Apply Instagram Effects to Photos on Computer with Photoshop Actions
Instagram is quite a rage in smartphone world now. It magically transforms pictures to piece of art with the most varied artistic and entertaining effects. Here’s How you can apply Instagram Photo Effects to any picture on Computer using Photoshop actions.
You need not have to be a Photoshop expert to work on it instead just follow this simple tutorial and you are good to go. We are going to make use of a feature of Photoshop called “Actions” to apply these artistic effects. Actions are simply a means to record all the commands used to generate an effect in Photoshop for re-application later.
What is needed?
- Photoshop. I assume you have it installed and if not, download now from Adobe. Even Portable version will do.
- Instagram Photoshop Actions by dbox which you can download here.
How to Install Instagram Actions for Photoshop
- Unzip the downloaded “Actions” archive to any directory (say desktop).
- Copy and Paste it in following directory – Computer >Local Disk ( C : \Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS6\Presets\Actions
In case of Portable Photoshop, you have to paste in <Portable Photoshop>\App\PhotoshopCS6\Presets\Actions
How to Apply Instagram Effects with Photoshop
- In Photoshop, open Image you want to work on.
- Press “Alt+F9” to open “Actions” Menu.
- Actions menu will open and there you will see “Instagram actions” folder below default actions. In case, it didn’t appear, find it by clicking on small arrow button encircled in screenshot.
- Select appropriate action to be applied and click on “Play” button at the bottom to apply those effects.
Package of Actions include 20 effects and their names are given are same as in Instagram app for Smartphones. More than one effect can be applied at a time by selecting multiple actions.
To summarize– Install Photoshop Actions > Open Image > Select Actions > Press Play to Apply.
This was indeed easy and even the result output was similar. I am using word similar because effect don’t exactly match the ones provided by Instagram. Still, in both cases, output has one thing in common- They look awesome!
Here is a quick comparison of the results which I tested using Photoshop CS5 and Instagram Android App where I applied Lo-Fi effect to same picture.
Isn’t it easy especially for non-experts? Is yes, then you should also know about essential Instagram tools to do wonders with your photographs. Possibilities are many and results can be more artistic and beautiful but only thing you need is some time to play around all options and little bit of creativity.
