Action review ~ MCP Fusion....

Hi everyone! Remember me? I haven't forgotten about the blog. I just haven't really had much to share! But once again, I have an action review to share! I feel like my blog is starting to become a review blog! Ha! And I must remind ya'll that I'm just a MWAC who wanted this PS blog to be about all the fun stuff. I in NO way know it all nor am I really that good. But I have a lot of fun and that's what really matters!

If you DO actually want to learn the REAL stuff and the CLEAN editing stuff, head over to Damien's blog and read read read. Then....after you've read everything you can get your hands on, click on "Training" take his Raw class. Next will be his levels class then his skin class, as far as I know it! It's a new format done via Facbebook and I can say from personal experience...it ROCKS! He is my PS hero and I'm not getting anything from him by plugging his blog nor was I a tester. Just a crazy obsessed fan!

So now...onto Jodi's new Fusion set which you can get at MCP Actions. I'll be honest and say that I went back and forth on whether I would buy this set or not. I've recently purchased Michelle Kane's & more Red Leaf actions. So my desire to not spend any more money was strong. But after looking at the wonderful examples over and over I really felt that these actions were perfect for my personal style, which is more light/airy, muted and pastel creamy colors! So really, I never should have hesitated! I will say that I think this is Jodi's best creative set to date. I absolutely LOVE this set...more than I can say! So easy and fast to use. My favorite is the Mix & Match because I love to mix it up! I love that I can run the Mix & Match then click the folders on and off to get ANY look I want. The sky is the limit...literally. The only bad thing about this set is the time you will spend playing and mixing it up because it's just too fun! I have the hardest time choosing because they ALL look so darn good. Most of the actions fit most pictures...which is very rare! The B&W actions are fantastic and I have a couple favorites that I use a lot now. I also love her Perfect Size action. The sharpen layer with the set opacity is perfect for almost every photo. It's the only way I resize and sharpen for the web now. Her Sunflare actions are the best I've used to date. Just the right amount, easy to adjust or mask and very natural looking vs some that are so obvious that they are done in PS.

I will let my mediocre images show some of what can be done with this AMAZING set of actions... Sorry these first too are too big. I forgot to resize them after running the bar on the bottom. This was a shot I took at a wedding I was 2nd shooting! The shot isn't all that great as there was a mirror directly behind the flowers and I had to make sure *I* wasn't in the shot! Lol! But I wanted a nice soft creamy pastel color shift and the Fusion set gave me just the look I wanted for these while keeping the general colors close to what they were in real life... This was also taken at the wedding. I love this edit! The general colors are the same but was able to still get the pastel tonal shift I wanted while adding some drama to the shot... Also taken at the wedding. This shot I handled a bit differently because I wanted different tonal shifts on the top of the frame vs the bottom. So I added a screenshot of my layers panel so you can see how I masked to get the result I wanted. I added the masks to the actions that I wanted to apply in certain areas. Where you see black on a mask, the action is NOT effecting that area and where you see white, the action IS effecting that area. Remember, black hides & white shows... Another from the wedding. I loved this shot and it didn't need much but what I love is that I was able to use so many of the different actions in the mix & match and it isn't over the top or too much... Here is my sweet little Nugget playing on her homemade stage...

Same edits as the one above. I love this shot and the slight motion blur... Here is our sweet Lily... This is our friends son at the park... This was shot the same day as above. I loved the tonal range the Fusion set gave this flower while keeping the detail.... Same day. The kids running around free! I went in a different direction than I would normally go with this type of shot and really like how the urban feel made the image look.... This is one of my favorites! I love the dramatic b&w. It took a regular okay snapshot and made it something with feeling and drama... Nugget at the park. The sun was high in the sky and a bad time to shoot. But photography revolves around my life vs the opposite. Fusion to the rescue of bad light....

Haylee had to get in on the action too. Not really...I made her... Fundraiser chocolate that now looks even yummier. Look at all that detail in the in focus area of the chocolate. These actions do not muddy up your detail, even if you run a lot of them...

As you can see here, the general colors are the same but now have a soft pastel look... And this is my life! Give two girls two jump ropes and this is what you get... So as you can tell with my 17 examples...I LOVE this set and am SO glad I bought it! If you love to get creamy tones in your image and love pastel tones and mixing it up...this set is.for.you!