Photoshop actions – Neil’s secret sauce
In finessing an image, I rely on certain Photoshop plug-ins for retouching portraits, but there are also numerous well-known Photoshop tricks that I rely on. These vary, depending on what needs to be done with an image – sometimes lips need to be a shade darker, or eyes a touch lighter. It might be selective sharpening. Or a reduction in red tones. Or blue tones. It varies.
In referring to some of these Photoshop techniques in the various articles on the Tangents blog, I often refer to it as my “secret sauce” or “Photoshop fairy dust”. While the actual “secret sauce” that I used may very well differ from image to image, I rely on a few steady techniques.
For example, the portrait at the top which is a favorite image of mine. While I think the lighting is great, especially considering it is all done with a single on-camera bounced flash. However, it looks even better with some selective sweetening of the image in Photoshop.
And here it is … Neil’s (now not so) secret sauce. All packaged into two easy-to-use actions.
The fee to download the action is $20.00 US, and is payable via Paypal.
The zip file contains three files:
- Neil’s Secret Sauce – the action creates several layers, which can then be brought in through changes in the opacity of the layer, and / or the layer mask. When you run the action, it will create the layered version which looks the same as your original file, but now allows you to do selective changes to your photo.
- Neil’s Extra Tasty Treats – a few additional effects that can be added.
- a PDF instruction sheet, to explain how it all functions. For those even just slightly familiar with Photoshop, the action itself should be very simple to use. But the PDF is there in case you need help. And of course, we’ll answer all questions here that may come up.
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Where this Action can and can’t work:
Adobe Photoshop: YES
Adobe Elements: NO
Lightroom in Conjunction with Adobe Photoshop: YES
Lightroom Standalone: NO
Aperture in Conjunction with Adobe Photoshop: YES (not verified)
Aperture Standalone: NO
Would this be suitable for Elements 9?
Neil do you know if these actions will work in Photoshop Elements?
Neil,
Thanks for the sauce. I plan on purchasing the download for curiosity sake and for my own professional development. However, I would love/prefer if you would create a video tutorial of something like this with a screen capturing device (camtasia?) and sell that as the download. I myself….as well as many others, learn better in a digital arena like that. This way I could follow along step by step with the instructions and just press pause when I’m toggling between windows to perform the actions. It would be even better if in the download you provided the same image for the customer to manipulate so the directions would remain consistent for the audience.
I enjoy the books and tutorials to read when I’m interested in flash, but when I’m trying to learn PS, I always prefer the video.
Thanks and keep up the good work.
Kevin
I’m no PS guru, but I’m reasonably skilled at retouching. I just had to download the actions to see what you’re doing and how :)
Thanks for making them available.
Hi Neil,
Anything like this on Aperture 3.0?
Scott
interesting, is this applicable too all kind of lighting, conditions, pictures? or only close up portrait?
Could you post some before/after to show some of the individual actions?
As we don’t use LR, our lighting is already pretty good after processing.
Tid,
I have posted a before/after image here:
https://neilvn.com/forum/discussion/401/neils-secret-sauce-action-sets-for-post-processing-now-available
In the post you already have samples with Neil’s Image of before/after with eyes, lips, etc. Just subtle tweaks.
With the image I just posted are before for: Open Shadows, Remove Blue, Sunburn Relief, and some Fill Light samples. Full explanation in the Forum Post.
Neil, thank you for these action sets. As a fairly experienced Photoshopper, I was interested in seeing what they could ‘really’ do, especially after seeing the image sample above. I am more than pleasantly surprised as there are several features that will now become part of my post processing workflow. I particularly appreciate the subtleties in some of the actions, especially when working on close up portraits. There are several action sets on the market today that sell for a substantially greater cost. Owning a few, of which I only use a little, I can say that yours offers exceptional value for some very important workflow actions. What a find, truly!
Can you create a video tutorial please?
Love ur tutorials!!!
i’ll second that on video…
When u have time of course…
And congrats on ur citizenship!!!
I for one, know how important it is…
Im not understanding the people who need video tutorials.. People, if you know how to run Actions on your photos, then there is really no need to have a video tutorial. All you are really doing it letting the Action play and once its done (10secs or less), you start to slide the opacity to apply the majority of the layers..
Hi Neil got these actions some days ago.. and should say thank you very much. They are brilliant and I am still getting use to them and learning how to get the exact effect, but they are brilliant. Till now no problem using them and thanks to you as they are simple and easy to use.
Want to begin Flash photography and learning from your book, hopefully one day.
Best Regards and keep brining amazing stuff and some more Actions…
Guru Saini
Hi Neil again with question about your actions. They are working great and thnx again. Just a question I dont know whether I am doing right or using the one of the actions right to get that pop up effect in the images. After running your super set 1, then i run seceret sauce advance button and also simple advance. This places a layer on the top of the image, but what effect i am suppose to get dont know. as when i try to change the opacity i feel it is giving efffect like when you increase the clarity in camera raw… Is is suppose to happen like that or i am doing something worng an same thing happens with simple sauce action too. Please advice on this.
Looking forward for your reply and may be you can show difference by using image to see what is the end effect.
Guru, from London
Just bought 2 of your flash books on Amazon, and now your action sets.
You deserve all the adoration you receive
Many thanks.
Hi Neil and Trev,
I purchased your action set (which is an incredible deal BTW) and read through the instructions several times. However, I cannot get the “Super Set” to run no matter what I do. I have re-downloaded twice but continue to get errors. The other individual actions seem to b working just fine. Probably user error, but I am stumped – let me know if someone can help. Thanks!
Love them! Thanks Neil. Best $10 I’ve ever spent. (I can’t get out of Starbucks with my kids for that cheap!)
25.Hi Neil and Trev,
I purchased your action set (which is an incredible deal BTW) and read through the instructions several times. However, I cannot get the “Super Set” to run no matter what I do. I have re-downloaded twice but continue to get errors. The other individual actions seem to b working just fine. Probably user error, but I am stumped – let me know if someone can help. Thanks!
Comment by Cary Rothschild — December 26, 2011 @ 4:54 pm
Hi Neil,
I’ve exactly the same problem. Some individual actions work like eye crisp, teeth whitening, eye whites others don’t and with the whole set I get a lot of different error comments. Is it possible to get a link for the download the actual version of the software?
G. Rudolph
Germany
I have Photoshop CS and in running the action I get a message that ‘make’ is not available as in ‘make adjustment layer’ etc. I am thinking that this must be something that is available in later versions of Photoshop. Is this something I can get around or am I out of luck?
Hello: Neil and Trev
I purchased your action last night. So far I am happy with it.
Just a question: Is it possible the individual action can be run without flattened image? Thank you
Toan
Toan,
I have sent email, but the answer is a no on the main action ‘Neil’s Super Set v2 – Run 1st’ action.
It’s merely meant to be a tweak of an already edited file, just to give it that final lift.
Trev.
Hello guys, i got the actions yesterday night but some commands cannot be run because i have an italian version of PS5. As instance, any “Select level Background” command cannot be run because PS does not find any level with such name, then it stops with the message ” the object “Background level” is not currently available”…. I tried to edit a few of them but i’ve got the feeling i’m just wasting time… it seems it’s gonna take me some days to amend all the single commands in all the actions….
Neil, thanks for your feedback and refund. I actually guess i’ll keep on testing your actions somehow trying to “localize” them for the italian version of PS.
Will get back on you if i will get some good results.
Cheers,
Carlo.
Neil, Trev: i have now translated all the english commands into italian and i’m enjoying the actions a lot, making the post-production of a wedding i shot last week, then i feel i have to pay for them: do you suggest me to go through the downloading and paypal process again or there’s a more straight way to pay you..?
Cheers,
Carlo (Barone)
Hi Neil,
I just purchased your PS Actions and I downloaded the action thru the link provided. However, when I opened the zip file, I don’t see the Neil’s Extra Tasty Treats. Is it still included in the sale? Thank you!
Neil,
Ignore my previous question regarding “Neil’s Extra Tasty Treat” I found it already. Thank you!
Hi Neil, I have another question, While I am using your actions, I discovered that when I increase the opacity for Dark Tonal Range artifacts are introduced into the photo , in particular, these artifacts are a series of squares from left to right, top to bottom. At first, I thought it was a camera’s sensor problem, but when I checked other photos from different cameras, these artifacts are also present. The artifacts are more visible when you have a light background like skies, etc. Is this normal? Thank you!
Thanks Trev. Your suggestion of editing in 8-bit mode solved the problem.
Really, I didn’t mind spending some bucks on the PS Actions. I have about probably more than ten Photoshop tricks but this one’s awesome. Although at first I had some probs with some commands but I was able to figure them out. Now, I am so happy with my purchase.
All Photoshop fans will surely like this post. I am very interested in the “secret sauce” thing here. I always experiment with new image editing stuff especially when it comes to giving sweetness to images. Sometimes I even end up with images that are almost impossible to recognize which is definitely what editing is all about. Great info here!
Hi Neil
Big fan of your work and I have learnt so much. I have also modelled my workflow on your posts which has vastly improved the quality of my images. However, today, after attending my local printing lab, all my images were far too red in skin tones. The lab uses a Fuji Frontier printer.
I shoot in RAW and edit as per your ACR presets in a previous tangent. My adjustments are usually a tweak here or there.
The photos I speak about were of a local pre school (approx 70 children) , manual manual flash, fixed positions.
All images were batched processed as mentioned with a WB of 5600k.
My MACs are calibrated via SYDER 3 ELITE. And to be honest, they look very “smick” (not sure if you use this term in the USA).
Smick down under means sweet.
Cameras are Canon 1DSMk3 and 1DX, all with a profile of sRGB. Used a 50mm f1.2 all day.
I use this lab all the time and have never experienced this problem.
Any suggestions.
Cheers
Angelo
Australia
Comment by Angelo — November 15, 2012 @ 3:32 am
Hi Neil
This problem has been sorted out, thanks to my new found friend, Trev.
He has identified the issue and has sorted it out for me, and may I say very pronto.
.
A big thank you to Trev, aka “wombat”
Cheers
Ange..
Wombat!!! Wombat!!!!!!!!!!!! lol….. no problems, glad it’s sorted.
Hi Guys…
I am fortunate enough to now be using CS6 Master Suite and last night I purchased the Action set (thanks!). Not had the opportunity to try it out yet, I need some more good portrait images! It has loaded fine into PS CS6 but the individual actions are not colour coded as per your pdf instructions.
Do you know if there is a way to re-instate or add the colour to the actions so that I can mimic the instruction set. It’s not a big deal because I can obviously see what they are by the description but you have gone to the trouble of detailing it this way.
CS6 differs great from the CS3 version so I am finding my feet again!
Oh… and Angelo… I’m also an Aussie and I would pronounce it “Schmick”, emphasis on the “Shh” :) – but lets just go with “tops mate”. … just thinking – I do have a portrait of a Wombat I took in Tasmania a few months ago…
Thanks
Jon
Jon,
I would presume you have the action palette’s Button Mode turned off, everything will look grey with little folders showing, that’s the long way of doing stuff, having to click on the action, than having to go to the bottom to press play triangle.
Go to the top right of the action palette, and you will see a tiny triangle and some small lines on the same line as the word ACTIONS, click that to get the wing menu, then choose ‘Button Mode’ and the actions will turn into direct buttons, meaning you click once and it will play automatically.
If you need to go into the sets again, do the opposite, just click on the Button Mode where the tick is now showing, and it will turn off.
Trev.
PS: Heads up: Once in Button Mode and you have a lot of actions, they may look like 2 or even 3 columns which is very confusing.
So, to fix that it means you have the palette too wide, just click and hold on any side, left/right, and drag it in a bit to shorten the width, until the columns disappear and you are left with just the one long list. Much much easier to sort and use.
Excellent, thanks! – Not in front on ‘my’ PC at the moment but I know exactly where you mean… any idea about the action colours?
Again – not critical.
Cheers!
Jon
Jon,
When you turn on button mode, the buttons become colour that was built in when creating. Normally the default button colour is a light Grey, but you will see exactly like the PDF once turned on.
The idea generally of selecting a colour when building, is to differentiate between the section, say Blue for the face [lips, teeth, eyes] or others.
You have a choice when building actions to incorporate the desired colour, although there is not a huge range: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet, Grey [which is dark] but if none used, default is a light grey.
Enjoy!
Trev.
In terms of Photoshop the best result is that one that doesn’t show a lot of difference from the original image. Photoshop is supposed to enhance and not totally change. Retouching the eyes and lips to make them look more attractive or reducing tones are kinda basic but they are the best when applied properly. I definitely will get your secret sauce!
Will the secret sauce work in GIMP?
No, the action set won’t work in GIMP.
Photoshop actions are .atn, and therefore null & void for Gimp.
Gimp does have ‘actions’ but not Photoshop compatible ones, they are ‘Scripts’ and you would need to create/preset download some.
https://www.gimp.org/tutorials/
https://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-find-and-use-scripts-in-gimp/
Hi guys, I have just purchased the secret sauce actions set and am trying to upload it into my CS6 but get this message: “could not load the actions because the file is not compatible with this version of photoshop” any ideas?
Hi Helen,
The problem lies in you probably loaded the wrong action for your operating system.
If you are on a PC and go into the ‘_MACOSX’ folder and try to load the ” ._Neil’s Secret Sauce v2.atn ” it will error precisely as you experienced.
Also if you are on a Mac and just tried to load the first action “Neil’s Secret Sauce v2.atn” when you opened the zip file, it will probably do the same (I don’t have Mac but pretty sure that would be it).
Cheers,
Trev.
I just downloaded the actions. I’m not able to use the “Old Vintage Look – BW”. In addition to the Mezzotint error (and “No pixels selected”), I get numerous other errors and at the end, after ignoring all the errors, the image is not right. I recorded a video of this, can I send it to you?
Running CS6 on Windows 7.
Jeff,
In CS6 Adobe turned off by default the ‘Gallery Filter Menus’ so do the following:
Open CS6 on Main Menu Bar at top select:
Edit/Preferences/Plug-Ins and see if the ‘Show All Gallery Filter Groups and Names’ is turned on (check box) if not, do so, I would close and re-open CS6.
You can only run that action on a flattened file also, not on any ‘layered’ groups.
If you still have any problems, send that video to [email protected] and I will take a look.
I can take up to 20Mb in email attachment sizes also.
Trev.
Jeff,
Another thing I just thought of, if using CS6, there is a bug in there when trying to run some actions when you are in 16-bit mode, and more than likely that will be the problem. Been a long time since anyone ran in that, so it was not until I was working on something else when I realised I was in 16-bit mode during running in CS6 for a test, and the penny dropped re your post.
Once CC come along it’s fine. The thing was I did ‘Double Calculations’ for a mask in that action and when in 16-bit it does not like it, so showing all the Filters Gallery and making sure you are in 8-bit should be the answer when in CS6.
Trev
Hi Trev, your suggestions worked, thanks!
Excellent! :)