What photoshop action(s) does this? (link inside)

[bigwavesurfergirl]

I am totally inspired by the work of Lauren Clark (www.laurenclarkphoto.com)

See the post "A little word on post processing" from July 31 2007:

http://laurenclarkphoto.squarespace....?currentPage=2


The before-and-after.... What Photoshop actions could I buy to achieve this? I have some actions and Lightroom 1.4, but can't achieve this color and brightness while retaining the clarity!

Help!

[bon_sai]

Could that action be a vignette?

Look at Vignetting Action Pack at http://www.photographybb.com/actions/

[venchka]

Folks have been doing that since forever. The trick USED to be keeping it subtle so that it didn't show. I guess Photoshop isn't that subtle. Nobody today seems to understand subtle.

[David_Janaskie]

Vignette...plus alot more. Saturation boost...maybe a bit of a 'velvia' type film action?

[venchka]

Originally Posted by David_Janaskie

Vignette...plus alot more. Saturation boost...maybe a bit of a 'velvia' type film action?

Over the top. Today's fad.

[dtscds]

Originally Posted by venchka

Folks have been doing that since forever. The trick USED to be keeping it subtle so that it didn't show. I guess Photoshop isn't that subtle. Nobody today seems to understand subtle.

Subtle--nope. Nobody does subtle anymore... If a little is good then WAY TOO MUCH must be better!

[venchka]

Originally Posted by dtscds

Subtle--nope. Nobody does subtle anymore... If a little is good then WAY TOO MUCH must be better!

Yup!

[BeccaJ]

If you read her current posts...she's talking about selling her action that does that... just keep an eye out for it if you want that one specifically.

[linque]

Wow, that's REALLY saturated.

[Jake]

Originally Posted by venchka

Folks have been doing that since forever. The trick USED to be keeping it subtle so that it didn't show. I guess Photoshop isn't that subtle. Nobody today seems to understand subtle.

Hey now!
Photoshop can be very subtle.....if the person using it wants it to be.

But yea, over the top processing is in style.

Although most of what's on Lauren Clark's blog is not over the top. It looks pretty subtle to me. And really good!

[photonewb]

yeah, her action does a lot of different things all at once

looks like some various curves, and color popping, and saturation etc.

[Patti Edens]

There are a few free actions here that will boost color. Read the descriptions and try out a few.

Making the vignette is pretty simple. If you have CS3 or CS4, it's in the Raw conversion or you can just do this:

Duplicate the background layer.
Change the Blend Mode of the duplicate layer to Multiply.
Using the rectangular marquee tool, make a rectangle about 1/2 inch or so inside the borders of your shot. Go to Select > Modify > Feather and put in about 50 for a small jpeg or about 250 for a large TIFF. Just experiment with these numbers. It will round the edges of your rectangle.
Then just hit the delete key and the middle of the dupe layer will be the same lightness as the background layer and the edges will be dark. You can adjust the opacity of the duplicate layer to lessen the effect.

Hope this makes sense.

[venchka]

Based on Patti's instructions, Lightroom is WAAAAAAAY easier. Even I can do it! And you can't tell I did it unless I want you to see it.

[wondershots]

Looks a lot like David Jay's ShowIt Lomo plugin.

[ovimo]

Well, all I can say is that I am sure some people will like it... and some won't.

My approach always was to process the images according to what I saw in the original (or the way I saw the original site), but in such a way that nobody will be able to tell for sure if I changed something or not. Sometimes there is some doubt, but usually people cannot tell if I changed anything.

For me, if the processing is obvious it may be useful to obtain certain effects/reactions, send specific messages, but definitely not something to use on most/all of my pictures.

Duh, I must be old...