How to Use Sunset Photoshop Actions

Do you want to enhance pictures you’ve taken during the sunset hour to highlight the ambiance of this peaceful time of the day? It’s often difficult to find perfect lighting and the right settings on your camera in time to get the look you are going for because the lighting comes and goes so fast. With sunset Photoshop actions, you have a bit more flexibility when it comes to when you take your pictures and which device you take them with.

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What Are Photoshop Actions?
Rather than re-creating an editing style every time you want a similar look, Photoshop actions allow you to use recorded steps to get the same effect. This decreases the time you must spend editing a photo or image and increases your efficiency as a photographer.

Applying Photoshop Actions
Patience, prediction and flexibility can help you capture the perfect sunset shot, but Photoshop actions can round out the edges and allow you to manipulate the photo perfectly. When you use actions, the original photo is preserved, so you can always revert to your original picture. Some actions are free, while others must be purchased. You will want to browse through the selection before choosing the right actions and installing them into Photoshop.

Download your sunset actions into a location on your computer that is easy to find
Open Photoshop on your computer
Click on the actions palette (if this is not visible, click the Window dropdown and choose actions)
On the actions palette in the top right corner, there should be four horizontal lines with an upside-down triangle; click that
You’ll now have a dropdown menu where you can select load actions
Go back to where you saved the actions, and choose the file that ends in .atn.
Click open

Once your actions are loaded, you can access them with the following steps:

Open the actions palette and make it visible
Click the action you prefer to run; in this case, it would be the sunset action
At the bottom of the actions palette, you’ll find a triangle lying on its side
Click “Play” and the action should complete

Once that action is applied to the photo, you can manipulate the opacity by turning the intensity up or down. In a more detailed manner, you can choose different levels from within the sunset group to find the ideal effect for your photo.

Photoshop actions allow you to take pictures when they strike you, whether it’s from your professional camera or your iPhone. You can adjust and manipulate the image later while keeping the original image intact with sunset Photoshop actions.