This has been in the works for a long time and I think you’ll find it’s been worth the wait. I’m proud to announce the immediate availability of Hollywood Effects version 2. Hollywood Effects has been a popular set for photographers who wanted to add something special to their best images after basic corrections. Version 2 it taking it to a whole new level.
V2 completely replaces Hollywood Effects 1, with many new effects and improvement to many classic effects for easier customization and better results. V2 is setting a new standard. This is killer set of actions with some AMAZING new effects.
Portraitist: HE2 has something for everyone and especially for portrait photographers. HE2 includes the full version of the brand new Portraitist Series actions. Change the way you work with skin by automatically smoothing skin and masking out critical areas like eyes, making a portrait that’s ready out of the gate. Similar to effects done with plugins that cost far more, now in a simple one click action.
For current owners of Hollywood Effects there’s a discount upgrade program. For those that have purchased Hollywood Effects V1 in the past 60 days (after May 30th 2009) we’ll be sending you a FREE upgrade to V2. If you have not received your discount/upgrade email soon, please contact us and we’ll hook you up.
Around New Years I make a pack of goodies to send out to fans and customers of Seim Effects throughout the year. I sent these in the SE newsletter, but have not posted it officially.
Inside you’ll find a few cool Photoshop actions and a couple great presets for Lightroom. Bold and clear is the order of this year and included in the actions you’ll find Visual Razor X, the 4th generation of my vivid sharp action.
by Gavin Seim: Lightroom is great, but on those really special images that I want perfect nothing compares to what I can do with Photoshop and actions. They make me creative and save me loads of time. No matter how into Lightroom, Aperture ect you are, you should have some actions in your arsenal for those special images.
This video takes it from the beginning with installing actions, all the way to tips how to leverage them. I use my own actions (you can find them in the menu above) but these principles work with most actions you’ll find. If the video is not showing here’s the direct You Tube link. You can also Download High Res Version Here (right click & Save As.
by Gavin Seim: There’s plenty of info and a video on each product page of this site, but I wanted to make a post giving an overview of how I use Seim Effects in m fast photo workflow and what each collection is best for. I’ve found that having your workflow nailed down makes all the different in creative efficiency.
Power Workflow2: This is my starting editing tool, but certainly not the only one I use. Lightroom used with PW2 is the key to those fast 3hr wedding edit sessions I do. PW2 is a set of about 60 highly refined and organized presets that can be applied with a mousclick to one or thousands of images.
There’s categories, starting with the batch correction Super Series presets. I start my workflow by adding these to large batches of images from my session. This get’s me the basic but essential stuff like exposure, contrast and tone under control. There’s various Super Series presets depending on the shooting situation. Basically I pick the one that looks best for a batch of images and off I go. No rocket science yet. I may still have to do a few tweaks on a few images since no auto tool is perfect, but it get’s me close.
After the auto correction I sort down my images with a 3-5 star rating system. 5 being the best. I’ll then go over my favorite images and add other effects from the set. The Super Series is just the beginning. There’s lots of color and B&W effects to choose from and soon I have a nice variety.
MonoChromatix: Black and white can be so powerful. PW2 takes has some great monotone effects, but MonoChromatix takes it to the next level with a complete set of all monochromtic effects that perfectly complements PW2. When I think an image just looks great in B&W and want to get something really remarkable I’ll try some effects from this set until I find one that’s perfect. There’s everything from classic black and white to sepia, to infrared. I use these to get some really cool B&W looks, and it saves me the time of having to use a plugin in Photoshop.
Creative Essentials: Essentials is a great tool for someone who does not use Lightroom, but also for someone use mainlines in Lightroom and then does those special tweaks in Photoshop like I do. It’s simple and straighforward with some poerful tools.
Once my primary edits are done in LR I head to PS with a few of my favorite photographs. There’s things I can do in PS that just can’t be done in LR. Essentials is a great starter set of actions that includes a nice range of effects from tonal changes to really nice color tones, shatpening and softening effects.
Hollywood Effects: The set that started it all. It’s been thru some tweaks, but the name still says it pretty well. Hollywood and Essentals complement each other really well and when I head into Photoshop I use them both.
In Hollywood you’ll find plenty of cinematic glows, color modifiers and mood setters. Some of them can be intense, but since with my actions I make standard practice of having layers, masks and details, you can easily adjust the way an effect changes your image to get a totally unique look.
I keep a main workflow action set where my actions (as well as favorites from others) are saved in one set. Easy to manage and easy to backup. Then I put the action pallete into button mode and it’s like a console of photo tools a mouse click away.
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That about sums it up. As I work everything stays saved back into LR and when I’m done I just export the final results. Event those not using Lightroom can still move their workflow along much faster by having both action sets loaded and ready to fire.
It’s a complete workflow for Lightroom or PS users that does an important job. Giving us more creativity while making us faster. I’m always working to devise new workflow ideas and improve effects so stay tine. You’re also welcome to contact me with feeback or ideas… Gavin
Update! 08/2010: If you’re using Lightroom 3, these templates will not work correctly. LR3 users need the new layout templates. You can download them here for free.
by Gavin Seim Most of us Lightroom users have heard about print templates. What most don’t know is the super cool trick to use them for simple album page layouts for albums and press printed books. Matt recently posted a video on LR Killer Tips about tweaking template settings to allow multiple images on one layout.
I’ve made a set of print presets that allows you to make some quick square layouts like the one’s below. Great for press printed books and albums. Load em up, select the layout, then select the photo’s you want used. There’s eight in this set and all have about 1/4″ edge space to allow trim room for books. Best of all is their FREE.
LR2 has no way to add a black background itself, so I used this workaround. I’ve included a black file in the download and there’s more details in the help file. Once set up you can turn on “Identity Plate” in the settings and load the black background as desired. A future version of LT should include this feature without a workaround.
UPDATE V1.1: 6/2009, Minor tweaks were made and a new square preset was added.
UPDATE V1.2: 4/2010, Disabled auto rotation (more control), added new Square/2 Corner layout. Bug fixes.
