More Picture Love

I'm going to have to geek out again about Photoshop Elements. Even if you're not too interested in photo editing, I hope you'll at least find the results interesting. In a previous post I talked about layering with textures, which can be pretty cool, but isn't for every picture. Well yesterday I finally found the feature I think I was most interested in all along but just didn't know what it was called. Apparently they are called actions, and they're a lot easier to find for regular Photoshop than for Elements, but a lot of free ones can be found here.

What are these actions, you ask? They are basically a pre-done set of steps to transform your picture for a desired effect. These effects may include a vintage look, a specific tone of black and white, more vivid color, etc. Using the same picture I showed you with my last post, I decided to apply some of these actions and show you the results.

Here's the original again:

Here's action Butterscotch Vintage at work:

This one is S-Curve Pop, which is one I would probably use a lot if I was a professional photographer editing for clients. It's subtle and just adds a pop of color:
This one is the lomo action:

This wasn't my favorite for this picture, but I thought I would show you something with a warmer tone; this one is called Golden Vintage:

And here is the splendor black and white action; this is the kind of black and white look I had been trying to achieve on my own but could not:

This last action came from this website, and I adjusted it from 100% opacity to 50% because it looked a little too "dreamy-looking" for this picture, but would have been nice with a different one I'm sure:


I'm still trying to figure out a lot of the actions I downloaded, which require more tinkering and adding layer masks, which I have not learned much about yet. So I still have plenty to learn! Do y'all have a favorite look for this picture?

If you run across this by Googling "how to install actions in Photoshop Elements 8," then your answer is right here.