A Beautiful Mess Photoshop Actions

One of my most favorite blogs of late is A Beautiful Mess. It is fresh, and fun and plain awesome. And last month they launched their online shop. I was immediately drawn to two things: the "Mastering Your DSLR" course (because I bought one in November and let's just say I am less than an expert at it!) and their Photoshop actions.

I bought the course immediately, as an early birthday present to myself. I am currently halfway through, and my beautiful camera is no longer a scary, foreign device. The course is fun, super easy to follow, and very aptly named as it really does teach you the skills necessary to become the master of your DSLR.

And since I am learning to take beautiful pictures with my little toy, I wanted to make them even more perfect. That's where the Photoshop actions come into play. If you don't know what they are, ever heard of a little thing called Instagram? ok, now have you seen those fun filters you can use to change the aspect of your photos? That's pretty much what the actions do. They are Photoshop filters that give your pics a specific effect or look, with just one click.

They have three collections, which you can buy separately. Or you can also get all three for a special price. Seeing the examples they provide for each, I was drawn the most towards the Fresh Collection. It is pretty self-explanatory: the pics look crisp, clean, fresh, which is my favorite feel for my photos. Then the Folk Collection on the other hand is a lot more rustic and vintage, which is great for moody photographs. And lastly, the Signature Collection is comprised of actions that add more subtle, serious effects. It is gorgeous, but a little too "grown-up" in my opinion.
I went back and forth and finally bit the bullet and got all three, but I found my instincts to be true: I keep using the Fresh collection 90% of the time.

I still have a lot more playing around to do with my actions, but here is a glimpse of what I have accomplished so far:

1. You will have to forgive me, but this was the very first photo I edited and can't for the life of me remember which action I used!  (insert "The Scream" emoji here!). But I just had to include it because look how the colors just pop in the second photograph!

2. For this one I used the Eleanor and the Luna actions, both from the Fresh Collection.

3. This one has Chloe from the Fresh Collection and Merit from the Signature Collection:

4. Audrey, from the Fresh Collection, won me over. I love how retro and romantic this photo looks:

5. Now look at this one, edited with Violet from the Folk Collection! Moody and with a very old-school feel to it. I love it.

6. My favorite action from the Signature Collection is Rose Gold. (Anything rose gold will have me obsessed right now, actually!). It gives the photo an interesting, almost girly look, doesn't it?

I have been playing around a bit, seeing how the different actions will look on my pictures. My verdict is that they were well worth the investment, as I have so many options now to get my pictures to look more professional and definitely a lot more interesting and fun. I definitely encourage any Photoshop owners out there to go have a look at them, you really won't regret it.
And I have also found that this is specially useful for phone pictures or those of lesser quality, as these actions instantly beautify them.

And no, A Beautiful Mess aren't sponsoring me in any way to write this post. I am simply sharing something I am currently loving, and that might be of interest to some of you out there  :)