Actions and Masks

Working in Photoshop has become my new hobby... or timewaster. If you can't find me, that's where I am. Here is one of my latest discoveries. I used an action for creating a "miniature world" to soften up the background, pop the color a bit, and set the focus on me. I'm sure if I pick apart the action a bit I can figure out what they did. I believe it has 3 layers, one of those "blur" layers to "fuzz out" the background, a "color pop" layer, and a contrast layer. Now, I need to learn how to do that on my own, or create my own Action so I'm not relying on other people's hard work.

After applying that Action I masked myself out of the "blur" so I became the only thing in the shot in focus. I believe I also smoothed out my skin a bit and turned my frown upside down (Tehehe, what can I say... It was very hot in Mexico that day). I also rotated the canvas slightly, maybe 5degrees clockwise so the pyramid wasn't about to fall off the earth (Thanks Ron for pointing that out!) Anyway, this post shows the before and after using actions and masks. Enjoy.