Color has always been an Achilles' heel for me. When I first started in this industry, I was always looking for the magic answer: a specific Photoshop action, or a Lightroom preset, or a plug-in that did some kind of magic that created the color that I had wanted. Boy was I barking up the wrong tree.
The Scary Truth
I studied and did what I mentioned before by comparing my work and I knew what I had wanted to accomplish, I just didn't know how to get there. I felt, like many, that there's some magic secret and I wanted it.
Despite how many things I bought, I couldn't get the coloring I wanted. I really found that I love the coloring of many Russian photographers, and the color was something I wanted. But imagine my surprise when I see videos they produce, and they don't use anything magical. Simple cameras, medium-grade DSLRs, non-top-end lenses, and just Lightroom/Photoshop without special programs or actions. Yet they achieve this look.
This was disappointing, but then we ask ourselves why do we not like this answer? After speaking with a Russian who gave me some guidance I finally started to get it. He said that instead of looking for a program or magic solution, really learn what you want to do, and it won't matter the program. I know it seems like a vague answer, and every time someone had told me that in the past I thought it was a cop out. I thought they just didn't want to share "the secret" with me. You can use Lightroom, Photoshop, 3DLut Creator, or any capable program really to achieve a certain color style once you know what it actually is that you want. By that I mean breaking it down and really understanding what the toning really consists of.
I'll admit, I hated that answer when he gave it. The reason? Because it's way easier to always say "if I just had XYZ lens, or of I just had this program, or so-and-so's actions, I could do it" than it is to put all the pressure squarely on your own talent. This is a really hard thing (at least it was for me) to get drilled home. I, like many others, wanted an easier answer. I wanted the secret, and after years of chasing a secret to learn there isn't a secret can be a hard pill to swallow. But it is the truth, and it does put the responsibility squarely on us.
Do Actions and Presets Have a Use?
I believe they do have a place. Perhaps weddings or workflows processing many images, but I feel that for your high-end custom work actions may not be the appropriate thing. Even if you managed to get a certain look you wanted from an action, I do believe you are better off to know how to do it manually because you will then have the flexibility to always produce a look you desire rather than relying on an action to do it for you.
What do you think? Do you rely on actions or have you found a certain path that gets you the results you really want?
Just another well-marketed shortcut that, in the end, may be cool for a few images, but in the end they won't help you become a better photographer. That comes down to learning and mastering a skillset to get the result you want. You can start as simply as adding a curves layer and changing the blend mode to 'color' and going from there. In fact I'd wager it's almost faster to just get what you want using curves manually after a few hours of practice than having to download, install, and flip through 50 actions to find the look you want to match the image you're processing.
I think you're pretty much on point other than saying "in the end they won't help you become a better photographer."
There's a distinct difference in skills between photography and photo editing. A great photographer might not know much about editing and vise versa. Film photographers used/use certain film stocks the same way that some people are using actions in that they tend to give a certain look to images.
Yeah, but what if you want to rip a sick view of a Khol's parking lot?
Po's dad said it best, "there is no secret ingredient".
This is exactly what I am going through at this point. I have been looking for photoshop extensions and workflow actions, and when I started watching russian retouching tutorials I figured out that most of the pictures already looked nice before retouching.
Actually every good edit starts with a good base. If your base photo is crap chances are you are just making an effort to save it.
The only secret is work hard enough, time enough.
When I started in photography, I used to shoot dance events every day. I normally got home with between 400 and 2000 photos almost every day and every night selected and edited through hours.
I selected too many photos (almost everything in focus and some that don't). Now I think that is crazy. An example:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009631396730&sk=photos&collec...
I remember the first days when I finished editing after hours of work and went to bed only to see the next day that my eyes were getting used to aberrations and all the work has to be redone!
But I remember too, that many of the things I learned, I learned it when I was eight hours in editing.
You have to spend the hours, there's no shortcuts. And when you had your homework done, then you can use Actions. Probably you preffer at that point to create your own. And you know now when and how to use it, and when can be useful and when they are not working, because you understand from the foundation what you are doing.
It happens in every craft
There seems to be a misunderstanding here. A Photoshop action is merely a recorded sequence of user actions--a macro. I have a lot of Actions I've created for myself--whenever there is any kind of sequence of steps I perform frequently, such as saving a PSD to a JPEG sized for social media. I have Actions I've created for certain special effects as well. Yes, one can also buy Actions created by other people--and one can then modify those Actioins to suit personal preferences.
Creating an Action is for anything you've done once that you're going to do again.
I'd say anyone using Photoshop who never uses Actions is probably doing a lot of unnecessary repetitive work.
yes, that goes without saying, reference is to the purchased actions that give "looks"
Actions are not a 1 click solution to better photography/retouching. Sure you can buy actions with stylized looks and they may look good on a certain photo every once in a while. They certainly won't turn a bad photo into a masterpiece.
I find that actions are extremely helpful when using retouching techniques with multiple steps. Take frequency separation for example....it's a great tool to have but requires multiple steps. Sure, you could do it manually every single time if you can remember all the steps. It's always good to have an understanding of how and why it works. But I rely on actions to perform these steps for me.
Anything that you continuously do over and over again in photoshop may be worth building an action for. Actions are also great for accessing hard to find tools located deep in Photoshop dropdown menus that have no keyboard shortcut assigned to it. Actions can be pretty awesome and will be used differently by every artist.
I am not going to use the same treatment of a mother of the bride as I would for the bride so no action is going to work for either one to best effect. All the automated "portrait" applications create a plastic looking effect with loss of tonality on the skin, like what one got at high ISO settings with the Canon 5D camera of a decade ago.
Advertising copy of women has put forward a very artificial look that objectifies them and as a photographer I would hate to be earning a living pandering in this manner to immature males and creating a distorted image for the aspirations of young women and girls.