Two FREE small actions...

Hello...anyone there!  I know I know, it's been a while!  Sorry about that.  I've been laying a bit low!  I do have some action review posts coming up.  I'm going to review Florabella's Classic Workflow (finally) and a couple sets from my newest love, My Four Hens Actions!

I haven't really recorded any actions for a while now.  When you have as many actions from other makers like I do, it's hard to be motivated to record actions when you have a panel stocked with everything you need!  I only record actions for myself now when I need something specific!  So that's what I'm sharing today!

One set is called...  MZ Hazy Matte Freebies

This set has two actions...one is a BW action that I've been using a lot lately and the other are color matte haze toppers!

The BW action I use on it's own and also as a topper.  I like to run M4H Matty at 50% then run mine on top and tweak it for a light, airy and slightly hazy BW. I also like to run it as a topper over other BW actions. It gives just that little bit of pop over other BW actions.  If you run it as a topper over another BW action or BW layers, you'll most likely need to tone down BW with Boost layer!  You can tweak, lower or delete the Punch layer.  And the cherry on top for me with this action is the two haze layers that are turned off.  One will give you a darker Matte Haze and one will give you a lighter Matte Haze! I always use one of the hazes...always!  But you don't have to of course!

Here is one of the BEFORE images I'll use for my examples so you can see how it altered this image! My girls on their first day of school last September (my big starting 5th grade & my little starting Kinder).  I don't have before shots for the other examples as there would be too many.  But this shot is closest to a clean posed type shot.



And some examples of the BW action...

I tend to prefer the Hazy Dark layer most times...





I also like to use this BW action as a topper.  Sometimes I will top it over another BW to give it a bit more punch. If I do this I turn down the BW with Boost layer to about 15% and usually lower the Pinch layer to around 50%.  If I'm using it on top of a color action (like my example) then I usually just adjust the Punch layer if needed!  You can also go into the Slight Contrast layer and adjust the levels. I will often times adjust the Mids and possibly bring the hightlights back to 255 and if my shadows are too muddy I will bring down the shadows.  But if you are going to turn on a haze layer, it will bring those shadows back up so I will leave the Slight Contast layer alone if I'm turning on a haze layer...



And a few more examples I did the other day...





and now onto the Color Matte Haze toppers.These are not meant to be used on SOOC images.  They are meant to be used in conjunction with and on top of other actions/layers!  I use these often! I LOVE these!  They are GREAT to give a soft matte feel to your images without being too much or making your images and skin tones muddy. It will also bring your highlights down if you need to!  If you have a shot with a lot of mixed high hot sun (as long as the image isn't blown out) these toppers will really help mute the light and even it out while bringing up your shadows and giving you more detail in your shadows!    My favorite is the Red Haze and that's the one I use most...









and I recently recorded this action while playing around with different layer types the other day!  I haven't used it much because I kind of forgot about it! Lol!  It will just give you a soft creamy slightly hazy edit. The master opacity is set to 75%.  You can lower or raise it or open up the folder and adjust layers or settings within the layers. You can run this on a SOOC image but depending on your camera and how you shoot and edit, you may need to add some layers of your own.  You can also run this as a topper on top of other layers/actions and bring the master opacity down!

MZ Creamy Haze ...

I only did one example for this but you can compare it to the BEFORE example.  I ran the action and let it exactly as is with no adjustments...



The sky is the limit so play, discover and create...