The Paper Mama Brighten Me action. This action has been working really well on natural light photos. The photos of Ruari below were all edited using this action. And, after I run the Brighten Me action... I run the Sharpen action. It's included in this download.
The photos of Ruari below were all run with the Brighten me action on the SOOC image. Then, I ran the Sharpen action. I did not adjust any layers for these photos.
This is one of the before photos: SOOC:
For this photo I turned off the "Exposure" layer and tuned on the "Levels" layer. Then I ran the Sharpen action:
Brighten me action info:
- You may or may not want to adjust your photos exposure before you run the action. Try both ways! See what works best.
- Every layer is available to be changed. I recommend playing with each layers opacity and fill until you get the desired effect for your photo. I think actions should be used as a base, then add your own touch to each photo!
- There will be a folder inside the Brighten Me folder once the action has run through. Here you can decide if you like the way "Exposure" looks... or turn that off and try the "Levels" layer. Or, you can try both and adjust opacity as needed. For me I've found that the "Levels" on and "Exposure" off works best with photos that have a lot of shadow.
- A "Sharpen" action is also included in this download. I like to run this after I run the Brighten Me action. Adjust the opacity of the Sharpen action if it's too sharp.
- If you use this action, please let me know! I'd love to see it! Share your blog or Flickr link to the photo the action was used on in the comments below. Or, join the
Paper Heart Camera Flickr group and share it there. Thanks!
- Play around, have fun!
You can download the Paper Mama's Brighten Me action here!