That said, when I saw this technique on the Adobe forums I was intrigued by its simplicity and when I tried it I was like ’OMG’ (yes, I really said that) – and best of all, it is so, so SUPER easy! There are instruction and downloads below for both Photoshop and Lightroom.

PHOTOSHOP METHOD – everything happens within Photoshop’s RAW plugin. This is what you do…

• This works best with images that aren’t too big, so start by downsizing an image to around 1000 pixels wide (or less) and saving as a JPG (this won’t work with very high-res images).
• Now, using Photoshop’s Bridge, select an image and open it in RAW by pressing Ctrl + R.
• Once you’re in the RAW dialogue box, slide the ‘Recovery’ all the way up to 100 and then slide the ‘Contrast’, ‘Vibrance’ and ’Saturation’ levels so they’re all on 50.
  Looks weird, doesn’t it? Don’t worry, here’s where the magic happens…
• Click the third little square tab (the ‘detail’ tab; it has what looks like two little triangles on it). Turn the ’Luminance’ up all the way to 100 and the ‘Luminance Detail’ to about 30.
• Ta da!

Here’s everything mentioned above packaged up into a convenient preset so you can load and go…
Painterly – camera raw preset

LIGHTROOM METHOD - this is what you do…

• This works best with images that aren’t too big, so start by downsizing an image to around 1000 pixels wide (or less) and saving as a JPG (this won’t work with very high-res images).
• Now, import this image into Lightroom and open the ‘Develop’ tab.
• In the ‘Basic’ section, slide the ‘Recovery’ all the way up to 100 and then slide the ‘Contrast’, ‘Vibrance’ and ’Saturation’ levels so they’re all on 50.
  Looks weird, doesn’t it? Don’t worry, here’s where the magic happens…
• In the ‘Detail’ section turn the ’Luminance’ up all the way to 100 and the ‘Detail’ to about 50.
• Ta da!

Here’s everything mentioned above packaged up into a convenient preset so you can load and go…
Painterly – Lightroom preset

You now have all the tools you need to trick family and fiends into believing you’re a bone-fide artiste without the need to spend years at art school or all those messy oils and pastels.

You’re welcome.

As requested, for those with older versions of Photoshop or who use non-Adobe software, here are some instructions will hopefully help you to create the effects for yourself…

1. This All Used To Be Fields

i) Open image

ii) Create a ‘Color Balance’ adjustment layer…
-Set the ‘Shadows’ to +9, +5, -5
-Set the ‘Midtones’ to -8, -24, -15
-Set the ‘Highlights to +15, +16, -9

iii) Now create a ‘Hue/Saturation’ adjustment layer above the previous one…
Set the ‘Master’ (default) setting to +3, -23, -1

iv) Make a new layer above image and fill it with the colour R255 G217 B204 and change the mode to ‘Multiply’

v) Make another new layer above this and fill it with the colour R0 G0 B255 and change the mode to ‘Lighten’ and the opacity to 50%

And that’s it!

2. Let’s make a mix-tape

i) Open image

ii) Create a ‘Curves’ adjustment layer – alter your red, green and blue curves as well as the combined RGB curve (the black line) so they look like this…

iii) Now, select all (Ctrl + A) and go to Edit > Copy merged
Then Ctrl + D to deselect all and then Edit > Paste

iv) In the layers palette, right-click on this new layer and choose ‘Convert to Smart Object’

v) Now go to ‘Filter’ > ‘Lens Correction’

vi) In this new dialogue select the ‘Custom’ tab and halfway down in the ‘Vignete’ settings, choose -50 and +50, then OK.

And you’re done!

3 Old enough to be your father

i) Open image

ii) Create a ‘Curves’ adjustment layer – make you red, green and blue curves look like this…

iii) Above this create a layer filled with solid colour R255 G0 B204

iv) Set the mode of this layer to ‘Soft Light’ and the opacity to 20%

Easy peasy!

Don’t forget that all these effects are available as Photoshop actions which you can download for free.

On the same trip he alsobought me a bundle of Kodak film – yay! It was from Poundland. Guess how much it was?

I am obsessed (with a capital OB) with this website.

I’m always seeing faces in inanimate objects, are you? Actually I think that’s a ‘human being’ thing, not just me – anyhoo, seeing this street art by Nomerz is making me want to grab a balaclava and a can of spray paint and make those faces come alive, too! (Exept mine wouldn’t be this good).

I’ve been dreaming of eating normal food again, particularly this and this.

Also food related, here’s a recipe that looks like it might be a homemade substitute for the healthy and delicious (but v pricey) Nak’d Bars – can’t wait to try it out!

I want to go and see The Muppets!

According to my arbitrary calculations there are only 17 days left of winter, including today! And even though I MISSED what looks to be our only snowfall of the year (boo!), I am going to do my best to capture some wintry wonderfulness over this last couple of weeks. 100 days goes fast!

Just look at this delicious new digital camera. Yes please!

The results of those huge photography competitions usually leave me feeling a bit… meh with the results (probably due to huge committees of judges watering everything down to the lowest common denominator) – however the 2011 World Press Photo of the Year Award images are all amazing and tell such amazing stories, without the need for any words – especially the winning photograph by Samuel Aranda.

Thinking about getting a SodaStream – I’m a bit adverse to yet another kitchen gadget, but I love fizzy water (and pop) so it would get a fair bit of use, I reckon.

Ummm, think that’s it for now – thanks for all your well-wishes, you’re all lovely. I think I may have passed it on to the mister though – oops! Happy Valentine’s day for tomorrow, sweetie :D x

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I’ve had Norovirus – or some sort of virus – something that that gives you violently painful stomach cramps and  other, equally violent bodily functions. Yuck.

I’ve been hunkered in my nest, missing all the snow (our first this winter – boo)!

Brighter moments have included making it to the sofa with lots of blankets and the TV remote; mainly watching true crime, The Big Bang Theory and a few movies (still trying to figure out Solaris – although George Clooney’s in it, so what’s to figure)?

Thankfully today I am beginning to feel a bit better (and a bit less sorry for myself). I hope you’re all well and warm (it’s going to be -11°C tonight, brrrr) and fingers-crossed for business as usual again next week.

Nostalgia Ain’t What It Used To Be

If you fancy giving your images a retro-y, vintage-y, Instagram-y look, then you might like to try this FREE set of Photoshop actions I’ve created (click on the images below to take a closer look at the results)…

They all use adjustment layers so won’t harm your original image – this also means you can fade the layers up and down to adjust the effects (all these are shown at 100%). Oh, and they’ll work on any size image too.

It’s been lots of fun making these (and thinking up the names) – let me know what you think; is this the sort of thing you’d like more of?

Hit the button to download for FREE…

Nostalgia Ain’t What It Used To Be – Photoshop Actions

Enjoy!

(PS – I’ve written a quick guide on how to load and run Photoshop actions, in case it’s new to you).

+++ U P D A T E +++

If you would like to read step-by-step instructions on how to achieve these effects you can find them here.

Now you’re all set to download fabulous Photoshop actions – why not get started with one I’ve created called Four Times The Fun, which is free…

Or there’s this one – to give your photos an Instagram-style, vintage effect…

Actually it wasn’t that great, but it doesn’t really matter anyway because you won’t be seeing it! I failed to take into account that you need a computer with enough processing power to put a man on Mars to do any actual editing of high res video.

But it’s OK. It takes more than woefully inadequate technology to deter me. I recorded it again using my trusty little Canon Powershot G12 (whilst cooking dinner at the same time)! It only took ten minues to film and 20 minutes to edit – I quite impressed myself with my speediness, I have to say.

It doesn’t look as slick or professional as my previous effort but it does look and feel more me (i.e. trying to do too many things at the same time, completely un-prepared, totally wandering from my train of thought… have you ever seen a badger)?

So without further ado, here it is! I present to you my January favourites…

I’m hoping to do one of these ‘favourites’ videos every month, including (and consider this like the DVD ‘extras/bonus material’) some online favourites…

• My favourite dream that I so hope comes true
• My favourite photo I found on flickr
• My favourite thing I want from Etsy
• My favourite music to work to
• My favourite blog photos
• My favourite video

Have you got any favourites from January?

OK, so far I have started off with smallish things, but I have started – let’s see what sticks. I’m OK if they don’t stick – that will simply mean I can move on to the next ‘big idea’ safe in the knowledge I gave it a go.

1. The diet is going well – 1 stone  (14lb) since Christmas, but a lot of that was excess Quality Street which was consumed during Christmas, so doesn’t really count. All the same – something’s working! (And actually, this one’s not optional as mentioned above – this one I have to do or I’ll end up in a documentary on ITV3).

2. My YouTube experiment and the revelation to myself that I rather like the whole video-making process! There should be a new one in the next day or so which I’m quite excited about (the only downside is that it’s a time-ogre – it eats up hours and hours of precious time, but at least you get to rewind and replay the final results)!

3. I decided I needed to stop picking the same genre of book I always, always read and broaden my horizons with something that was 110% different – fantasy. FANTASY! Mythical, magical goblin-y type fantasy (actually, no goblins, but plenty of myth and magic). I am reading A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin and I am loving it. I love how it envelops you into this magical world, little by little until eventually you are totally submerged. I’m only on chapter five and am already converted. Perfect for the Kindle too as the actual papery version is big enough to kill a man.

4. OK, so it’s still only January and here’s my latest thing – a lifestyle blog. By that I mean a site where I can bang-on about things like make-up, beauty products, books (see above), health products and weight loss tips (don’t buy a giant tin of Quality Street at Christmas because you’ll just eat them all – even the orange cream ones which NOBODY likes)… so basically anything that doesn’t quite fit right on a blog that’s mainly about photography, really. Which I still love bestest of all, by the way.