Earlier this month I hosted a “Photoshop Talk” seminar for the Nashville Photography Meetup Group. Now I am by no means a Certified Photoshop expert, but many people kept asking for a Photoshop class so I put one together. I can’t believe people actually signed up to hear me speak. The turnout was great, and I even had one of my brides show up! Yes… one of my 2010 brides who is getting married later this year is a photographer! But more on that later!
Giving Props
We had several sponsors that I need to give props to. A big huge THANK YOU goes out to Alien Skin Software for donating a copy of their Bokeh plug in software to give away at the seminar. I personally love this Photoshop plug in. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I would also like to thank Jodi of MCP Actions for donating a prize as well. She donated an entire set of Photoshop actions that were a huge hit at the seminar. And her website is FULL of tips and tricks to help photographers of every level and genre! Thank you Jodi! I will be checking out more of your “stuff” in the future.
And a big huge thank you also goes out to Nichole Van of Nichole V. Photography! She has been a personal favorite of mine for years! Nichole donated two $50 gift certificates good toward the purchase of anything on her Flourish site! I can tell you that one of Nichole’s actions is a HUGE part of my own editing process! Thank you Nichole!
I would also like to thank Mrs. Donna Tomlin for speaking at the seminar as well! She gave us all an exciting tutorial on applying textures and overlays to a photograph to create something different as well as how to create a brush for your logo! Everyone knows that I like anything different! So I was especially intrigued! Thank you Donna!
The Goods
Before the Photoshop Talk seminar was over, I promised all of the attendees that I would compile a list of photo editing resources for them that we discussed in the seminar. Now I know that as a wedding and portrait photographer, I should really be pushing you all to get it right in the camera the first time so you don’t have to rely on these types of things to make your photos look good. But sometimes our inner artist wants to come out and play! And my clients LOVE LOVE LOVE it when I show them some of the more artistic edits that I spend my time on! So you can edit your own and have fun doing it, or you can outsource your editing to a photo editing company! Either way… they get edited, right? So don’t ever let anyone tell you that you aren’t a “real” photographer just because you spend a lot of time editing. I can assure you that I have never had a client who cares HOW I made their photos look fabulous!
So here it is guys! Enjoy!
Alien Skin: (purchase) I fell in love with the Bokeh plug in from Alien Skin! You can even download a free trial version of it! I promise you that you will fall in love with it, and when you do, here is a coupon code for a 10% discount! NPM1006
One Click Grads: (free) One of the biggest hits for free downloads is the One Click Grads action. I can’t remember where I downloaded this from originally, but it happens to be one that I rely on quite a bit. You can instantly download this one here. But get it fast because the link will only work for a couple of weeks.
The Pioneer Woman: (free) Another set of actions that we discussed and demonstrated comes from Ree Drummond of The Pioneer Woman. Before I even talk about her photography actions, can I just say that she should have thought about calling herself SUPER WOMAN? This woman is so inspiring. You really should get to know Ree through her blog. Her story is fantastic. Not only is she fun to read about and get to know, but she cooks, gardens, dabbles in photography, and home school’s her kids, or punks as she likes to call them! Ok… here is where you can download her free Photoshop actions. She has two sets so make sure you get them both. One of them has the Boost action that I told you about, and the other set has the Eye pop action that I love! You can get both sets by going here. And if you are editing in Elements, check this out!
Coffee Shop: (free) One other resource for free actions that has caught my attention, and I briefly mentioned in our seminar is from Rita with Coffee Shop. I will not point out any particular action for you to grab. Just look around on her site. There are many fabulous freebies to grab. She also has things that work in Elements.
Nichole Van: (purchase) One of the biggest edits I make to every single photo that I take comes from an action that was created by Nichole Van’s Flourish site! This woman truly knows her stuff! If you are going to purchase an action from her, I STRONGLY suggest her Photo Fix set! I would be lost without it! Check out her stuff! And here is a coupon code for 10% off of anything on her site! WENDY123110
Florabella: (purchase) I am new to Florabella actions, but have fallen in love! I desperately want to buy her Vintage Set! But her Spring set are BEAUTIFUL!
Kaleidoscope: (purchase) I am also fairly new to Patti Brown’s Kaleidoscope goodies! But OH MY GOODNESS!!! They are looking very YUMMY!
Deviant Art: (free) And for those of you who fell in love with the birds on Donna’s photo that she showed us during her presentation, it is simply a brush that she downloaded from the Deviant Art website. You can find that brush here, but be sure to float around all over the site to see what other fun things you can find to play with!
MCP Actions: (free and purchase) Jodi Friedman of MCP Actions has a very useful site! Not only does she have some great Photoshop actions that you can download for free, but she also has some amazing ones that you can purchase at a very affordable price! Not to mention that she also offers online Photoshop training for both private and group sessions via desktop remote should you want someone who actually knows what they are doing (unlike me)!
I know that one last thing you guys requested was a tutorial on creating a custom vignette in Photoshop. I haven’t forgotten! But I will save that for another post!
So have fun guys! With some of the resources listed above, you can create some pretty fabulous works of art. See the before and after shown here!
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