Free Photoshop actions anyone?  Photoshop Elements users – MCP’s FREE Photoshop Sharpening Actions are now available for Elements version 5, 6, 7, and 8.

Download the High Definition Sharpening and Crystal Clear Web Sharpening for Photoshop and for Elements now!

While visiting MCP Actions make sure to check out the other check out the Finish It Photoshop actions and the Eye Doctor and Dentist, these sets are both Elements compatible as well. More to come for Adobe Photoshop Elements soon.

Thousands of people have downloaded the FREE Texture Applicator Photoshop Actions Set since its release just over a month ago. But now there’s another reason to celebrate! Finally, a video tutorial teaching you how to use this photoshop action to add textures to your photos. Sometimes texture is just too much for skin, so I will also teach you how to mask off texture from selective parts of the image.

To use this action you will want to find some great textures. You can also download the one used in this video made by Jessica Drossin Photography.

Thank you to Heather Armstrong and Lisa Gilbert Photography for allowing me to use their beautiful photos in this video.

FREE Photoshop textures and a FREE texture photoshop action:

Thank you to all my loyal Blog readers, friends and fans.  I appreciate each and every one of you.  To show my appreciation, I love making a FREE Photoshop action to share every year at the holidays.

This year my Free action set is called Texture Applicator. You can download the FREE Photoshop actions now! All I would ask in return is that you spread the Holiday spirit by posting to twitter, facebook, a photo forum or on your blog about it.

This action easily allows you to select the texture you desire and place it over any photo. At just a few clicks of a button, you are able to apply different textures to your image until you find the right one. Once you discover the one you want to work with, you are then able to play with the many looks you can achieve with that select texture. And as always, your texture is its own layer mask so you have full control of where and how much texture is applied to the image. Of special note, this action works in CS2, CS3 and CS4 and also works in Photoshop Elements!

Photo taken by Misty Deblasio Photography

Have a safe and Happy Holidays!

Jodi

Want a FREE Black and White Photoshop Action?  You can download this black and white photoshop action with 14 color overlays now!

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month so this Blueprint is dedicated to fighting Breast Cancer.  I created the “Take Action on Cancer Awareness” action set when my father-in-law was diagnosed with stage 4 Lymphoma a few years ago.  He is a survivor now of both Colon Cancer and Lymphoma.  My Grandmother, Joan, who I was named after, died in her early 40’s from Breast Cancer. I sadly never got to meet her.

If you have never downloaded this action set that I created in 2007 (which works in PS CS, CS2, CS3 and CS4), please download it HERE or on my website under “try me.” This action creates a rich , adjustable black and white action and includes 14 color overlays each representing a ribbon color to fight a certain type of cancer.

I created this action from the heart and it is free.  I just ask two things:

1. Please use the sharing buttons at the bottom of the post to spread the word on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media. You may blog about this too – just link here for the download (you may not host it on your site).
2. Please consider donating time or money either now or in the future to an organization that works to promote awareness and to find cures for cancer.

In this Blueprint below I took straight out of camera images (thank you to those who send these in) and ONLY ran the Take Action on Cancer Awareness action with the Pink Ribbon to fight Breast Cancer layer turned on.

The word FREE is a very interesting one. I was thinking about this word the other day when someone asked me about FREE Photoshop Actions and FREE Web Sites. Free, by definition, means a lot of things.  For the purpose of this discussion, we will use the definition “without charge.”

Here are a few of my thoughts as it pertains to Photoshop products, training and photography.

• There are many photographers, action makers and designers who offer some FREE products.
• Free products or information can be used as a marketing tool.
• Free can be a great way for someone to try your service or products.  I offer some actions free so you can enjoy and see how my actions work. I know a company who offers webinars to teach you basic photography.  They have 1,000 people on at a time, and it is free.  But they want you to buy the videos.
• I often have businesses that want to give away free things (contests or downloads to all) on my blog. Their hope, that you visit their site.
• In the new era of blogging, for some “free” sites where everything is free, money comes from another source like advertisers.
• Free does not always mean good or great.  Some free stuff will be amazing, but some is just free.
• Free can be an ego thing.  I see this on certain forums where most members are very genuine in helping but others use offering free products or tutorials to boost their ego.
• Why are all my actions and trainings not free? This is my business.  I spend hundreds of hours on development and implementation of my actions and workshops. I provide a lot of information on my blog that is free and have free actions so that you can try my product.  While there is no obligation ever to spend a dime with me, I do have products and services for sale.
• I often see people on photography forums asking, where can I find a free action that does…  Nothing is wrong with wanting free over paid.  But what if your customer came to you and wanted a free photo session, free prints, and free canvas. How would your business do?
• Free has its place in photography too. People LOVE the word FREE. As a photographer you can offer a free 5×7 print with a session or offer free print credit of $50 or spend $1,000 get 4×6 proofs free, etc.
• Do you offer your photography completely free? What if someone wants FREE from you? Do you do free promotions?
• As a buyer of productions (like photoshop actions, textures, photography workshops, etc) how do you feel about free?  Do you only download free?  Do you have a mix of free items and paid?

Comment away – I am interested to here your perspective on FREE!

What is edge sharpening? How can you get a free photoshop action that sharpens just the edges of your subject, and not noise and artifacts?

One of the things that I think often gets overlooked in processing is the right amount and method of sharpening. I have seen beautiful images destroyed by too much sharpening. I have also seen images that could be WOW, but they look kind of dull because they just need that extra sharpening punch. We are going to fix all that with this tutorial.

Sharpening for web is so important. Especially for your website where potential customers will be viewing your work. My favorite method of sharpening that I use for EVERY image is Edge Sharpening. I love this method because it looks so crisp and clean. Since it only sharpens the edges, it is great for high noise images because it won’t sharpen the grain. It will also leave skin nice and smooth. Too much sharpening can really make skin look rough. Here is another great thing about edge sharpening. When you use USM on your entire picture, it will blow out whites since it adds contrast. Using USM with edge sharpening will not blow out whites since it only sharpens the edges.

To get this amazing FREE “Edge Sharpening Action” by Jodi at MCP Actions, click here.

Here is how it works. First, open your image and make sure it is cropped and resized for web first. Now, play the MCP Edge Sharpening action. I am going to use a high noise image to show you how AWESOME edge sharpening is.

The first thing the action will do is make a mask on your image. You want the black to be really black and the white to be solid white with no areas of gray in it. When the levels box pops up, play around with the numbers until it looks right. I usually use shadows 150, mid tones 1.00 and highlights anywhere from 155 to 200, but do what works best for you. Whatever is solid white will NOT be sharpened, and whatever is outlined in black WILL be sharpened. This is what the mask looks like.

Next, comes the sharpening part. When the USM box pops up, enter your sharpening amounts. I always use amount 200, radius .5 and threshold 0. Now you see the marching ants showing you exactly what will be sharpened.

Sometimes that sharpening amount is too much, so just decrease the opacity of the sharpening layer.  There is also a built in mask if you want black to hide sharpening somewhere.

Now I want to show you what the image would look like if I applied the same USM settings to the entire picture. Do you see all the grain in the shadows behind him, the grain on his face and how crispy his hair looks in the global sharpened image?

Here is another example. Do you see how smooth her skin and hair looks in the edge sharpened image and how rough they both look in the global sharpened image?

Now, go forth and EDGE SHARPEN!!!!!

Thank you to Elisabeth Ross of Elisabeth Ross Photography for writing this tutorial to accompany my FREE Edge Sharpening Action. Elisabeth is both a portrait photographer and a mentor at ClickinMoms .