FREE Action for Portraits; Basic Edit

Rita at the CoffeeShop Blog has written another amazing tutorial for a basic edit on portraits. She gives step by step instructions, then includes a free action to download.  She calls this one "Portrait ToolBox 1.0" and it works for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements! Some basic knowledge of using layers and layer masks are required but you will get amazing results with these instructions. Her tools include a curves adjustment, skin smoothing, levels adjustment for added contrast, how to make eyes pop, vivid color, sharpening, warm up/cool down, add a vignette, fixing blown out parts of your image, making your portrait pop, and even a bonus black and white conversion!

All of her tutorials, instructions, and freebies are awesome so check this one out here:

http://bit.ly/18QU2Zl

4 Easy Steps for Creating a Watermark in Lightroom by Gayle Vehar at Pretty Presets

I just found this excellent tutorial by Gayle Vehar at Pretty Presets for Lightroom.

She shows how to create your own watermark in Lightroom complete with a

 great video. It is super easy!

http://bit.ly/11RSzIr

3 Lightroom Settings to Change Right Now

Gayle Vehar at Pretty Presets just wrote this post on how to change certain settings that will save you valuable time in Lightroom. 

http://bit.ly/10l5jva

How to Use the Local Adjustment Brush in Lightroom 4

MCP Actions just posted this article on how to use the local adjustment brush.

The adjustment brush gives the ability to add an effect to a small area of your image. Although Lightroom 2 and 3 had it, it's much more powerful in Lightroom 4. 

There is a step by step tutorial on how to use it here:

http://bit.ly/15HiSZs

FREE Vignettes and Edge Darkening Presets for Lightroom 4

Matt Kloskowski just posted these free Lightroom 4 presets. These are great for edge darkening in light, medium and strong. He also includes a link on how to install and organize your presets in Lightroom. What a guy!

Download them here:

http://bit.ly/UMUyfR

How to Achieve a Clean, Bright Edit

iheartfaces posted this tutorial on how to edit for a clean, bright photo. Sisters Stephanie and Tammy are the photographers behind Luminosity Photography and Design who wrote this great article. They give the settings used on their sample image then describe step by step how they edited it in both Lightroom and Photoshop. They crop, adjust the White Balance, set exposure, contrast and vibrance. then they use the luminance tab to even out the skin tones in Lightroom. Then bring the image into Photoshop for cloning or patching out blemishes. they show how to bring out the eyes, then make the image pop using a curves adjustment layer. 

As a bonus, they also give steps used to create a beautiful black and white edit. 

This tutorial is amazing! 

check it out:

http://bit.ly/Nnpgax

How to Apply Makeup to a Model Using Photoshop

This article was written by Rachael Towne and posted in Lightstalking. She gives a step by step tutorial on how to apply makeup using Adobe Photoshop. She includes an image that you can download and follow along with her adding skin smoothing, contouring, glow, lipstick, eye makeup, eye brightener, eye shadow and darken lashes. Each of these techniques are handy to have and she makes it easy to learn!

http://bit.ly/W104fu