:: workshop news & musings ::

i’mslowly adding more actions to this blog as my obligations to my “real” jobs finally eases up a bit (corporate downsizing and reorganizing only means that the ones who remain have to do twice the work).

This effect creates another fake HDR (high dynamic range) effect, which means that the image looks sharper, brighter, crisper and more contrast-y. It will create different looks on different photos, but it also leaves layers intact so you can play around with them a bit once it finishes.

Also, it’s a nice complementary action to the original Fake HDR effect found in Fun Foto FX

As always, comments are welcome
graffi

Ifyou are unsure about using any of the Action Effect installers available in the Graffishop (the Action Effect installers like Glam Photo, FunFotoFX, Handy Actions, Portrait Lab, Splitter, etc.) then you might want to download the Sampler pack and give it a try.  It includes 5 actions – the 110% enlarge action from Handy Actions, the Weaver effect from FunFoto, the Old Romance action from Glam Photo, Soft Black & White from Portrait Lab, and a Sketch effect thrown in for a bonus.

Download, extract, turn off Elements including any Organizer components, and run the installer – it will do all the work for you. 

Once it completes, restart Elements and allow it enough to discover the new effects and add them to its database. Next, click into the Layer Styles section of the Effects palette and then click into the Photo Effects section of the palette (that will refresh the Photo Effects display).  Use the drop menu to locate Graffi Action Sampler, and the effects will be ready for use.

*This installer will work for Elements 6, 7 & 8.

Enjoy!

Here’sa set of 21 layer styles that have been laying around the workshop for awhile.  There’s a variety of designs here that you can use on text, shapes, or anything else you add to your graphics.

For a full preview, click  the thumbnail.  It shows each of the layer styles applied to a shape and to text. There’s also a “null” style included that will remove all layer styles from the layer so you can try a different one.

To install them into Photoshop Elements, simply download and unzip the package, drag them into your Add-O-Matic Which does all the heavy lifting for you, and they’ll show up in your Effects palette in the Layer Styles section.  use the drop menu to navigate to “Graffi Styles”.

Enjoy!

Therewas a request earlier for a set of simulated lens filters for 35mm cameras.  Awhile back (2005 or so) I made a complete set of actions that recreate the original Kodak Wratten lens filters.

I’ve updated the installer for Photoshop Elements 7 & 8 (not Elements 6 or earlier, though) and you can grab it at the bottom of this post – free (at least for now – demand will dictate if they stay free).  The actions all create several layers, with different blend modes and opacities.  You can easily mix-and-match the layers to experiment with the different combinations, and you can also adjust opacity & blend mode easily.

This is not intended as a one-click action set; rather, it’s intended to be a starting place for creating black-and-white or color-saturated retouches to your images.

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If you have Handy Actions, this Curves preset can be called after running the Curves action found there. You can use this preset to create an old faded snapshot look for your image.  It could be useful on scrap pages or ads, or anywhere you need a faded look to an image.

Add-O-Matic will accept Curves presets in version 8, so installing it to Elements is as simple as unzipping it to your desktop and dragging it into the AOM from there.  Then look for it in the drop menu of the Curves dialog:

To use it, first run Handy Actions’ Curves action, and select the preset. Then you can do additional tweaking of the overall curves, if desired (maybe an ‘S’ curve, or the “Inverted ‘S’ Curve” action).

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I’vecreated a set a of presets for the Channel Mixer  that can be added using your Add-O-Matic – just drag and drop them into the AOM and they’ll appear in the preset drop menu within the Channel Mixer dialog.

The Channel Mixer is a Photoshop Adjustment Layer that can be accessed using one of the actions available in Graffi’s Handy Actions.

Cheers!

Thisis a fast-n-easy technique to create a quick ad page background, or a scrap page background, or just a way to build a collage of your images. I can make the action for you, but how to use it is up to you!

It starts with the image you’d like to use for the start of your background.

Open your image in Elements and then press [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[U] to quickly desaturate it. You should have a black & white image in about two seconds! Run a subtle Gaussian Blur on this layer (Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur) to just make it a bit soft. I’m not giving any parameters here, because every image will require a different setting.

Next, press [D] on your keyboard to reset the default foreground and background colors to black & white. Create a new layer and press [Ctrl]+[Backspace] to quickly fill it with the background color (white). Reduce the opacity of this layer to about 75% or so, or until the background layer is subtle enough for your other images and text to show up over it.

Next, add your product image (we’ll pretend we’re making an advertisement) and any text or other elements you’d like, resizing and adjusting them as you go to get a nice look.

My advertisement for the Add-O-Matic v7 was made using this very simple trick.

You could also try using the Polaroid effect, from the Fun Foto FX action pack to create a pile of Polaroids on a background – there really is no limit to what you can make with just a few simple tricks & tools.