This is a sculpture at the Portsmouth War Memorial, Guildhall Square, Portsmouth, UK

At the same time though, it created an unprecedented burden on many to learn this new technology and perform like a pro. The trouble has always been that Photoshop is vast in its possibilities, and the task of learning enough of its workings a huge undertaking. Often times, it has become too much for some, and they disappear back into their shells. At least for a while.

My personal experience of this, as a photographer is that I was young and excited and very determined, and years on, I am still learning. Through this I have learnt something about identifying the challenges of specific types of image production, and then how to discover satisfactory solutions to reproduce them easily.

When you look at a beautifully edited set of images from a professional photographer, you’ll see that they have had a lot of image enhancements made to them. For most Photographers, this is the primary way to create a noticable difference between what they offer clients and what the clients can do for themselves. It adds a distinctive value to their work that clients can appreciate and are happy to pay for.

This makes professional image enhancement a necessity for Photographers wanting a successful business rather than just a fanciful luxury.

The challenges with having to perform expertly, in this 21st Century way, for Photographers are manyfold. For example, using Photoshop for this process is a given fact. However learning Photoshop requires a longterm commitment as it is such a vast piece of software. Once you have learnt the basics, how far should you go with your retouching? What level of editing do clients actually like the best? How much time should you spend on editing the images? How much should you charge? What extras should you charge for? What is now expected as a standard level? Just what are todays customers expectations?

Some of these questions you will be able to answer instinctively. Others will require time and the feedback of your paying clients.

For the majority of Photographers the toughest questions relate directly to the photo editing side of things. Fortunately we have Photoshop, and then perhaps even better, we have Photoshop Actions!

The development of time saving Actions in Photoshop opened up a new arena for photographers wishing to improve the look of their work and compete commercially. These Actions are incredibly useful in Wedding and Portrait Photography, where dozens of images need to be edited in a short amount of time.

Actions are small (usually) bits of software that tell Photoshop exactly what to do to an image. Each Action is named according to its function and they are activated by clicking an onscreen button. These actions and their butttons are listed in a pallette (a movable panel) inside the Photoshop work area.

Actions are designed to perform repetitve tasks at the click of a button. The sort of tasks they cope with can be wide and varied. Typically though, they will do things like add soft focus to an image, sharpen an image, add warmth to the colours of an image, or perhaps even to resize an image.

To the portrait and wedding Photographer, this can be a godsend. For example, as a Wedding Photographer, you may have 150 images or more lined up, and they all need work doing to them. Lets say you want to sharpen these pictures, then increase the color saturation slightly and finally bring out detail in the midtones! Phew! Doing each one manually one after the other takes hours as anyone who has tried will tell you.

Photoshop Actions to the rescue! With these Actions, you open one image, press a ‘Record Actions’ button to then log the changes you are making. When you are happy with those changes, you then easily ‘Batch Process’ all the other images on Auto with those same changes while you go for a walk or have a cup of tea!

Naturally, there are many tips, tricks and techniques involved with all of this, but in reality, these Actions make it commercially viable to output superb images to all of your clients all of the time.

Unfortunately though, there is a problem with all of this. Regular Actions have their limitations. Inspite of what I have said, to edit your images to a satisfactory standard can still take a huge amount of skill and time. Time is expensive, and when you have established the processes you like to use regularly for your own personal style, you will still (inevitably) end up bogged down in tedious repetitive tasks.

So what is the answer to all of this? It seems that there are now some highly sophisticated Photoshop Action sets that have just been made available. These go beyond our normal expectations of what Actions are capable of. Amongst other things, they can be adapted to your personal style of imagery. These Action sets can enhance your images almost on complete auto pilot and they work at blisteringly fast speeds too.

You can find out more about these actions on the developers site at Pro Photoshop Answers . I understand that they can turn out work that is finished to an incredibly high standard with very little skilled effort from the operator. This means your learning curve is shortened as well as that of anybody else that you may want to train to help you with your work! Aah! It sounds like an image editors dream…

There was a Photoshop Actions limited availabilty promotion that could help you. It may still be on…Good luck

If you are used to the Clone & Patch tools or even the Transform facility, on occaision, you will have had to spend a lot of time tidying up the joins and distortions you inadvertently create. In the video, you will see the answer to your prayers!

Hopefully, these functions will be incorporated into the latest and greatest version of the king of image editing software – Adobe Photoshop CS5. With Photoshop Talk, you will always find the latest on image editing, photo enhancements & digital photography.

If you are used to the Clone & Patch tools or even the Transform facility, on occaision, you will have had to spend a lot of time tidying up the joins and distortions you inadvertently create. In the video, you will see the answer to your prayers!

The Adobe team seem pretty excited about all of this, as our team is here at Photoshop Talk. I reckon there is going to be a lot of CS5 upgrades as well as new purchases of this incredicble image enhancement system. Whether you are a graphic artist, digital photographer, scrap booker, professional or hobbyist thiese developments are going to be great fun.

For my part, I am first in line!

Disposable cameras are also called “single-use” or “one-time” cameras. You can get both digital and film disposable cameras. They’re available almost everywhere, from your local camera store to the grocery store. These cameras take all the work, worry and fuss out of picture taking and leave pure enjoyment. The photo quality is often quite good, and the point-and-shoot nature of almost all disposable cameras mean that you can capture those moments that are missed as you fiddle with all the buttons and wires and the 100+ pages of detailed instructions in your expensive camera’s owner’s manual. Additionally, when you point a little plastic camera at someone, the reaction you get will likely be very different; people are disarmed, more casual and open.disposable cameras

Technorati Tags: photoshop actions, image editing software, retouching, photo retouching, wedding photography

The Photoshop retouching learning curve

Anyone and everyone who has ever pursued the art of image editing using Photoshop retouching techniques will have progressed through a steep and arduous learning curve, that now and then will have been quite testing. Mike Eastman of www.photodomination.com, says this has now all changed. He believes that his new Photoshop action set is currently revolutionising the method for many photographers, amateurs and professionals alike.

For Amateurs & Skilled Photoshop users alike

He says that “Around the planet there are hundreds of thousands of photographers practicing and perfecting their image editing skills, both for fun and for profit right now.” He goes on to add “Amateurs need a straightforward ‘point & click’ system they will ‘plug-in’ that may give them extremely great results that can look superb on their walls at home, or very cool on their latest Blog update. Professionals however need one thing a lot of than that. They need an entire work flow enhancement system that will empower them to produce results that makes them distinct from their customers.”

This Photoshop Action does its job in under a minute

In the past, this kind of system would have come at a hefty price. But it seems that this price tag has gone, currently anyway. It is claimed that for the Professional this Photoshop Action set could be the answer. Apparently, once easily installed, at the press of a button, this Photoshop action launches itself and works a full series of small to large miracles, enhancing your images along the way. It uses a sophisticated and bewildering combination of layers, masks, alpha channel selections, skin enhancing processes and auto space selections to do its job. At the end you’re left with a collection of infinitely variable controls inside the layers palette enabling you to put the perfect finishing touches to your image. Your image will now be ready to show to friends and family, or to your clients. All this is done in under a minute.

Could this be more than just ‘another Photoshop Action set’?

This Photoshop Action set is termed the ’60sec EZ retouch’ and can be obtained through the www.photodomination.com website as a free download with full tutorials. It looks that, no matter your background in photography or image editing, this addition to your Photoshop arsenal is worth having and may potentially become a mainstay. Mike says that the range is being extended, but for now he is continuing to give away this original image editing solution. Go Here

Anyone and everyone who has ever pursued the art of image editing using Photoshop retouching techniques will have progressed through a steep and arduos learning curve, which at times will have been quite testing. Mike Eastman of www.photodomination.com, says this has now all changed. He believes that his new Photoshop action set is now revolutionising the process for many photographers, amateuers and professionals alike.

For Amateurs & Professional Photoshop users alike

He says that “Around the world there are hundreds of thousands of photographers practicing and perfecting their image editing skills, both for fun and for profit right now.” He goes on to add “Amateurs want a simple ‘point & click’ system they can ‘plug-in’ that can give them really great results which will look superb on their walls at home, or really cool on their latest Blog update. Professionals however need something more than that. They need a complete workflow enhancement system that will empower them to produce results which makes them distinct from their customers.”

This Photoshop Action does its job in under a minute

In the past, this kind of system would have come at a hefty price. However it seems that this price tag has gone, for now anyway. It is claimed that for the Professional this Photoshop Action set is the answer. Apparently, once easily installed, at the click of a button, this Photoshop action launches itself and works a whole series of small to large miracles, enhancing your images along the way. It uses a sophisticated and bewildering combination of layers, masks, alpha channel selections, skin enhancing processes and auto area selections to do its job. At the end you are left with a set of infinitely variable controls within the layers palette enabling you to put the perfect finishing touches to your image. Your image will now be ready to show to friends and family, or to your clients. All this is done in under a minute.

Could this be more than just ‘another Photoshop Action set’?

This Photoshop Action set is called the ’60sec EZ retouch’ and can be obtained through the www.photodomination.com website as a free download with full tutorials. It seems that, whatever your background in photography or image editing, this addition to your Photoshop arsenal is worthwhile having and could potentially become a mainstay. Mike says that the range is being extended, but for now he is continuing to give away this original image editing solution.

http://photodomination.net/photoshop-actions/retouching