Saturday, April 28, 2007

See what Others are Saying!

What a few people that have bought the actions had to say about them:

Check out MORE reviews (or leave one of your own) HERE

"The sunshine in my hands is a fantastic action! I find most of them add a lot of personality to the photo~Also the snap actions is great... use it in my workflow~"- EmmaS.

"The main advantage is they don’t seem to turn the skins red or yellow as I find a lot of colour ones do, but if they go a bit unnatural, it’s so easy to just ease them back with the brush set to 50%. I love the combination of “beastly colour” and “sunshine in your hand”." - Kate

"Very straight forward and great step by step instructions...The effects are customizable and don’t blow my whites. I’m so excited that you’ve created actions I can actually USE!" Donamari

"Just wanted to let you know that I love love love your actions. I have heaps and have spent a fear few dollars on actions but none have produced the skin tones that yours do.. Thank you for making this easier and achieveable J Looking forward to “more”" -Michelle T.

"Love them!...Your actions are great, and I appreciate that they aren't
through the roof expensive!"- Kelly

A few Quick Things

I'm working on a new setup for buying the actions.. Something with a shopping cart. For now you can still use paypal (see the link on the side with more details on how to pay).

Remember, if you have any questions or problems paying or with the actions, just shoot me an email (actions@kyliebanks.com). I'm usually around and can answer pretty quickly.

Also, if you've purchased the actions and are interested in helping me test further versions/actions let me know.

Also wanted to share this email answer I got from the NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals). I've been curious as to what is the best method of applying sharpness/noise reduction to RAW files in Adobe. I'm a pretty good Googler, but could never find much info on the best way to do it. I shot a quick email to NAPP and got the answer in less than 6 hours!

Hi Kylie,
There are a number of god books on the market about using the Camera Raw plug-in. But here's the nutshell:
I would suggest that you open one of your typical shots in Camera Raw, turn off the auto adjust feature (Control-U/Command-U), adjust the sliders manually (including those in the Detail tab), then use the command Save New Camera Defaults from the menu to the right of the Settings pop-up. Your images then preview and open with adjustments more appropriate for your shots.

In the Detail tab, here's what I suggest:
--Zoom in to 500% on an area of shadow.
--Drag all three sliders all the way to the left.
--Drag the Color Noise Reduction slider to the right until the red/green/blue specks disappear.
--Drag the Luminance Smoothing slider to the right until the light splotches disappear.
--Leave the Sharpness slider at zero and sharpen in Photoshop, where you have more control.


Thanks for the question & best of luck!
Pete
NAPP Help Desk
If you've looked at joining NAPP and weren't sure if it was worth it, I'd really recommend it. They have a TON Of information there, as well as discounts and forums. The pricetag isn't too bad either, just $99 for a year!

NAPP

Friday, April 27, 2007

About The Actions

Have you ever bought an action and then found that you just can't get it to work for you and the way YOU shoot? I know how frustrating it is to have actions that don't let you build your own person style and touch to the process. That's why I make sure to build tweakable layers into each of my actions.

These actions are designed to give you the control.
Stops are built in to allow tweaking and personal preference for each photo.

Each set comes with the Sunshine action, which brightens midtone/shadow areas, while keeping your highlights safe from blow outs..


No more having to erase and mask off areas when doing your lightening/curves!


The Color Workflow set comes with an action designed to add depth to your tones and my Beastly Color action, which gives you those beefed up popping colors, without ruining your skin tones. Fully adjustable to put the color exactly where YOU want it! The method used is different from normal color pops, so you don't end up with alien colors, just enhancement of what was already there.






The Black and White set gives you those soulful/moody black and whites you've been craving, as well as 5 beautiful and adjustable conversions. An action to adjust the tone saturation, as well as one to bring back black in the shadows is also included.






Also included in both sets is the Snap it Action, which gives you that last little oomph, and the Burn Baby Burn action, a simply edge burning action that can also be used to darken areas of interest, or minimize distracting light spots. Both are simple actions designed to speed up your workflow.


The extras set is a simple set of border actions for websized files, as well as an easy eye pop and teeth whitening action that gives you interest in the eyes without going overboard.


Each set also comes with instructions to help you streamline your workflow using the actions, as well as tips on how to use them.

There is NO cure-all action out there that will work perfectly for every photo or photographer. Which is why I don't claim to have a super secret method and/or charge astronomical amounts for my actions. I know what it's like to have invested in actions and then felt like the didn't deliver as promised. I keep my action sets affordable so that everyone from the just starting out photographer/photoshop user to the professional can use and enjoy them.

I'm dedicated to making sure that these actions work for you. Because of the nature of the actions I can't offer refunds, but I will promise that I will work with you as much as needed to get the actions to work for you and your workflow.

Need more convincing? Check out the testimonials page and read what people are saying about the actions.

As always, if you have any questions or need to see an example, just email me at actions@kyliebanks.com and I'll be happy to chat!

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Welcome!

Welcome to the Blog for Kylie's (phaunt) Actions! My vision for this place is to have some fun and share some of the tips/tricks I've learned in photoshop over the years, as well as allow people to share some of their work. I also have some contest ideas to win photoshop goodies, as well as other fun stuff.

I'd like this to be a place that people can feel free to ask ANY photoshop question they have. I dont profess to know everything, but if I can't answer the question I'll find the answer for you!

I LOVE feedback.. it's how I tweak and change things. So if you've purchased my actions and have ANY problems or feedback I want to hear it, good or bad.

This blog is a work in progress, and I tend to have a short attention span, so bear with me.. Hopefully this can be a fun place for people to learn and share some photos!

So to kick it off.. I thought I'd share a pic of my own. Just a fun snap of Lilly, my daughter. This one came out pretty good SOOC because I was shooting in a place that I know how the light usually works. I used the Beastly Color action (Color Workflow), Eye Poppa, and the Black border.. oh.. and cloned out the picture frame on the left.