Several months ago I kicked off a search to find the best free actions for photoshop that I could find.  During that search I found a lot that, unfortunately, were not free, but many that were.  One such action set was created by Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman.  I’ve not used all the actions in her free set, so I can’t comment on most of them, however, her “Fresh and Colorful” action has been great.  I have absolutely loved using it.  The action boosts the saturation and really makes the color _pop_, creating a sort of surreal look to the photograph.

First the before.  The following image has had basic post-processing manipulations (exposure, contrast, saturation):

First off, I can’t take credit for the posing in this picture.  In my exhaustive search for the best actions, I saw a lot of unique poses that I have been trying to incorporate into my daily repertoire.  It took several shots before I got an expression that I liked, but I think the perspective is nice.  Anyway, from here I decided to go with the Fresh and Colorful action of Ree’s given the bright colors in this photo.  After executing the action, adjusting the opacity of the two layers created allow you control over the overall “light” in the photo.  What I ended up with was this:

I’ve had a few comments on other forums that the face seems a little blown out with these changes, but honestly, I think that is what I was going for.  Not sure why, just thought it put more focus on the color of the eyes and outfit.

In short, I think the combination of the perspective, and the bright colors, along with this great action, have turned a good photo, into a great photo.  But, I’m biased :)

For those with a DSLR, you probably have a feature built into the camera that you haven’t heard of, or even used before.  This feature, called 2nd curtain sync or rear curtain sync, controls when the flash syncs with the shutter.  1st curtain being at the opening of the shutter, and 2nd/rear curtain being at the closing of the shutter.  Without seeing the pictures below, one might not be able to see an obvious use for this, but after looking at the pictures you’ll probably see the fun that could be had with such an option.  There are probably far more creative things that could be achieved with this feature, but I’ll leave that to others to describe, and just describe what I know.

First, this is what you need:

• DSLR with 2nd/rear curtain option
• External Flash (optional, but preferable)
• Tripod
• Remote trigger (optional, but preferable)
• Imagination!

So here is my basic setup.  First, wait for a nice dark evening, preferably with a new moon, or in the shade of a house such that there is minimal, if any, light.  Once you’ve found your location, make sure you have a good tripod, and it helps to have a remote trigger for the shutter.  The most difficult part of this setup is getting your subjects in focus.  What I did, was take a flood light and set it near the camera.  Then, I place an object on the ground and have the subject stand there, with the flood light on, and in manual focus, focus in on your subject.  Once you are satisfied with the focal plane, turn the floodlights off.

Now, you should be shooting in manual mode at this point, as you’ll need to get full control of the cameras aperture, shutter speed and ISO.  On a very dark night, I’ve found the following settings good:

• ISO: 400 – 600
• Aperture: f8-f14
• Shutter Speed: 4sec – bulb

I use a remote trigger and bulb, which gives me the greatest control.  It also helps to have an external flash, as the built-in flash isn’t the most powerful.  Now, we have everything ready to “play with light”.

There are a couple of ways to do this, but here is what I do.  I’ll have the subject pose as I want them, and then have someone manning the remote trigger.  By shooting in bulb, I can control the timing, and it gives me more time to “paint”.  So, have the cameraman press and hold the shutter open, and then the artist runs into the scene and, with the LED facing the camera, start painting.  The beauty of this setup, is that while you are painting, the camera can only see the LED light.  Once you have completed your painting, run out of the camera’s view and give the signal to release the shutter.  Now, with the 2nd/rear curtain sync enabled, the flash with fire just before the shutter closes, thus capturing your subjects and preserving the LED painting that you performed earlier.

Very simple, yet very fun.  My kids love it, and these pictures are from a party that my son just had with his friends.  We would have done more, but it was quite cold out, so we gave up after about an hour.  Still, the results were good.

There are certain photos, that just seem like they would be better suited as a painting or sketch, rather than an actual photograph.  While browsing over at DPReview, I ran across this useful tool from Topaz Labs, called Topaz Simplify.  It’s extremely easy to use, and gives the user an incredible amount of control on the end product.  Take a look at a few examples of mine that I thought turned out better than the original photo:

Greetings!  I’ll be using this site for various ramblings around my photography.  You can visit my SmugMug site here.