I own every set of MCP Actions, but by far my favorite is the newest set, Fusion.  In fact, I love it so much that not one of my images get posted for proofing unless they’ve had at least the very basic One Click Color.  Of course, I usually can’t stop there, and I go for a bit of sweet light from one of the overlays.

Just to give you an idea of my post processing, I’ve chosen an image from a recent senior session to edit together.  Let’s get started!

Here’s the original

As you can see, Lauren is a bit underexposed and there seems to be a bit of a blue cast to the image.  I think this was from the grey/black asphalt of the street.  Also, she’s not really centered in the image, which is the look I’m going for here.  Plus, the sun was hitting that power pole in the left of the background, creating a distraction from my pretty girl.  So…

First I crop and get rid of that pole

Then I added 2 curves adjustment layers — one for the color cast and one for the exposure.

Now comes the fun part!  I run the MCP Actions Color Fusion Mix and Match action.  This gives me the basic One Click Color, plus a whole bunch of options to add color and light overlays.

Gorgeous!  Now let’s see how she looks with the Heartfelt overlay.

Yup!  that’s nice.  But, let’s try another.  How about Vanilla Cream?

Ooooh!  I think I like that one better.  Not quite so much warm and the color of the scarf is redder and not so pink.  Of course, I can adjust the results as much as I want, but I think I like this just as is.

Now, Lauren has really awesome skin, but I always like to give my girls’ skin a bit of softness, so I run Powder Your Nose from MCP Action’s Magic Skin set and apply it to Lauren’s face at about 75% opacity.  Next, I brighten up her eyes using MCP Action’s Eye Doctor action — sharpen just the colored part of her eyes and lighten the iris.

And the last thing I do is apply a little overall sharpening, and we’re done!  Here’s the before and after:

Fusion goes in a bit of a different direction than past action sets.  It is cutting edge, keeping in mind the style and preferences of photographers and clients alike.  I appreciate the fact that no matter what your editing style is, this action set has something for you!  My original editing style was sharp and colorful, with quite a bit of burning involved.  Recently, my style has evolved to be more soft and light, although it depends on the image and the feeling I am trying to portray.

MCP’s new Fusion action set helps me to get exactly the look I want no matter which editing style I choose.  While not every action in the set will work for every photo, there is such a wide variety of choices that you are sure to find several that will fit the bill.  Fusion includes 21 color workflow actions, 8 black and white workflow actions, 7 exposure adjusting actions, 13 special effects actions, and 7 contrast and sharpening actions for web and print. Use the actions with the default layers, or adjust to your heart’s content!

Here are just a few samples of before and after editing using the new actions:

Starting March 1st, you can get these actions for your own photo editing.  Just head on over to MCP Actions to snatch up some sweet Fusion!  If you are new to MCP and want to try before you buy, Jodi has some free actions to get you started.

Check out the goods at MCP Actions!