Actions for portraits or favorite actions?

[JETA]

I'm really curious what actions people recommend for portraits. I'm thinking glow, skin, eyes, teeth etc.

I'd also love to hear about any other actions you love for any other type of photography include b&w.

Thanks!

[GB1]

Hmm. Sharp eyes is # 1. Clean, white teeth is good. Minor blemish removal is OK, but I personally dislike that super-smooth 'processed' look.

With B&W, these seem to work well with portraits and people shots in general. With landscapes, I think the red filter and/or polarizer filter to get white clouds against dark skies looks intense in a good way. I don't know if it works on digital B&W?

G

[Skyman]

are you looking for what techniques people use. I used to whiten teeth by making an duplicate layer and slightly desaturating - to get rid of the colour cast but keeping it "natural" and slightly brighten then mask off everything but the teeth. but now I am learning to use the sponge desaturate tool (the trick is to preserve the vibrance). I am trying to come up with an airbrushing technique that works for me, but without buying a pluggin I haven't worked out anything I like yet, but that is probably as much because I am not good at it as anything.

[JETA]

Thanks guys. I was actually wanting to know what are favorite actions as in plugins that you purchase for photoshop.

However, I'm loving hearing about the processes you use for particular issues.

I did some senior pics for a friend and had some huge issues with one of the girls. One of them being clumpy makeup that stood out like a beacon in the night. I ended up purchases some niksofware that helped a lot, and it got me curious as to what other people use.

Thanks!

[mattbikeboy]

I really like Topaz Adjust 3 (some stability issues - but really cool). Other than that I do most of my corrections in Lightroom 2.3 and only my more creative stuff in Photoshop. I do have a ton of downloaded presets for Lightroom, but I don't really use them very much. I too am not a fan of plastic skin tones -- I'm tending to go the other way a bit with slight tone mapped effect which Topaz Adjust does really well.

When I'm adding team name logos to my team sales packages I love Eye Candy Impact for making awesome chrome and glass letters and the Eye Candy Textures and Nature sets for making backgrounds.

Every now and then I pony up and buy Digital Camera World magazine and they often have free plugins and textures on the included disk.

mbb