Wow, some great advice on actions here! I used a few mentioned above and was looking at Nik's Color Efex Pro, 3.0. Their complete edition is a bit pricey though. Anyone tried this suite out yet?
I collect all sorts of actions, both free and paid. The ones I use most are Kevin Kubota's Set 2 and Production Pak, though. And I also have one of Nicole Van's sets that I like rather well.
I took a look at Craig's actions, and I feel as if I must be missing something. It seems that virtually every action increases contrast (with varying levels of blur and opacity on the Soft Light or Overlay layer), and some increase saturation.
With so many simple ways to deliver these results, including sliders and tone curves built right into Lightroom and ACR, I'm not sure why they would ever be worth the money.
bigbee wrote:
I took a look at Craig's actions, and I feel as if I must be missing something. It seems that virtually every action increases contrast (with varying levels of blur and opacity on the Soft Light or Overlay layer), and some increase saturation.
With so many simple ways to deliver these results, including sliders and tone curves built right into Lightroom and ACR, I'm not sure why they would ever be worth the money.
Once you run them andatch them wor, you'd understand. It completely auomates some parts of the workflow.. Keeps highlights in check, adds a lot of life to an image.. You'd just have to see them in action. It would take 30 minutes to do what they do in 30 seconds..
