Self Portraits

I had some time on my hands the other day and suddenly decided I wanted to take pictures of myself. How vain right? haha! My dogs were asleep, my husband was busy but I felt like taking pictures, so I just made myself the subject for the photoshoot.

I had fun with them and wanted to show you a few as well as show you some of the Photoshop Actions that I used on the photos.

If you aren't familiar with actions, they are basically just a series of steps that you can automate and tell it to do that to any picture you want it to. You can create them yourself (which is something more expert users like my husband does) or you can buy them! The actions that I used are from the Totally Rad Actions "The Revenge" set. (Click here to see their samples.) I think almost every single photographer whose blog I read uses these actions. Even the uber famous, awesome ones like Jessica Claire uses them so don't think that these are only for beginners, everyone uses them! Here's a link to one of her posts where she mentions using the actions. (BTW, the lovely bride is the gorgeous Ami of Elizabeth Anne Designs so click over there to see her amazing vow renewal pictures if you haven't yet.)

I'm not going to get into how actions work or what not because I am not a Photoshop expert. I know the minimum that I need to know for Photoshop, so I am probably not the best person to answer questions. However the Totally Rad Actions site has a FAQ that may help you out! (Google has a ton of articles too.) All I have to say is that they are totally worth the investment. If you've bought yourself a dSLR and have learned how to use it, the next thing worth buying are these actions.

Here are 3 things that you can find me doing on any given day. For your reference I have included one original, the others only show the post processed. (The names of the actions used are at the bottom of each photo.)

Thoughtful

straight out of the camera

Thoughtful

Thoughtful uses the Troy action at 75% opacity

I am a thinker. My husband says my mind never stops and it's true, it never does. That's why I have trouble watching TV or a movie, I just can't shut my mind off. A lot of times it's about stressful stuff like work, but I like the moments where I'm just thinking about some of the good things that I'm looking forward to. I like to hope that when I'm thinking those thoughts, I always have a bit of a smile to my face.

Eye Candy

The Reader uses Flare-up (faded) action at 30% opacity

I love fashion magazines, so much so that I buy ones that I can't even read like the Japanese one I am holding above. The pictures enough are eye candy to me and I can't get enough! I could flip through magazines looking at fashion spreads all day long.

Giggles

Giggles uses Lux (soft) at 60% opacity with the Dirty Diana texture at 25% opacity

I laugh a lot. My life is full of giggles and laughter and I'm so lucky to have so many wonderful people around me who contribute to that. I've been told that I have a laugh that is bigger than my body which is sometimes embarrassing but I can't help it. When somebody makes me laugh, I laugh like I mean it!

Oh and if you are wondering, the color on my nails is OPI "I'm Indi-a mood for love". It's the perfect summer pink, one of the best pinks I've found. My hair was styled by blow drying on low heat with the diffuser, then combing through a curling cream throughout my hair and then curling with the curling iron but instead of clamping down on the hair, i just held it and twisted it over the barrel to create a loose wave.

This is the first time that I've used actions on my pictures for this blog but if I use them again, I'll let you know so you know which ones I'm using! Also, if you don't want to pay for the Totally Rad Actions just yet, The Pioneer Woman has an awesome set of actions that she created that you can download for free! Check out her post here. Have fun!

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