Next on the agenda of today’s post is Photoshop actions. I have been struggling with the idea of buying actions for a while now. I have always wanted to do everything on my own. I wanted to say all my end product is 100% Nattnee made. It’s some sort of artistic integrity issue whatever thing that got suck in my head.
Over a long period of time (I hear someone says six months?), family and friends have been telling me over and over that at the end of the day it is about working smarter. It’s about the end result and do I want to be limited by my own knowledge of Photoshop and maybe figure out all this stuff some years down the track or do I want better images TODAY. A friend equates the thinking of this is artistically cheating to the invention of autofocus. He says it’s just a tool like anything else.
So far I have been proud of what I can produce on my own but if you look at the end result of the likes of Jasmine Star, who is my idol btw, will I ever get that kind of end result on what I know? Maybe but probably not.
Anyway long story short, I bought TRA2 and Essential Color Pop actions to try them out. I had a look at the steps involved in the actions themselves and OMG there was no way on this planet I would have thought to do all that stuff. No freaking way.
In terms of artistic integrity, theses are not things you can use to get desired result in one click. I don’t mean they’re not good. These actions will certainly make your photos look better if you just use them straight on the rocks but in terms of knowing what to use and in what combination to get what you want, it’s not one click of a button. You still need to develop your own style and have a vision of what you want as the end result. Just because they are available does not mean you will get great photos and believe me I have seen overprocessed (in a bad way) photos. Also let’s not forget the fundamental things about photography that Photoshop will never fix!
All in all, I am glad I bought them. I have been an idiot all this time and now I know I was never going to be able to figure half that stuff out. I am satisfy with the artistic integrity issue ‘cos I know for myself now that I have them doesn’t mean my photos are suddenly better.
What I have to do now is spend some time working all these actions out and see how I can best use them to achieve what I want. In the meantime, check out this sample of my bro. It’s got some Grandma’s Tap Shoes from TRA2 applied to it.
