Free Pseudo HDR Lightroom Preset

Click here to visit Presetpond and grab this free Pseudo HDR Preset

Presetpond...It's a veritable treasure of Lightroom presets.  It's a great site, but the downfall is you have to sort through pages and pages and pages and pages to find the presets that you really want or need.  There are freebies galore, but many of them you just aren't going to use.

I came across this one today.  It gives a pseudo HDR look, and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!  This preset is fantastic for bringing out detail and reducing shadows.  I ran it on this picture I took at Comerica Park.  I didn't do any pre-processing or sharpening.  Best of all, it is completely FREE!  As with any HDR processing, you really have to find the 'right' picture to apply it to.  But when you do, the results are amazing.

Free Faux HDR Photoshop Action

Today I'm testing a free HDR photoshop action that I found on photographypla.net.  It is a sample out of a set of 12 that are available for purchase.  I love HDR photography, but I have to admit, the only thing I know about it is that it really takes a specific picture to really pull it off.  My new Canon EOS 5D Mark III has built in HDR functions, and I'm pumped about trying to figure it all out, but for now, I like to experiment with faux HDR actions.


I always like to show you the stand-alone, true results of the actions I test, so I try not to run any work flow processes on them before I post them, and I try to do limited layers adjustments after I run them.  With this one, I wanted to show you that final "oomph"  by running it on a couple of pictures that were pre-edited.  The picture of the Chrysler 300 to the left shows the difference between a straight out of the camera photo compared to only having the free faux HDR action applied.  Same thing with the tree photo below.  That one actually turned out to be one of my favorites and is such a simple photo.
I didn't constrain the proportions when I added the picture of my grandpa, but aside from that, the photos show a straight out of the camera shot compared to having the HDR action applied.  It's amazing how a simple action can give a photo a whole new meaning.  Bringing out the details in an old man's face tells a story like words could never do.   I was happy with the picture straight out of the camera, but the HDR action really gave it a whole new depth of feeling.  He passed away not too long after this photo was taken.

The bottom two pictures show pre-edited photos with the HDR action applied.  They really turned out well.  This action isn't over-powering like many HDR actions tend to be.  I didn't have to adjust any layers on any of the pictures, which is also a huge, huge plus for me.  Overall, I would highly recommend downloading this action, even if you aren't a huge HDR fan.  You can get some very cool looking effects if you apply it to the right photos.  If you are a huge HDR fan, I would consider purchasing the set based on the quality of this action alone.  It is only $17, and there are 12 different actions in the set.  It's only available with Photoshop CS4 and up--unfortunately, no elements version.

Bellevue Avenue Photoshop Actions, Timeline Covers and Textures {Freebies!}

Bellevue Avenue...I fell in love with their actions the first moment I saw them.  I finally downloaded their free sample pack tonight.  Unfortunately, they only have one workflow action freebie, but I'm going to try it out along with a couple of their Facebook Timeline Cover freebies.

The action they have available is called "Vision".  It brings out color, contrast and sharpens your photos.  I have to admit, when I first ran it, I was hoping that the adjustment layers were going to be easy to adjust.  Lucky for me, they were!  Bellevue Avenue's Vision action tends to come out very strong, but it was easy to adjust.  It's very important to me when I am purchasing actions that I don't have to put a lot of time into adjustments, and I have to say I didn't have to adjust this one very much.  All I did was lower the 'Contrast' layer.  On the second example, I didn't make any adjustments.

Keep in mind that I would typically run more workflow processes on these photos, but I wanted to keep the action as true as it could be.  I could have probably lowered the 'Brightness' layer on the second photo a bit, but I wanted you to see the action right out of the box. The Vision action is from Bellevue Avenue's Deep & Rich collection, and it lives up to the name.

I also tried the free Facebook Timeline Cover PSD's. For those of you who don't know, PSD's are not run like an action.  They are simply a layered photo, and you copy and paste, and then resize, the photos you want to add on top of the 'clip' layers. The covers are very high quality for freebies.

Bellevue offers an amazing collection of Photoshop Actions and Lightroom Presets.   I would love to try their Clean Edit Toolbox action set, which unfortunately, they don't offer for Lightroom.  They do have some of their most popular action sets available as Lightroom presets, which is a huge bonus for me.  I do think that I am going to purchase some of the Bellevue actions and presets. I'll get samples posted as soon as I do.

Colorvale Photoshop Actions {Freebies!}

If you're anything like me, you have a bazillion free Photoshop actions. Like me, you probably don't even know what they all do anymore, except you are 100% sure that they have slowed down your Photoshop program to the speed of molasses, and most of them never, ever, EVER  turn out like they do on the gorgeous professional photos you first discover them in.  

What I'm finding out the hard way is that 'free' doesn't always mean quality, or pretty, or even semi-attractive.  So, after overloading my Photoshop with freebies, I started buying Photoshop actions and Lightroom presets.  Now I have a whole bunch of actions and presets that I really don't use much, and a lot of money that has gone down the drain as a result.  Money I really could have used in other, more productive photographic endeavors.  The problem is that it always looks so good and so easy.  It just doesn't ever seem to end up quite that way!  

Today, I decided to try out Colorvale Actions.  They have a sample set of Actions that you can download here for free if you share the link on Facebook or Twitter.  The image I used was one I chose randomly from one of my recent 'play days', as I like to call them.  A play day is one of those days that you go out with a model and just aimlessly experiment.  No expectations, but high hopes that you will get that shot.  You know, "the one".  The one you will repeat over and over and over, because everyone who sees it is going to want it.  Well, anyway, enough about that.  I just randomly grabbed this one out of a lonely little play day folder.

 As you can see, the first photo at the top of the blog is the one straight out of the camera.  No touching up, no sharpening--just a 'what-you-see-is-what-you-get' photo.  The free action "Splendor" in the  comes from the Colorvale workflow collection. Ordinarily, I would do more in the way of workflow, but I wanted to test these actions out on their merits alone.  I have to say, Splendor is one of the more in-depth actions that I've tried.  I was very happy with the result.  And since I realize that many of us want our actions to do it all, I really tried to leave the layers as they were.  On Splendor, I did end up adjusting the 'details' layer just a little.

From there, I applied each of the other actions separately onto the photo that I had already run Colorvale's "Splendor" action.  Of the 5 free sample actions, I have to say overall I was *surprisingly* impressed.  I made only a few very slight adjustments to the layers.  That never happens for me.  The most impressive action was "Twisted Lemon".  I have searched high and low for a Photoshop action that would give me a beautiful black and white photo with only the touch of a button, and Colorvale's Twisted Lemon delivered.  I didn't have to adjust a single layer to get the gorgeous result you see pictured above.  For a quick matte finish, Colorvale's Tangerine Dream really hit the mark.

Of course, I do need to test it out on a few different pictures to see how the light/skin tones/backgrounds react.  An action isn't an action if it only looks good applied to a single photo, right?  I will add some more with minimal adjustments later to test different visual scenarios.  The best actions can be run on multiple photos with minimal adjustments needed on minimal layers. I have to say that so far Colorvale seems to be a versatile product, and I'm definitely giving the workflow actions my "BUY" rating.  

For you Lightroom fans, Colorvale also carries Lightroom Presets.  The only freebie they had was the Colorvale Ultimate Web Enhancer and Resize Lightroom Preset. I do plan to purchase some of their single Presets soon and test them out on the blog, because even though I love post-processing with Photoshop, almost all of my workflow is performed in Lightroom and then completed in Photoshop.