Action set (free stuff)

[iCe]

I don't know if I can get this to work. If it does, download the .txt file. Change the extension to .atn. Copy it to your Presets/Actions folder. Import it to your actions palette.

There are 4 actions under the heading TPF.

Midtone Contrast was written by Mac Holbert of Nash Editions. He gave it to us a printing workshop that I took from John Paul Caponigro and Mac back in November 2009. He said it was ok to distribute it but make sure to give credit where credit is due. Mac is the guy that prepared the Afghan girl and later woman images for Time Magazine as well as many, many more images that we've all seen. He didn't shoot them, he prepared them for print. He's a wizard at photoshop and a very good teacher. Nice guy too. This is a very subtle yet very powerful action. I use it nearly every single time I prepare an image to post and print. It creates a second layer so you can see the effect. It finishes with the layer at 20% opacity and frankly I don't change the opacity much.

DMTC calls Midtone Contrast twice. I sometimes do this when I want to "sharpen" a less than perfectly focused image or I want more contrast. For small images that I want to post it works pretty well to sharpen the image up. It's best to focus correctly though As I type this it occurs to me that this one might not work because it was recorded from a different action set. If it doesn't just delete it or record over it.

I created these.

Save Level 10 JPG II- This does a little sharpen and save routine. It's for full sized JPG files. It stops and lets you select where to save the file as well as what level you want to save it to. 10 is the default.

Save Level 10 JPG II Web- This does a little sharpen and save routine. It's for web sized JPG files. It stops and lets you select where to save the file as well as what level you want to save it to. 10 is the default. I usually slide the level down until the size is under 200. I've had pretty good luck with this one all the way down to 90.

Hopefully the text file will attach...

TPF.txt

[Lexie]

It works, Thanks!

[wondershots]

Love the Midtone Contrast. Thanks!

[iCe]

Midtone contrast kicks ass.

I went from using tons of steps to Shadows and Highlights, Noiseware Pro, Midtone Contrast, and the L10 JPG Web action workflow. Sounds tedious but it's really quick. The JPG actions are more about saving with one click than anything else although the sharpening does work pretty well...

BTW- in case anyone doesn't know, you can drag the actions to your set if you want to put them somewhere that you normally access. Just remember to save the set.