Free Photoshop Actions that look like INSTAGRAM!

Yay for free photoshop actions! On pinterest the other day I saw these FREE INSTAGRAM lookalike photoshop actions. I knew I had to try them since I'm a huge lover of the instagram. So, I went ahead and threw each action on my SOOC picture so you all can see for yourselves (the actions download also comes with all the neato instagram borders that we love so much, but I chose to not use them).

Things that I've noticed about these actions that you'd might like to know-

1. They are not customizable. It's just a flat action that you throw on a picture. What you see is what you get.

2. Just like regular instagram, these filters only look good in natural light. They're a bit extreme (but instagram filters are generally pretty extreme) in indoor lighting. In fact, I personally wouldn't use them if the lighting is bad.

If you have questions about how to install these actions, the link to download them explains how to get these to work on photoshop as well.

Good luck! And happy editing!

-Jess from IROCKSOWHAT

How to make a gif file in photoshop!

Have you ever wondered how to make these awesome stop action gifs? It's actually pretty simple if you have photoshop (sorry to those that don't! trying using gickr.com).

First, you need to have a set of pictures that you more than likely took continuously in a row. Throw them all in a folder on your desktop in the order that they would appear in your gif.

You're gonna want to make sure that all of your pictures are sized the same and edited before you make this gif. So if you want to make them look all awesome and stuff, do that FIRST. 

Next, open a NEW file on photoshop and make sure you size it the same size as your pictures.

Then the easy part is about to happen, drag and drop all your images at once onto your new file. I literally highlight all the pictures at once and then drag them over to photoshop and drop them on my new file. You'll see that there is an X over top the picture. Just hit enter until all the X's are gone. This is just photoshops way of dividing the pictures on top of each other. BLAH BLAH BLAH very confusing but if you just hit enter until the X's are gone, you'll be good to go.

Now you're going to go to the WINDOW tab at the top of your photoshop program and then scroll down to ANIMATION. Click it.

Clicking on ANIMATION will give you this long skinny bar. Click on the little tab on the right hand side. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, click on the image below to get a better idea of where I clicked. Once you click on the tab on the right hand side of the skinny bar, scroll down to MAKE FRAMES FROM LAYERS.

Once you click on MAKE FRAMES FROM LAYERS you'll see all your pictures lined up in a row. This is where you pick the speed for your image. You see where the time says 0.2 sec.? You can change that to any number you want. You'll have to change each pictures time. There's a way to make them all do it at once, but I don't know it... so I have to manually just go through and change the time of each one. Also, remember to set to FOREVER (it's the little tab under the first picture). This will make your gif never ending... more like a video.

Once you've done all that, go to FILE and then SAVE FOR WEB & DEVICES and you're done!

Thanks Guys!

-Jess 

 www.irocksowhat.com 

Touch Up Tuesday

Hey, Jess here from IROCKSOWHAT doing a Touch up Tuesday. I wanted to keep it simple and actually show you guys my favorite FREE clean up action that I found just by googling one day. Go HERE to download the free photoshop action.

And then for fun, I thought I'd try to make myself look a little BETTER and threw on a Florabella action.

<a href="http://paperheartcamera.blogspot.com/search/label/Touch%20Up%20Tuesdays"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4128/4988323554_f8273c55aa_m.jpg" alt="Touch Up Tuesday's at the Paper Mama" width="150" height="150" /></a> 
Link up your Touch Ups below! Linky's always close at 11:59 PM Wednesday evenings (Pacific time).

The Party Bouncer

So, I do the whole Pinterest thing and there are so many awesome ideas and stuff that I see on there. One of them was this...

That my friend is a "Party Bouncer"! Have you ever tried to take pictures of friends in dark lighting situations and the flash is just too bright? I know I have, minus the party situation of course because I have no life.

Here are some NON EDITED STRAIGHT OUT OF THE CAMERA pictures I took really quick for this post. I took them at about 6:30 at night and the house was very dim.

Pretty good for a flash shot huh? Light is pretty evenly dispersed all around my subjects/fellow partiers. 

See the difference? I could of probably upped my ISO a bit (it was at 200) for these shots taken in a completely unlit and dark room at like, 10:30 at night. 

in the bathroom with the lights out.

These set of pictures were taking at about 9 am with no lights on in the house, but the shades pulled up. My house can be pretty dim. 

I know you guys have seen my flash experiments before with a point and shoot camera (here and here), but I'm just excited to make my DSLR work better for me. I encourage everyone to try this! Even this technique in light settings that aren't terrible, but could be slightly better would still benefit from this little trick. It'll make your indoor pictures so much better! I just love that the light spreads so much more evenly. I consider this just an easy way to get a good shot most of the time without trying (you know what I mean?). For more information on how to construct one of these, go here. 

Thanks!

Jess from...

Friends that have tried this: 

- Rub Some Dirt On It

Freelensing - turn any lens into tilt shift or macro

Freelensing is not for the faint of heart! To do it, you must DETACH your lens from the camera. That's right, detach. There is a chance of dust and dirt and little gnomes getting caught up into lens or the sensor... EEK! But, if you live on the wild side like I do, you'll just GO FOR IT! Actually, you should be fine as long as you're not walking around with your lens detached completely. Only detached when you're ready to shoot.

With that being said, let me introduce you to this awesome world of TILT SHIFT! I love it! It may not be a look for everyone, and it is definitely an acquired taste, but it's definitely a look for those interested in extreme focus/extreme out of focus. Freelensing can also be a way to get a macro look.

My best advice for those that would like to experiment with freelensing - take pictures of still subjects. This isn't something that you can just whip out your camera and start shooting. You kinda have to take your time and adjust your lens so you can get the right look. It will require you to stare inside the viewfinder and wiggle your lens until you get the right look. But it's super fun and definitely awesome looking.

Okay, now how to do it.

First what I like to do is with my lens attached, I go ahead and auto focus on a subject. Once I do that, I carefully take the lens off and then "set" it back onto the camera without actually fully attaching it (you're not going to hear the "click" from when it's officially attached back on). Now, slightly lift the left or the right side of the lens away from the camera all while looking into your viewfinder.. you'll see the difference right away. A little goes a long way, and a lot makes for a super crazy looking world... so choose wisely. I happen to like the extreme tilt shift. Then shoot away. Pretty easy, yet so freaking hard! It's challenging to get it right, but I really encourage everyone to practice. I even got a few of Wyatt when he was sitting still eating some raviolis.

I did run the pioneer woman's "seventies" action on these photos of Wyatt at 60% but that's it. i didn't want to sharpen because i felt it took away from the tilt shift.

These are SOOC pictures with Flora Bella's Morning Glory action at 100%. Again no sharpening.

Good luck everyone!!!

Jess Craig

Experimenting with FLASH on a point and shoot

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Sometimes using your DSLR is just not practical. You need the convenience of your point and shoot and lately I've been needing a LOT of convenience. After a week of using my Canon Powershot, I'm getting sick of how stark the flash is. I had experimented previously this week with a paper towel taped over the flash and thought how I didn't want to stop there. If you want to see how that went, go here. 

So here's my experiment shots. (All shots have very little editing. Just a slight boost and sharpening.)

No filter. I hate this look.

Un-bleached coffee filter. My favorite filter so far.

Green t-shirt filter.

Brown t-shirt filter.

This was actually really fun and I recommend experimenting with whatever you can! You don't have to be limited just because you're using a point and shoot camera! 

-Jess from 

www.irocksowhat.com