23 New Photoshop Actions for Editing Portraits Useful for Photographers

Photoshop actions are popular not just because they are helpful but also because they are a great time-saver. Especially if you are a busy photographer, applying effects to your photos manually can prove to be a daunting task. On the other hand, creating a Photoshop action that you can apply for a batch of photos can save you a lot of time. All you have to do is record the steps that you did in Photoshop as Actions and simply apply it to the rest of the photographs in the batch by simply clicking one button. Meanwhile, if you want to add an effect to your photos and you have no idea how to achieve it, then there are loads of Photoshop actions out there that you can download and use for free.

To help you find these Photoshop actions, we have rounded up here a total of 40 useful Photoshop actions from different sources. These actions will let you enhance portraits, change color or reduce noise in your photographs, create sepia effects and a lot more with just one click. To download the Photoshop action that you want, simply click on the preview image and it will take you to a new page where you may download the actions and get more information and instructions on how to use them from their respective authors.

I. PHOTOSHOP ACTIONS FOR EDITING PORTRAITS

The actions below were grouped into two, with the first group dedicated for actions for enhancing portraits such as enhancements to skin tone, teeth whitening, brightening eyes and a lot more.

Wedding Enhancers PS Actions

Included in the set is an action to help enhance skin tones, 4 black and white conversions, a dramatic light contrast action, and 5 variations of soft filter effects. While these actions were made specifically for use on your wedding pictures, feel free to experiment on other types of images as well. Also, you can achieve a wide variety of results by combining these actions on the same image.

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Magic Skin Action Set

Called the “Grease and Shine Removal” action, this set of two actions simply and effectively reduces glare on skin. You airbrush over problem areas and the magic happens! Plus, you can adjust the effect to suit when after the action is over.“Skin Smoothing” produces a gentle blended effect for your skin. As with the other action, you airbrush in the smooth skin and get to see the magic occur. This effect is also easily customizable. If the end result looks a little too “porcelain dollish” to you, try simply reducing the opacity of the smooth skin layer.

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Bright Eyes Actions

The eyes are the most important part or highlight of the human face. That is why portrait photographers usually face the challenge of highlighting the eyes in photographs. Here is a Photoshop action that will let you brighten the eyes of your subject easily. However, at the moment, this action can be used only for blue eyes. Hopefully, the author will be able to come up with similar actions intended for brown and green eyes.

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Eye Color PS Actions

Here is another Photoshop action for enhancing eyes in portraits.

photoshop actions

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Actions for Enhancing Portraits

Here is another set of 8 various actions for enhancing your portraits. Use these actions to change the mood and the softness of your photographs. These actions may not look good on every type of photo since it is mainly designed for portraits.

photoshop actions

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Photoshop Action  for Portraits

A photoshop action for enhancing portraits. This is ideal if you prefer a darker but high-contrast look for your portraits.

photoshop actions

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Super Sketch Actions

Here is an action for turning your photographs into a sketched canvass.

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Simply Portraits Action

Another Photoshop action that you can apply to portraits. This action actually sharpens your image.

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Large Set of PS Actions

There are 40 different Photoshop actions in this set that were created using Photoshop CS2 (Although these should also work in some earlier versions of Photoshop). Useful for applying various effects in your portraits.

photoshop actions

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II. PHOTOSHOP ACTIONS FOR COLOR ALTERATIONS

The second group consists of PS actions that are useful for changing the colors or tones of your picture such as creating a sepia effect, converting color photographs into black and white, etc.

Black White Sepia PS Action

Here is an action that you can apply to any photograph to create a sepia and black/white effect. The results may vary depending on the quality of the pictures that you are working on. Feel free to adjust if necessary.

photoshop actions

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Color Actions

These Photoshop actions are useful for changing the tones and colors of your pictures.

photoshop actions

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Photoshop Actions for Changing Tones and Colors

Here is a set of Photoshop actions that you can use to apply various tones and colors to your photographs. These were made using Adobe Photoshop CS5 but it should also work with other versions of Photoshop.

photoshop actions

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Night PS Actions

These Photoshop actions may be used for enhancing night shots as shown in the preview below.

photoshop actions

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PS Actions for Tones and Colors

Another set of actions for changing tones and colors instantly in Photoshop.

photoshop actions

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III. PHOTOSHOP ACTIONS FOR CREATING HDR

The third group is composed of actions for faking the high dynamic range (HDR) look, making your photographs look more interesting and artsy.

Grunge HDR Action

Apply a nice looking grungy HDR effect on your image by a simple click!

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HDR Fake Action

This is not a foolproof way to make “regular” photos into HDR-style photos. However, using the photo in the preview, which is a high-quality dramatic landscape or cityscape, it almost became a real HDR after the action was applied. Apply this action to make almost any picture pop.Try it out and have fun. As with any Action, this will work differently on every photo. You may get extremely pleasing results at times, other times not so much. Feel free to experiment with the action and toggle on and off those steps you think might improve your luck.

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HDR Tools–Photoshop Actions

This action is built to remove the digital grey (lack of contrast or true black) that comes with HDR photography (or normal images could use this as well as a one click fix). When combining many photos to extend the dynamic range, the contrast curve can become very flat and even reverse. This set has 4 actions, HDR Fix light, normal, heavy and clicker.

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IV. PHOTOSHOP ACTIONS FOR CREATING VINTAGE EFFECTS

This fourth set features Photoshop actions for creating the retro and vintage look, which are very popular nowadays. So what are you waiting for? Check all of these exciting and useful actions below.

LT Lomo Effect Action

If you want to create pictures that look like they were taken by a Lomo camera, then here are actions that you can use.

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Old Photo Action for Photoshop

Here’s an action that you can use to make photos look old or vintage.

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Vintage Action Pack

This set includes two actions for creating vintage effects that you can download and use for free.

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Photoshop Actions Pack

A massive pack of five actions packed for Photoshop CS/CS2/CS3/CS4. Each Action will create a layer on top of the one you are working on so that you can delete it in case it’s not the effect you want, or so that you can play with the opacity.

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Pink Vintage Action

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Author: AllFreeDesigns Staff

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