Saturday, April 12, 2008

Free set of Photoshop actions available on Pioneer Woman's site

I have made no secret as to how much I'm inspired by Ree, of Pioneer Woman fame. Those of you who read my blog should be well aware of this fact. Yesterday, when I checked her site, I saw that she was offering a free download of a specially designed set of actions. An action is something that includes all the different steps in Photoshop to achieve a final result. You 'play' an action like you'd play a song or a movie, and then you can watch the action happen. Well, sort of. It doesn't take as long as a song or a movie, and in fact only a couple seconds! Luckily, my son was in town and he explained some of this to me. So today, during a rainy spring afternoon, I played with the new set of free actions I've just downloaded.
And they are awesome.
Ree explained that some of these actions are geared more for landscapes, some for people, you get the picture. So I thought I'd try them on horses. And here's what I came up with.
My favorite result for this particular photo is what PW calls "Soft & Faded". I think it's beautiful in this particular setting.
And here are the rest I tried. I will admit that I got a little carried away with them, making a chart for myself in Photoshop, but it was raining out today and I'm in love with Photoshop anyway, so what the hey.
And finally, here's the Straight Out of Camera (SOOC) shot. Cute picture, but it needs help.
To download these actions to your Photoshop CS2 or higher program, visit http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/ and click on her Photography tab. The post with the download is entitled "Actions!"
Hope you have as much fun as I'm having with this first set she's offering. And PW, if you're out there, thank you.
Apologies to those who could care less about Photoshop. I'll try to stop talking about it for awhile. It's just that I get really excited about things sometimes . . .

9 comments:

Daniela said...

Oh my gosh, I know what you mean. I have learned so much from her site about photoshop. I play with it almost every night. I'M IN LOVE with photoshop. Oohh, I love your blog and your horses. A woman after my own heart.

Mental P Mama said...

Can you please send that foal when you send George up for his visit?

gail said...

They're nifty actions. Will have to run over, download and try um out! I love your horse photos.

Anonymous said...

Love actions, aren't they fun? These are great!

Country Girl said...

Welcome to Daniela. Glad you stopped by and visited and hope to see you again!

Kacey, I've never used an action before so this is really new and fun for me. I didn't even know how to do it and can see why it would become a crutch, so I'm gonna try not to get addicted!

Mental P: I think George is the cutest pup ever. And so is this foal, isn't he? If it is a he. I was standing behind the fence and couldn't look underneath to check. But I will and get back to you on that. HA! I know I'm really lucky to live here . . .

Girl, means a lot coming from you because I consider you a really good photographer. So thank you!

Shimmy Mom said...

What an adorable picture. Even SOOC is really cute. Photoshop is addicting.

olivia said...

Hi there. Wasn't that a lovely thing for Ree to do! I've never used actions before either. So much fun. :-)

Country Girl said...

Hey there, Shimmy Mom. Welcome!

Olivia, Ree is so generous. I noticed that in her post about the free actions, in the comment section, she kept getting on and asking if everything was working. Like she was making sure we all were all right. And one of the comments, she responded to both you and I in the same one. Small world . . .

Jeannelle said...

Really interesting to see the subtle differences in this one photo. Thanks for showing us!