| Photoshop opened up a whole world of possibilities | | | | work and compete commercially. These Actions are |
| for photographers and image editing experts by | | | | incredibly useful in Wedding and Portrait Photography, |
| allowing them to develop automation within their | | | | where dozens of images need to be edited in a short |
| work flow. No more so than in the areas of Portrait | | | | amount of time. |
| and Wedding Photography. | | | | Actions are small (usually) bits of software that tell |
| At the same time though, it created an | | | | Photoshop exactly what to do to an image. Each |
| unprecedented burden on many to learn this new | | | | Action is named according to its function and they |
| technology and perform like a pro. The trouble has | | | | are activated by clicking an onscreen button. These |
| always been that Photoshop is vast in its possibilities, | | | | actions and their buttons are listed in a palette (a |
| and the task of learning enough of its workings a | | | | movable panel) inside the Photoshop work area. |
| huge undertaking. Often times, it has become too | | | | Actions are designed to perform repetitive tasks at |
| much for some, and they disappear back into their | | | | the click of a button. The sort of tasks they cope |
| shells. At least for a while. | | | | with can be wide and varied. Typically though, they |
| My personal experience of this, as a photographer is | | | | will do things like add soft focus to an image, sharpen |
| that I was young and excited and very determined, | | | | an image, add warmth to the colours of an image, or |
| and years on, I am still learning. Through this I have | | | | perhaps even to resize an image. |
| learnt something about identifying the challenges of | | | | To the portrait and wedding Photographer, this can |
| specific types of image production, and then how to | | | | be a godsend. For example, as a Wedding |
| discover satisfactory solutions to reproduce them | | | | Photographer, you may have 150 images or more |
| easily. | | | | lined up, and they all need work doing to them. Lets |
| When you look at a beautifully edited set of images | | | | say you want to sharpen these pictures, then |
| from a professional photographer, you'll see that they | | | | increase the color saturation slightly and finally bring |
| have had a lot of image enhancements made to | | | | out detail in the midtones! Phew! Doing each one |
| them. For most Photographers, this is the primary | | | | manually one after the other takes hours as anyone |
| way to create a noticeable difference between what | | | | who has tried will tell you. |
| they offer clients and what the clients can do for | | | | Photoshop Actions to the rescue! With these |
| themselves. It adds a distinctive value to their work | | | | Actions, you open one image, press a 'Record |
| that clients can appreciate and are happy to pay for. | | | | Actions' button to then log the changes you are |
| This makes professional image enhancement a | | | | making. When you are happy with those changes, |
| necessity for Photographers wanting a successful | | | | you then easily 'Batch Process' all the other images |
| business rather than just a fanciful luxury. | | | | on Auto with those same changes while you go for a |
| The challenges with this for Photographers are | | | | walk or have a cup of tea! |
| manyfold. For example, using Photoshop for this | | | | Naturally, there are many tips, tricks and techniques |
| process is a given fact. However learning Photoshop | | | | involved with all of this, but in reality, these Actions |
| requires a long term commitment as it is such a vast | | | | make it commercially viable to output superb images |
| piece of software. Once you have learnt the basics, | | | | to all of your clients all of the time. |
| how far should you go with your retouching? What | | | | Unfortunately though, there is a problem with all of |
| level of editing do clients actually like the best? How | | | | this. Regular Actions have their limitations. In spite of |
| much time should you spend on editing the images? | | | | what I have said, to edit your images to a |
| How much should you charge? What extras should | | | | satisfactory standard can still take a huge amount of |
| you charge for? What is now expected as a | | | | skill and time. Time is expensive, and when you have |
| standard level? Just what are todays customers | | | | established the processes you like to use regularly |
| expectations? | | | | for your own personal style, you will still (inevitably) |
| Some of these questions you will be able to answer | | | | end up bogged down in tedious repetitive tasks. |
| instinctively. Others will require time and the feedback | | | | So what is the answer to all of this? It seems that a |
| of your paying clients. | | | | new developer has produced some highly |
| For the majority of Photographers the toughest | | | | sophisticated Photoshop Action sets that have just |
| questions relate directly to the photo editing side of | | | | been made available. Thes go beyond our normal |
| things. Fortunately we have Photoshop, and then | | | | expectations of what Actions are capable of. |
| perhaps even better, we have Photoshop Actions! | | | | Amongst other things, they can be adapted to your |
| The development of time saving Actions in | | | | personal style of imagery. These Action sets can |
| Photoshop opened up a new arena for | | | | enhance your images almost on complete auto pilot |
| photographers wishing to improve the look of their | | | | and they work at blisteringly fast speeds too. |