other photogs are using Cinnamon Toast at Totally Rad Recipes.
Subtly worn by time. Broken in. Comfy. Antique Tone takes the cold, precise tones in your photo and tweaks them ever so slightly. The result feels just a bit cozier, like your favorite pair of jeans after you’ve worn them the first 20 times.
Check out what other people are doing with Antique Tone at Totally Rad Recipes.
Boring Sepia, Boring Selenium, and Split Tone #1 our a set of simple tone changing actions that are the closest we’ve ever come to selling bottled nostalgia.
See user-submitted images using Boring Sepia, Boring Selenium, and Split Tone #1 in our Recipes section.
Pro Retouch makes retouching an absolute breeze. Just run the action and paint away wrinkles and blemishes. Its intelligent algorithm fades skin imperfections while leaving enough fine detail to avoid the “plastic” look. Of course, you can also use layer opacity and layer masks to gain an incredibly fine degree of control over the effect, too. Pro Retouch is your all-in-one retoucher’s toolbox that gets you 90% of the way there in 10% of the time.
See what other users are up to with Pro Retouch in the Recipes Area.
In 1984 Steve McCurry snapped a photo of a woman at a refugee camp in Pakistan. His portrait, “Afghan Girl,” is now one of the most famous photographs on the planet. The thing that makes everyone stop, and take notice are the piercing eyes. We can’t promise that you’ll create images with the same acclaim as McCurry, but with Eye Bump you can create the same, jaw dropping, bright, vivid eyes.
