Photoshop Actions Pack

$18.00

These are Photoshop Actions (*.atn) files used to complete editing and retouching in our current process. It includes:

Frequency Separate (both Gaussian and Mosaic style separation)
Dodge & Burn Layer Action
Background Smoothing - for backdrop and floor cleaning
Eye Highlights - for adjusting that added detail or pop in the eyes with Catch Lights, Highlights & Shadows
Natural Redness Eye reduction - for manually reducing eye redness without looking unnatural
Subtle Contrast - With both Hi-Pass and Levels contrast to add that little bit of sharpness and detail
Background Container - Allows for easy modification of background colors, adding of background specific effects which exclude the subject in simple environment portraits.

These are Photoshop Actions (*.atn) files used to complete editing and retouching in our current process. It includes:

Frequency Separate (both Gaussian and Mosaic style separation)
Dodge & Burn Layer Action
Background Smoothing - for backdrop and floor cleaning
Eye Highlights - for adjusting that added detail or pop in the eyes with Catch Lights, Highlights & Shadows
Natural Redness Eye reduction - for manually reducing eye redness without looking unnatural
Subtle Contrast - With both Hi-Pass and Levels contrast to add that little bit of sharpness and detail
Background Container - Allows for easy modification of background colors, adding of background specific effects which exclude the subject in simple environment portraits.

How to Use

Similar to many Frequency Separation actions referenced in most YouTube videos. By clicking/running this action will create a layer folder with a Color and Texture layer to be used as desired.
Running the action will activate a setting for amount of “Blur” or “Mosaic” setting, which controls the amount of difference between Texture detail and Color blocking, 18 is a good standard setting. Reference further Frequency Separation resources on various techniques to use this feature.

This feature simply creates 2 layer folders with Helper and Dodge & Burn.
Helper simply creates a layer you can toggle on and off to help see your image in Black & White with Contrast, this helps you spot the variations easier. But you can choose to toggle this on and off as desired, you can also individually toggle the “Contrast” off for images that require more brightness to see.
Dodge & Burn has 2 Curve layers, not heavily set. These are designed to use subtle brush flow settings of 1 or 2, to even be useful with a mouse if you do not have a pen stylus. If you require more Dodge or Burn than a single layer provides, you can simply duplicate the type of layer. you want and add more or less. Stacking Dodge & Burn layers work cumulatively.
You should reference Local Dodge & Burn techniques on YouTube for various ways to use these features. This is very much an art in itself, and has a myriad of ways to utilize this. These layers are intended for LOCAL Dodge & Burn, meaning small details like blemishes, smaller sized skin imperfections, smaller facial wrinkles. Large area Dodge & Burn should be done on the Global Dodge and Burn.

This action simply uses PS Select Subject feature to put a blur around the subject. This only works with plain backgrounds like solid colors and no details.
Use this feature in conjunction with the Frequency Separation feature, by selecting the Color layer and activating this Action.
This will create a copy of the Color layer but blurred, and will Mask the subject to avoid them being blurred. You can adjust the mask as desired if the automatic selection is inadequate.
This feature does not always work, and is dependent on the Select Subject feature working properly in PS.
Generally used to clean up a Cyclorama floor, but only smoothes. Big marks and mess on the background need to be corrected other ways. Retouching on the Texture layer is often required to completely remove details on the background.

This action creates another PS layer group called Eyes
Within this group will be 3 layers: Catch Lights, Lighten, Darken
Catch Lights I use for the bright catch lights if I want to enhance them
Lighten and Darken are basically Dodge & Burn layers you can adjust the light dynamics within the lens or draw patterns on the eye, it’s basically unlimited and works exactly like a Dodge & Burn set.

This action creates another layer called Redeye
Brushing the mask on this layer is used to handle the minor redness around the eye from small veins
The effect is subtle, so it doesn’t over whiten eyes

This action creates another Layer group called Contrast
Within this group are 2 adjustment layers, High-Pass and Levels
Upon running the action, you should get a pop-up setting for the amount of High-pass to use, keeping a single digit value is best to keep it subtle. 1.5 or 2 is adequate most of the time.
Going into the Levels setting and adjusting the Mid-Tone is often all that’s required. Often using 0.95 or 1.05 is usually good enough. Feel free to play with the numbers and watch the effect.

This action creates a Layer group “Background Container”. It is dependent on the PS feature Subject Selection.
This group will have a layer mask applied in the shape of your subject. You may need to refine the mask to get it exactly right, by default only works as good as the Subject Selection feature.
Inside this group by default is a Solid color layer you can use to alter your background color, it’s set to Soft Light to blend with your current background. Play with the color to see the effect.
Anything you add into this folder, will affect just the background. So if you wanted apply more adjustments to the background only, this is useful. Such as overlays, curves adjustments, or even background text and patterns.