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 :)
