1) WHAT ARE PHOTOSHOP ACTIONS?
They are a series of recorded steps that we created that help you edit
your image without having to do each step manually. Thus saving you
time!
They are shortcuts, and are essentially a one click editing process.
Granted there are times that you will need to adjust the opacity of
the actions, it takes the time out of having to do each step on your
own, freeing up your time and allowing you to edit faster!
2) HOW DO I INSTALL THESE ACTIONS?
Installing Elements on a PC for Elements 8 and Windows 7–(There are a
lot of variations, so if this is not your combination, a quick Google
search will yield a lot of results.)
First, unzip the action pack. Then follow the following installation path.
Installation Path:
● Start Menu
● Computer
● OS (C:) (This letter might be different for your computer)
● programdata
programdata is not the same as Program Files.
If you don’t see programdata, it’s probably hidden. Find the
Windows icon in your taskbar. Click on that and then
search for “folder options” in the “search programs and files”
box. Click the View tab of the Folder Options dialog box.
Click the radio button “show hidden files, folders, drives.”
● Adobe
● Photoshop Elements
● 9.0 (Obviously, this can be different for different versions.)
● Photo Creations
● Photo Effects
Installation Technique:
1– Make sure PSE is not running.
2– Download action files from links to your computer. Unzip the files. (Right
click on the zippered file. Choose “Extract All.” Click ok.
3– You should have one file ending in the .ATN suffix and one ending in .PNG.
4– Copy the files into the Photo Effects folder. This is where that
long installation path comes into play.
5– Open PSE. Look at the Effects Palette, on the right side of the
screen. If the Effects Palette is not visible, go to the menu
and click on Effects.
6– Click on the Photo Effects button (3rd from left under the word
Effects). In the drop-down list to the right of this button, select
Show All.
7– Click on the icon to the right of the word “Effects” that has a
down arrow next to three horizontal lines. Click on Show Names.
8– This will be where your new actions are! There will be new little
icons with the action names on them. They are in alphabetical order.
BUT
9– If you still don’t see your action, you might need to rebuild your databases.
So navigate to the 9.0 folder in the path above. Rename the ThumbDatabase.DB3
to anything you choose. Popular ways to go are today’s date or “OLD″.
10– Find the Locale folder that is in the 9.0 folder. Open the
en_US folder in the Locale and rename the MediaDatabase.db3 file.
11– Open PSE 9. This will take longer than usual, because the
databases are being rebuilt. 30 minutes is not uncommon. Don’t disturb Elements
during this time.
13. Click on the Photo Effects button (3rd from the left under the
word Effects). In the drop-down list to the right of this button,
select Show All.
14. You should be able to find your new action now. If you can’t, see
Possible Issues section below.
15. To run the action, double click on the thumbnail. Be sure your
image is open before trying to run an action.
Possible Issues:
● If the new action is not in the Effects palette after
restarting Photoshop, try restarting your computer.
● If you get the error messages “Could not load the actions because
the file is not compatible with this version of Photoshop.” followed
by, “Could not complete your request because there is not enough
memory (RAM).”, you probably have two thumbnails in your Photo Effects
palette. One should work, but the other will produce these messages.
To correct, navigate to the Photo Effects Folder. Look for two JPEGs
associated with this action. One will be suffixed with .thumbnail and
one will not. Delete the file that does not have .thumbnail in its
name and rebuild the database again. Note that Photoshop Elements will
automatically create the file ending in .thumbnail.jpg and you should
not need to add a JPG yourself.
Installing Elements on a Mac–
To Install Actions in PSE 9 on a Mac, download and unzip the
action set and copy the files to here:
● System Library
● Application Support
● Adobe
● Photoshop Elements
● 9.0
● Photo Creations
● Photo Effects
Find the en_US through the following path and rename the
Mediadatabase.db3 file to MediadatabaseOLD.db3.
● System Library
● Application Support
● Adobe
● Photoshop Elements
● 9.0
● Locale
● en_US
Restart Elements
Loading Actions into CS4 and 5-
The easiest way to do this is to save the actions to a folder in case
your computer crashes or you lose Photoshop for whatever reason. I
would recommend the Actions folder in your Photoshop file, but it
can be anywhere. Then open that folder and make sure the action pack
is unzipped, and double click the action. It will load itself into
your action palette.
3) IT LOOKS LIKE I NEED TO REBUILD MY DATABASE! HOW DO I DO THAT?
This tutorial is amazing, and we couldn’t have said it any better ourselves!
4) I RUN AN ACTION AND IT LOOKS LIKE NOTHING HAS HAPPENED TO THE PICTURE?
The instructions go over each action, and will explain the ins and
outs of each specific action, but in general, what has happened is
that the action is meant to be applied to a small area (like eyes
or skin), but the action has run over the entire image. It is then
masked off with a black mask, which requires you to select a soft
white brush at a low opacity to paint onto the places you desire the
effect to show.
5) COME OUT OF THE SHADOWS DOESN’T SEEM TO BE WORKING?
This is another action that needs you to tell it what to do. The
action sets it up for you. But you need to click on the adjustment
layer icon (it will look like a levels icon in Elements or a Curves
icon in Photoshop.) This will open the adjustment dialog box, and you
can lift the curve or pull the middle slider to the left a little
until you reach the desired lightness in the shadows.
6) CAN I GET A REFUND?
Due to the digital nature of what is being sold, we cannot issue
refunds. We have tested these actions in Photoshop 7-CS5, as well as
Elements 6, 7 and 8 and know that they work as we expect them to.
Buying them for earlier versions of any software is an “at your own
risk” venture.
7) WHAT PHOTO EDITING SOFTWARE DO WE USE?
We personally use Photoshop CS4 and CS5. We also have an
understanding of Photoshop 7, and Photoshop Elements.
8) I HAVE YET TO BUY ANY EDITING SOFTWARE, WHAT DO YOU SUGGEST? WHAT
WILL YOUR ACTIONS WORK WITH?
It really depends on you. Photoshop is FANTASTIC. CS5 is amazing, but
it is pricey and there is a bit of a learning curve (of course, our
actions can help with that, wink, wink.) It is less pricey if you are
a student and can get a student edition. Elements is also great, but
has more limitations. Still, it is much cheaper. So it kind of depends
on what you can spend and how much time you can take to learn the
(awesome) new program. Our actions are tested to work in Elements 6
through 9, and Photoshop CS through CS5. If you have Photoshop 7 you
need to buy the elements version 
9) WHAT LIGHTING DO YOU USE?
We use Alien Bees (An AB400 for newborns) and a giant softbox. Usually
the 60×40 Paul C. Buff AB softbox.
10) DO YOU HAVE ANY VIDEO TUTORIALS?
www.youtube.com/user/pureactions/
11) WHAT’S YOUR BEST ADVICE FOR GETTING A GOOD SOOC IMAGE?
Exposure Exposure Exposure!!!! Once you learn metering you will
see your sooc images improve a lot. We also do custom white balance
with our Lastolite Ezbalance card.
12) HOW DO YOU CALIBARTE YOUR MONITORS?
No matter what you do, you need to calibrate your monitors! We use
the the Eye One Display 2 for our monitor calibration.
13) WHAT IS IN YOUR BAG?
What’s in our bag:
We get asked a lot what we shoot with. It’s a natural question, as
gear can make a difference in the final shots. So, here’s the
rundown.
Our camera bodies are 5D Mark IIs.
Our lenses are Canon 70-200 2.8L is version i and version ii, Canon 85
1.2L version ii, Canon 85 1.8, Canon 50 1.2L, Canon 135 2.0L, Canon
50 1.4, Canon 16-35 2.8L version ii, Canon 100 2.8L is macro, Canon
100 2.8 macro, Canon 24-70 2.8L
Our flashes are the Canon 580 ex ii, and 2 430 ex flashes.
Our strobes are Alien Bee 800 and Alien Bee 400 strobes.
Our softboxes are a Wescott 50×50 umbrella-based softbox, and a Paul
C. Buff 60×30 softbox.
Our gray cards are Lastolite EZ Balance, and Robin Meyers gray card.
Our strobe triggers are Cactus v.2. (Yeah, we know they’re ghetto,
but we love them.)
Our beanbags for newborns are the Puck and basic ones from Smiths’
Marketplace. (Yeah, one even looks like a soccer ball.)
14) LOOKING INTO BUYING YOUR ACTIONS…. WHAT DO YOU RECOMMENDED?
Set 1 is what we call our gateway set! Once you get that you will
want more. But really, Set 1 is full of exposure fixes, white
balance fixes and some hazes and color pops. It is a great starter
set.
15) DO YOU EVER HAVE PROBLEMS WITH UPLOADING IMAGES THAT END UP
LOOKING DRAMATICALLY DIFFERENT THEN PHOTOSHOP? DO YOU HAVE YOUR
PROFILE SET TO ANYTHING DIFFERENT?
You always want to make sure that your settings are set to Srgb. You
can do this in ACR at the bottom there is a blue clickable link
under the picture. It will need to say Srgb. If it says that you are
set! If not click it and change it to Srgb. You can also it in
Photoshop to already edited images by going to Edit – Convert to
Profile and select Srgb and then resave.
16) WHAT SIZED IMAGES DO YOU UPLOAD TO FACEBOOK?
We have found the best luck with sizing our images to 800 by whatever
it defaults to to maintain the proper constraints. Meaning when you
run your size for web action, put 800 in the first box
17) WHEN I DOWNLOAD THE ACTIONS WHERE DO THEY GO?
Wherever you have it set to download from the internet. Some it
downlaods to the desktop, others have it set to download to their
download folder.
18) I BOUGHT THE ACTIONS WHEN I HAD ELEMENTS, AND HAVE NOW UPGRADED
TO PHOTOSHOP! CAN I GET MY ACTIONS FOR PHOTOSHOP OR DO I NEED TO
REPURCHASE THEM?
We will hook you up! Just email us when you have upgraded and let us
know your paypal email address that you used, so we can verify your
order, and we will gladly send you the photoshop version free of
charge!
19) I JUST GOT A MAC AND HAD A PC BEFORE. WILL YOUR ACTIONS WORK ON MY MAC?
Yes!!
20) WHERE CAN i FIND EXAMPLES OF BEFORE AND AFTERS USING YOUR ACTIONS?
First… our lovely website here!! Second our facebook page!
www.facebook.com/purephotoshopactions
We are always uploading before and afters as are fans!!!
21) DO YOU SHOOT IN RAW OR JPEG?
Both! We shoot raw plus jpeg! We try to get our soocs pretty much
perfect, so then we can quickly just edit the jpeg and be done
22) WHY AM I GETTING A NEWSLETTER FROM YOU?
When you purchased your actions, you agreed to communication from Pure Actions through the form of newsletter. You can unsubscribe though if you would like. Please do that through the email and do not mark it as spam. We don’t send out tons of newsletters, and what we do send out, are full of little tips and tricks and sales information!
22) WHERE DID YOU GET THE PAPER YOU USED FOR YOUR BACKGROUND ON YOUR WEBSITE?
We LOVE LOVE LOVE Sassy Designs!
Check her out!
Her shop is
http://sassy-designs.net/shop/
Her Facebook is
http://www.facebook.com/sassydesigns
