How to Add Beautiful Tones By Using MCP Autumn Equinox

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This image was from a creative session I did for myself.  I was needing to get out of a rut and do something for “me”.  As professional photographers we can find ourselves doing the same thing over and over.  That’s why it’s important to get out and photograph something for yourself.  To get inspired and feed your soul.

Step 1:  When I opened this image, I knew right off I wanted sunset tones throughout the image.  MCP Autumn Equinox would give me that by adding instant warmth and richness.  To begin, I opened my raw image up in ACR.  You can see in the image below I reduced the Highlights and Whites to bring back detail in the sky and the water.  From there I opened the image up in Photoshop CS6 and cloned out all the distracting objects in the background.

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Step 2: Next I ran MCP Autumn Equinox Base Action and turned on Need More Sunlight layer.  I opened the Autumn Equinox Action folder and adjusted each layer to taste, then added a mask to the action folder and painted the effect off the sky using a black soft brush at 100% opacity.  In this image you can get an idea of how the image is coming along by using the base action as my starting point.

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Step 3: The image was almost there, but I wanted to take it a step further.  To top it off I ran Falling Leaves at 6% opacity, Warm Cider at 13% opacity, Burnt Firewood at 80% opacity and then added Dark Cherry Fall Vignette at 11% opacity.  I still felt like the image was a tad dark, so I ran Splash of Light at 12% opacity and then used Burn Me Up to darken the details and give it some dimension.  To finish up I ran Sharpie from MCP Season Extras at 47% and used a white soft brush to paint on the areas I wanted to sharpen.

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Here is the before and after image I created using MCP’s free Facebook Fix Action so you can compare them side by side.  I love the beautiful sunset tones in the after image.

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Amanda Johnson, the photographer of this image and guest writer of this blog post, is the owner of Amanda Johnson Photography out of Knoxville, TN.  She’s a full time photographer and mentor that specializes in Baby’s First Year, children and family portraits.  To see more of her work, check out her website and like her on Facebook Page.

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  1. Brett Fox on August 23, 2013 at 12:44 pm

    Great stuff. I really enjoy seeing how others are using MCPactions. I am still learning to use it better, especially for my newborn shoots here in Durham, NC, and feel like these kinds of posts really help. Thanks so much.

  2. Heather T. on August 24, 2013 at 9:46 pm

    Very beautiful! Thanks for the breakdown of your actions.

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