Definition of frustrating: trying to re create sin city rain and having to trawl through a bunch of useless tutorials that just say the same thing over and over again! Never fear loyal readers, I have perfected the perfect sin city rain effect.
Here’s the first lot of rain that I came up with using all the tutorials that I found online:

Basically the formula for this rain is as follows:

New layer> Fill 50% grey
Filter>Add Noise>Add Noise, Amount 400%, Gaussian, monochrome
Transform: 500% with the little link button pressed.
Filter>Blur>Motion Blur, angle 75, distance …

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to achieve the Quick  Antique Colouring effect, that you can find in my latest group of actions.

 
1.  If you have retouched the image and made density corrections, press crtl-shift-alt-E to make a merged copy of the image.
If you are working from the original image, press crtl-J. Name this layer Softlight.

 
2. Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and apply with a radius between 5 px – 10px .

 
3. Change the blend mode of the Softlight layer to Softlight.

4. Open the Layer Style Palette and …

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to achieve the High Saturation effect, that you can find in my latest group of actions.

1.  If you have retouched the image and made density corrections, press crtl-shift-alt-E to make a merged copy of the image.
If you are working from the original image, press crtl-J. Name this layer Overlay.

2. Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and apply with a radius between 5 px – 10px .

3. Change the blend mode of the Overlay layer to Overlay.

4. Open the Layer Style Palette and move …

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to achieve the Orton effect, that you can find in my latest group of actions.

1.  If you have retouched the image and made density corrections, press crtl-shift-alt-E to make a merged copy of the image.
If you are working from the original image, press crtl-J. Name this layer Screen and change the blend mode of this layer to Screen.

2. Press crtl-shift-alt-E to make a merged copy, name this layer Multiply and change the blend mode to Multiply.

3. Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and …

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to achieve the Bleach Bypass effect, that you can find in my latest group of actions.

1.  If you have retouched the image and made density corrections, press crtl-shift-alt-E to make a merged copy of the image.
If you are working from the original image, press crtl-J. Change the blend mode of this layer to Multipy.

2. Add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and lower the saturation to -45.

3. Add a levels adjustment layer and change the property of the white slider to 200.

4. Add …

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to achieve the Holga effect, that you can find in my latest group of actions.

1.  If you have retouched the image and made density corrections, press crtl-shift-alt-E to make a merged copy of the image.
If you are working from the original image, press crtl-J.
2. Now go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Apply the filter with a 5px radius.

3. Add a layer mask and apply a Radial Gradient with white set as your foreground colour.

I usually apply this over a face in the photo. …

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to achieve the High Contrast effect, that you can find in my latest group of actions.

1.  If you have retouched the image and made density corrections, press crtl-shift-alt-E to make a merged copy of the image, then press crtl-J to create another copy.
If you are working from the original image, press crtl-J twice.
Name the first copied layer Black & White and the second Soft Light.

2. Turn off the Soft Light layer. Select the layer Black & White and press crtl-shift-U to …

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to achieve the Hollywood Highlights effect, that you can find in my latest group of actions.

1.  If you have retouched the image and made density corrections, press crtl-shift-alt-E to make a merged copy of the image. If you are working from the original image, skip this step.
2. Press crtl-alt-tilde (~) to load the highlights in the image.

3. Press crtl-J to duplicate the image and name the layer highlights.

4. Press crtl then click on the new layer to load the selection. Click …

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to achieve the dream glow effect, that you can find in my latest group of actions.

1. If you are working off the original image, press crt-J to duplicate the layer. If you have retouched the image and made density corrections, press crtl-shift-alt-E to make a merged copy of the image.

2. Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and apply with a radius of approx 10px. This will give the image a nice glow.

3. Change the blend mode to screen.  Then right click on the …

Today I finally set up my second monitor for my computer.
A bit of a kerfuffle as I needed to get a DVI To SVGA/VGA adapter in order to plug it into my graphics card. Half hour wait at the computer shop got me the adapter and I was on my way home to set it up.
The second problem that I ran into was the fact that the new monitor calibration was completely out. :S I tried calibrating it visually – nearly but no dice! So I went to the trusty …