First timer here, very excited

[Joshua Eller]

Hey everyone, this is my first time ever in a forum and I am happy to say it is this one. I am looking forward to being an active part of this community! First and foremost I have no earthly idea what i am doing but i am actively learning and have done a few things here and there.

I ultimately stumbled across this community because I am trying to find out more about Photoshop Action files and how i can obtain, install, and use one of the awesome shatter, feather, or dispersion effects I have seen used online to create amazing splatter effects. I want to do something really special for my wife this year for Christmas and am on the hunt for a few of those so i can tinker around with some family photos. My wife is largely native American in her blood and a feather effect would be very special to her specifically.

Now that I have officially dragged out my first post.... can someone please tell me how i can go about getting this ball rolling?

Please?

 

[IamSam]

Hello Joshua and welcome to PSG.

You can start by doing some research.

Take a look here: https://www.google.com/#q=Photoshop+installing+and+running+actions

And here: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Photoshop+instaling+and+running+actions

These should get you started and if you run into any problems, let us know!

 

[fredfish]

Hi Joshua - and welcome aboard.

I am assuming that you are thinking of actions from companies such as graphics river - if it is a commercial action they should come with complete instructions on how to use them. One thing to be really careful of is the version of Photoshop that they work with. Actions (as you probably know) are essentially just sequences of actions (hence the name) that are replayed back on your version of Photoshop manipulating images as they go. If your selected action includes a function that is not available in your version of PS it will likely stumble.

However something else you might want to look at is perhaps using "Clipping Masks" (#IamSam very recently did a very good tutorial on using clipping masks. If you look online for feather silhouettes you can "clip" images to those shapes. Have a look at this - Iamsams tutorial - to get you started. If you find yourself getting stuck come back and ask!!

Help me making this photo.

Cheers

John