After admiring some beautiful photos posted on Capture Cincinnati, I finally asked the photographer how she was processing these pictures. She tells me that she is using two filters for photoshop and its called The Midnight and The Morning Filters. It completely softens the photo to the point of looking like a painting. She gave me the link where she downloaded it but I am having trouble getting this - are there other options to obtain these kinds of filters? Not sure if this link will work, but here is a sample of two of her photos. I think they are beautiful. Thanks for any replies.

http://www.capturecin...
http://www.capturecin...

Debbie

That is a nice effect. Could you post the link you received, and go from there? Never heard of either one, but I'd like to find them also.
Thanks.
Steve

Ok so I added the "Mid-Night" action in the files area (There are several others there as well) Remember this is an action not a filter. So once you download the action, place it (unzipped) in a folder where you can find it later.

- open the image you want to apply the action to
- open your actions/ history side menu, then select the actions tab
- select the sub-menu that lets you "add" (load actions)
- browse to the folder you saved the actions you want to use.
- select that action
- now you can use the slider and highlight the first label "mid-night sepia and the run action
- follow the directions carefully (once the action runs on your image a message box will appear)
- click on each layer and adjust as desired.
- flatten and save your image as usual.

I placed a before and after in the photos area

Good luck, lets see what you come up with? :) (do a before and after)
- your host

That is a nice effect. Could you post the link you received, and go from there? Never heard of either one, but I'd like to find them also.
Thanks.
Steve

Steve I never did find filters by that name but she did say they were filters. however, I did find the effect, just not under that name. Its at Flamingpear.com. its called MELANCHOLYTRON. you just go to PRODUCTS and scroll down and you can click on this name and you will see these pics with this effect come up. if you go to download, you will see the name there to download. they say it is a "saf" effect. i have downloaded it but cant get it to PLUG IN to my PS.

Ok so I added the "Mid-Night" action in the files area (There are several others there as well) Remember this is an action not a filter. So once you download the action, place it (unzipped) in a folder where you can find it later.

- open the image you want to apply the action to
- open your actions/ history side menu, then select the actions tab
- select the sub-menu that lets you "add" (load actions)
- browse to the folder you saved the actions you want to use.
- select that action
- now you can use the slider and highlight the first label "mid-night sepia and the run action
- follow the directions carefully (once the action runs on your image a message box will appear)
- click on each layer and adjust as desired.
- flatten and save your image as usual.

I placed a before and after in the photos area

Good luck, lets see what you come up with? :) (do a before and after)
- your host

THANKS TONY! i will have to try this. pictures you did for before and after have a nice effect. also, note that i posted to steve i found the filter for this effect. it is a very defined effect. very simple to find, she just gave me the wrong name but i looked until I found it.

That is a nice effect. Could you post the link you received, and go from there? Never heard of either one, but I'd like to find them also.
Thanks.
Steve

http://flamingpear.co...

and here is the link Steve



MELANCHOLYTRON
Make pictures moody, nostalgic, and somehow sad.

FILTER SET (MELANCHOLYTRON -not free, 30day)
ok... I downloaded and installed. (use their "how do I install for easy instructions) I'm sorry to report, I'm not impressed :( and you were right, in that this is a filter. Further more its a filter tool that essentially houses all your existing filters and available tools in one place. Its like having a mini photoshop tool within your photoshop program. It allows you to customize settings the way you do currently in photoshop...it just makes it easier I suppose because popular settings and tools are in one place and quicker to get to. The resulting image is at your very discretion... nothing is completed for you, which is fine because that's the "art" behind photoshop :)

ACTIONS (MID-NIGHT SEPIA)
now to me the fun can start when you use actions. (imagine finishing an image the way your favorite artist would) The difference between actions and filter sets is that; actions are a series of "filters and "tools" used by the artist to create a certain affect. The action is all the steps the artist takes using; tools, filters, channels, layers, masking, curves and so on... to create the final image.
-in contrast-
All "filter-sets" do is place certain tools and filters in one place so you can make your own decisions about how you want to finalize the image. I also download the "freebies" filter set. It has a ton of pre-set options and again they're short cuts to tools you already know how to use but I will give it that its a great short cut. There are so many of them that you will have to go to each one of them so you can get a feel for different things that are available.

So however you decide to create your final image, have fun and be creative.

Two parts:
First part, I downloaded the actions sets Tony has put up. They are very cool, and would be a great help for photography. Some are specific to portraits, though, which is not my "thang". I also checked out the FlamingPear site. Debbie, I think what you're looking to do could be wonderfully handled by Tony's action sets. Try them all out - I learned a lot just by playing each one.

Second part, is how the actions work. Some of them react dramatically differently from what I'm used to actions doing. When I've made my own actions, it's to create a set of moves with specific settings that quickly give me the desired end result. Hit "play", and boom all the steps are done. In some of these latest actions, the playback stops at each popup, presumably for custom input. That's great, if you want to only have the action show you the proper step, then you tweak to your heart's delight. And maybe that's the intention - don't know. There seems to be a lot of steps in some of these - they look very complicated. Since someone went to all the trouble to record the action, and they were free, that's very cool, and thank you! But on your own, I bet there are many shorter ways to achieve the same impressive result.

What I've done, is open a jpg, play each action, then save a separate PSD file. That way, I can readily see what the action did, and I have all the layers setup in case I want to change something.

I've not used or tried a "filter set". I thought I was doing OK when I figured out an action, and had it become part of my standard workflow.

Thanks.

Thanks for the feedback on this. Obviously the expertise of this forum is very helpful. I think I saw the effects in that picture and was so impressed, I went to the photographer to get the "how tos". I never got it to work anyway. I followed the instructions completely, even reinstalled, but it never found the plug in. But nice to know I can try your actions out on this and thanks for taking the time to post them. I will learn this!
Thanks!

Tony,

Saw the before and after and it looks awesome. Great way to make nice fall pictures.

Thanks for posting the action. Still haven't tried it though.