A Practical Pair: Photoshop Action: Coffeeshop Sunkissed 2

I discovered an incredible resource for photo editing: http://www.thecoffeeshopblog.com/. The writer, Rita, provides one of my favorite things: free Photoshop Actions! These actions are great for aspiring photographers who know the basics of Photoshop Elements or CS but are trying to step up their game. This is a before and after of a newer action called "Sunkissed 2" that I used on one of my kiddo's 12 month photos.

I really like how the Sunkissed 2 action gives this photo a dreamlike quality. The action lets you choose which way the "sunbeam" flows and it's size. This action is improved from the first Sunkissed because it allows you to remove awkward sun spots that sometimes appear when using the action. For example, this is a picture of the "sun rays" that I applied on the picture above. The spots in the yellow box made odd sun-circles on the picture, the newer version of Sunkissed gives you an option to delete specific sunspots so they don't detract from your photo. Cool, huh?

Of course, it doesn't look great on every photo, like this one:

This is my nephew's smash cake photoshoot from his birthday. See the strange sunspot on the balloon? It looks extremely unnatural, so use this action with caution. Overall, I definitely recommend it. I just started using it, and I can't wait to see what else I can use it for! Here are a few other photos I put the Sunkissed 2 Action on as quick examples. They aren't perfect, but I think they are solid examples of the action. In some, the rays are not visible, but the warmth of the action is noticeable.