Sunday, December 08, 2013

CoffeeShop Enchanted Forest Photoshop/PSE Action!


Today I am posting a new fun action called "Enchanted Forest".  This action shares some steps with one of my most downloaded actions, Once Upon a Time, but with the additional ability to add subtle sunbeams and additional depth to your images.  This action is best used on images that have light shining through/around trees, fluffy clouds, or buildings.

I love using this action on portraits I take of the kids in the forest.  Like most of my actions, it is fully adjustable and can be as subtle or dramatic as you like.


Erika LC Photography posted this before/after on my Facebook page. She ran "Sweet Vanilla Custard" and then the "Enchanted Forest" action to add streaming sunlight.
CoffeeShop Enchanted Forest Photoshop/PSE Action Tutorial:



1. Open your image.


2.  Start Enchanted Forest.  Adjust the Angle of the sunbeams to taste.


3.  Add blur for additional depth-of-field to the background by adjusting the Radius in the gaussian blur layer.


4.  A pop-up comes up to let first-time users know that the next step allows adjustment of the sunbeams.  Press Continue.


5.  Adjust the sunbeam blur using the Radius slider.


6.  After the action runs, paint out the gaussian blur on the Blur layer mask to add depth of field.  For this image, I used an 80% opacity soft black brush to paint across the bottom of the image so the children are sharp.

I clicked on the layer mask holding the "\" key or alt-shift so I would see red where I was painting.  To remove the red just click on the layer mask again holding the "\" key or alt-shift.


7.  For final adjustments, I used a soft low opacity black brush on the Sunbeams layer mask to remove some of the haze off the children.  I also used a low opacity soft black brush on the Dodge/Burn layer to burn (darken) the area behind my son and under both kids.  If you want to dodge (lighten) areas of your image use a soft white low opacity brush.  Finally, I adjusted the opacity of each layer to taste.

Mouse over the image to see the "before".  This edit could be as subtle/dramatic as you wish.



Download the free CoffeeShop Enchanted Forest Photoshop/PSE action. You can also download it here.

Do you want to download my favorite CoffeeShop PSE/Photoshop Actions and Lightroom Presets or Design Elements in one convenient zipped file AND help support this blog? Just click here for my action pack or here for a download of some of my most popular design elements, storyboards, and textures.

For complete info on installing all of my actions, click here.

8 comments:

  1. This is perfect for our christmas tree photos :-) Thank you!

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  2. Thank you .. this is beautiful!

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  3. I love this action! I love all of your actions (they are the only ones that I will use because they actually work the way that they say they will) but this one when used on the right photos is absolutely magical! Thanks!

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    1. Thank you so much Shanna, this really means so much to me!!!

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  4. Thanks for this. I have really enjoyed using it. Works well and looks amazing.

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Rita