Do Photoshop Actions work easily? Comments Appreciated.

[wendyalana]

1.

 

[burgo]

kubota photoshop actions are fantastic. If you do portraits & weddings for $$$ then they are a must have. But you can still achieve the same effects without them, the actions just make your workflow quicker. Which is useful when you are processing 100's of files say for a wedding.

There are free ones out there if you google for it. You can make your own actions too.

 

[GooniesNeverSayDie11]

OnOne Phototools is decent for actions. Lots of film emulations as well. However, in terms of weddings and portraits, you are still going to need to paint in the effects if you want to use them well.

 

[KmH]

Do Actions for photoshop work and are they worth purchasing?

Yes, they work, but it is so much better to learn how to use Photoshop, and record your own.

 

[shmne]

Do Actions for photoshop work and are they worth purchasing?

Yes, they work, but it is so much better to learn how to use Photoshop, and record your own.

I went to school for graphic design, not photography; when I am in a group of photographers and I see people presenting photos with the same action over and over I just start to glaze over. Actions can make your work look amazing, but it also makes it look amazingly cookie-cutter.

Some people are fine with that, some aren't. Personally I think actions are best used as a starting point that will still need to be tweaked before final production.

 

[SLRJoe]

Yes, definitely make your own actions!
a) it's free
b) you learn photoshop whilst you figure out how to make them

Actions are particularly useful for when you need to do some batch processing. E.g. you might want to auto adjust levels on all photos in a particular directory.

 

[sam_justice]

They are just a lazy cheating way, the wealth of knowledge you'll gain from learning photoshop is incredible. Actions don't work the same way for every photo, since every photo is different. Whilst it might make one exposure look nice it could destroy another and without knowing how to alter the settings on what the actions have applied you'll be left with a bunch of inconsistent shots that will look unprofessional if you're trying to show them to a client.