I can’t imagine my work without Photoshop actions, bet neither of you does too. These essential instruments of bringing some next-level quality images deserve an extra place on our design blog. How come we haven’t covered them yet?
It’s hard to say, which type of Photoshop actions evaluated more, guess everything depends on the sphere of usage. However, let me bring back the missing point: free resources usually tend to lack the exclusiveness and an original view. Sometimes even finding at least one is such an accomplishment, that you almost whisper “my precious” to it. That’s why you’ll find there free Photoshop actions and the premium ones.
What is Photoshop Action?
Has it ever occurred to your mind to add dynamism to an image you’re working with? Let’s say make a part of it fade away in pieces of ash like Thanos did, which tools you’d use? Sure, it sounds like a challenging gig, but with Photoshop brushes your worries are pointless!
Photoshop action is a valuable tool in design, allowing you to add any effect to your image by running the prepared set of steps, merged together. These steps get recorded and delivered in .ATN format to eventually be played on any file. For example, you can turn your image into the knitted blanket, watercolor illustration, mosaics, and more!
Photoshop actions save tons of time, liberating you from setting the steps in Photoshop manually to achieve the desired result. The action can be of any kind: adding the photo effect, changing the structure of the image, its size, and position. Once you figure out the instructions, the magic transformation of your design begins!
Anyway, it’s obvious that gripping one single (but enormously bewitching!) Photoshop action won’t bring you a constant glory of an ingenious creator, novelty is always welcomed. You’ll be just mildly petted on the back with “Hey, appreciate your devotion to this style, but it’s too much”. To avoid it, feel free to take the first row and watch us screening terrific Photoshop actions, destined to be deeply rooted in your toolbox.
Our Team’s Top Pick
Guardian Photoshop Action
Guardian is a Photoshop action that you can use it to create photo manipulation artworks including explosions, lights, clouds, and fantastic color grading. The action doesn’t require any professional skills to create unique designs for CD covers, posters, flyers, ad campaigns, social media uses, etc.
Themed Actions
Dynamic visual miracles, guided by Photoshop action presets, obtain much more of aesthetics! On your trip to the most iconic illustrations and images, you’re in a constant search for the best Photoshop actions, giving a new life to good old graphics, stashed in your computers.
Warfighter Photoshop Action
Choose an image, which needs to be charged with energy, then let the Photoshop action do its job by adding the flying around specs of dust and mist, looking very intense. Compatible with different Photoshop versions, it can become a part of any chosen design: posters, ads, cards, banners and more. Fight for the attention with peaceful means of graphic design!
Animated Glitch Effect
Animated Meteor Shower Photoshop Action
Animated Meteor Shower Photoshop action is definitely a work you’ll enjoy. With a final result size of 700-pixel width, the quality of your art will get to another level of beauty. This animated action works with Photoshop CS6 to CC 2019, so it will work perfectly regardless of the software you are using. It can be used in various fields, from ingenious group photos to complicated photoshoots with actors and costumes such as astronauts or even aliens.
Cloud Photoshop Action
GTA Photoshop Actions
Are you a GTA fan? If the response is affirmative, I bet you’ll love this masterpiece. GTA Photoshop Actions transform your photos into game-style hand-drawn cartoon artwork similar to the ones used in the actual game. The package contains 5 frame templates, 5 collage templates, and 15 overall color presets that can be added to your photos. If you plan to use this Photoshop action, you need images around 2000-3500 pixels.
Fervent Photoshop Action
Cinematic Prism Photoshop Action
Life is a cinema and every moment is a shot so let each of them stick to the memory and complement your creative personality. Cinematic prism Photoshop action will assist with that and work as a magnet. This asset allows you to replicate Cosmopolitan & Vogue high fashion photos as well as to turn a boring image into a poster of some drama worth Oscar. Hopefully, you don’t need to check tons of tutorials to make all of written above real just pick a nice photo and follow the help file instructions.
Ice Nova — Photoshop Action
Rise Photoshop Action
This epic Photoshop action will make your photos look like frames from a Hollywood blockbuster with a huge budget. The only thing you must do is take a picture of good quality, install a compatible version of Photoshop and let this Photoshop Action do the rest. By the way, Rise Photoshop Action has been tested and working on Photoshop CS3 to CC 2017+. Another great perk of this Photoshop Action is that a video tutorial link is included and can be accessed by anyone who downloads this beauty.
Explode And Shatter Photoshop Action
Haunted Photoshop Action
Get a professional Photoshop action that will turn any photo into a scary ghost shot! You can use this easy-to-apply effect with no fear, it does no harm to the original image. Scary images and the horror effects are guaranteed to impress any tempted audience. Gloomy and faded colors look mysterious, so you only have to choose a picture and let the action do its work.
Commando Photoshop Action
Double Exposure Action
Perfect for photographers and designers, this Double Exposure Action helps create one of the most overwhelming designs we have ever seen. In just a few seconds, you can turn your usual photo into a masterpiece that will blow your followers’ minds. This is an innovative way to create CD covers, posters, flyers, and social media posts. Double Exposure Action works with Photoshop CS2 and higher no matter the language you are using and contains an additional file with instructions in case you don’t know how to use such things.
Mixed Media Photoshop Effect
Sketch Photoshop Action
Although sketches are colorless, millions of people admire and love their beauty. It is hard to draw a digital drawing due to the lack of technological potential. The most significant part about such a drawing is that you can observe the amount of work that an artist has put in. This Photoshop action gives you the possibility to transform any of your photos into a sketch masterpiece. You can also customize every drawing according to your individual taste, style, and lighting.
Embroidery Photoshop Action
From Photo to Draw Action
From Photo to Draw is the best Photoshop action for detailed digital illustration that can be used to create posters, t-shirts, books, magazines, and even websites with exceptional designs in just a few clicks. Not only does it transform usual pictures into detailed drawings, but it also balances the light and shadows in order for you to receive the best quality possible. The most significant advantage of these actions is that, besides all the graphic software, they contain a PDF manual that is there to help you if something isn’t clear.
Sandstorm Free Photoshop Actions
Sketch Creator Action
These Adobe Photoshop actions are meant to create unique urban sketches with light watercolor fills that give you a fantastic final product. This is a crucial product for architectural and interior design projects with many small details that need to be thoroughly displayed. It makes the result look so easy-to-achieve and gives you the possibility to adjust all kinds o elements, from the opacity of sketch lines to color balance and tones. To receive the result, you have to open the PSD file, add your image and wait until Smart Object makes its magic.
Color Festival Photoshop Action
Oil Paint Machine Action
Do you want your picture to repeat the tremendous artistic masterminds’ classic celebrated oil painting styles? The magnificent skills, treated as a stroke of luck back in the day, can now be replicated with a single mouse click. Cast the magic on images and photos by running the Photoshop action, commemorating the time-honored oil painting techniques, brought fame to Dali, Picasso, Munch, and other adherents of this art modus. All three featured styles enthrall with picturesque stroke-like outlines, merging colors, transforming photography into a piece of art!
Vintage Art Photoshop Action
Holographic Iridescent PS Action
Inspired by the attractive hologram designs, this Photoshop action retouches your photo with iridescent touches and ads geometric shapes and typography accents. Innovative and genuinely original, holographic action generates many muted, and neutral gradient presets for you. The action lets the user define specific aesthetic parameters, such as blob design frequency. The visual aesthetic was inspired by the fundamentals of traditional graphic design: balanced composition and grid-based proportions.
Color Fusion Photoshop Actions
Cross Stitch Photoshop Action
Are you looking for a funny design for one of your photos? It’s time for us to present the Cross Stitch Photoshop Action! This beauty is meant to transform your photos into old-fashioned cross-stitched images with a bit of vintage style incorporated in their layout. This Photoshop action provides different and unusual patterns for you to use on your pictures and gives you a detailed user guide in case you don’t know or understand how to work with such things. Besides funny and originally designed family photos, this tool can also create logos and advertising for companies with this type of business.
Snow Photoshop Action
Blueprint Photoshop Action
All great buildings start from the idea expressed on a blueprint, while all genius designs begin with suitable tools. This Photoshop action is just what you need to create a true masterpiece! It will give your images a modern look. It has been tested on a variety of images, all of them came out with a perfect result: you’ll get the high-quality output for both web & print media. Watch your artworks drawn as detailed architecture projects!
RENAISSANCE Oil Painting Photoshop Actions
Glitch Photoshop Action
Glitch is a Photoshop Action that will make your wildest design dreams come true. This action is suitable for almost every style and photo format, from street-style pics and enhancing portraits to indoor photos with weak lightning and many darkened spots. With Glitch Photoshop Action, you can make colors brighter, highlight particular objects and fully transform the style of your photo. These actions can be downloaded for Photoshop CS3-CS6 and Creative Cloud. Remember, you should use qualitative pics in order to receive the best glitch effect.
Brick Mosaics Photoshop Actions
Engrave and Halftone Creator
Introduce you a Photoshop Action to create an excellent engraving or halftone effect for your images. From a simple photo to an engraved image in three short steps! Open the Photoshop file, add your image into the Smart Object and get your Engrave! There are four types of engraving — vertical, horizontal, angled and engraved wavy lines. Also, you’ll have a stunning halftone for a realistic “newspaper print” effect. Another great advantage of these actions is decorating frames and pre-made gradients to help you with the overlays.
Dispersion Effect Photoshop Action
Pixel Art Photoshop Action
The original 8-bit Photoshop action just got a serious Power UP!! Add a bit of 80’s and 90’s retro goodness to your images in a matter of seconds with this super slick action. Jump back in time and give your photographs or illustrations that Nintendo/C64/Spectrum/Old-school arcade game look. The action pumps out 24 different results, giving you plenty of options to choose from; from subtle 64-bit-esque detailed results to super-stylized 8-bit sprite looks, there’s a pixel for everyone!
Double Light Photoshop Action
Double Exposure Photoshop Actions
These Photoshop actions are a huge time-saver for those who want to create something unique and astonishing. Double exposure is one of the most challenging techniques to master. However, with this double exposure Photoshop action, you can create a perfect effect by using the right photo and lighting. These actions are compatible with CS3, CS4, CS5, CS6, and CC. Just download this action and apply it to one of your photos. You’ll be amazed by the quality of their renewed design. Turn your stock photos into eye-catching pieces of art.
Realistic Pencil Sketch Photoshop Action
Watercolor Creator
Watercolor illustrations are still one of the most popular drawing techniques around the globe. However, not all of us have the talent, and the time to sit down and draw the picture we would like to possess. That’s the moment when Watercolor Creator enters the stage! This Photoshop action is able to turn almost every image or photo into a genuine piece of art using the same technique as it were an actual watercolor illustration. The effect is 100% realistic and absolutely gorgeous.
Anaglyph Photoshop Actions
Architecture Sketch Photoshop Action
This Photoshop action is a must-have for those in love with raw architecture designs and wishes to turn their photos into professional architectural sketches. It works perfectly with both interior and exterior designs. When the action finishes the work, you’ll get a well-organized file with all the adjustments and setting to improve or correct something you don’t quite love about the transformation. It has been tested and works on Photoshop from CS3 to CS6 and CC 2014 and higher.
Glitch Photo Effect for Posters
This Adobe Photoshop effect is the best addon for posters, social media posts, newsletter shots, and advertising previews. It glitches the photo making it look unique and unrepeatable in just a couple of minutes. Unleash your creativity, add a well-taken photo with good resolution, and witness the magic of modern technology that makes all the hard work for you. Besides effects, the file contains a manual that might help you in case you don’t understand how to use it.
Photo Filters
Sometimes a photo lacks just a couple of essential adjustments when you don’t want to disturb the core setting or idea put into the composition. Experiencing such a need, it’s important to be armed with the right instruments (Photoshop actions and effects), doing the job for you! Rummage through our collection of premium and free Photoshop actions, I’m sure you’ll find dozens of suitable items.
Indie Camera Photoshop Actions
Enter the art that’s free, work off imposed concepts, obligations, and must-dos paging an exceptional collection of 30 experimental Photoshop actions. Add some strokes of glamour, weirdness, grunge, passion, retro following your artistic vision, or re-discover the attractiveness of finely aged shots. All the shots you’ve taken so carefully will be driven to the perfection of the genre and with total control over the minor details, you can make all necessary modifications up to choosing your own color map. And still the actions are non-destructive, ain’t it amazing?
Paris Travel Photoshop Actions
Traveling to Paris is an unforgettable experience: it’s a massive city full of unique people and interesting architecture. The author of this Photoshop action was so inspired by the beautiful buildings and landmarks, that he put together a small set of travel Photoshop actions that you can download for free! These photo filters are colorful, washed out, film-like, and customizable depending on the weather/lighting conditions.
Dark Mood Photoshop Action
Create the professional, advanced-looking effects for your photos with barely any work put in them. Dark Mood Photoshop action will save you hours of work and it is simple to use! All the files are well-structured and fully-customizable. You can change light direction, density, width, or add more light sources if you like. Just one click to give your photos some dark mood! This free Photoshop action will help you to achieve magical results and enhance the epicness of your images in seconds.
Photoshop Portrait Action
Add a newbie to the collection of Photoshop actions for portraits with this free asset. The value of this file is measured by the produced brutal effect, swishing a habitual photo into a shot from the movie. Carefully read the applied guide in order to have the same result you see in the presentation.
Reddish Lite Photoshop Action
Reddish Lite Photoshop Action will provide a subtle film-like processing and saturated colors in the shadows. Natural toning for portrait and fashion photography. Perfect fresh skin tones! These tones are best for Studio window light portraits, outdoor natural light portraits, street and travel photography. Just use the Play Action button once the action is installed. Installation instructions can be found inside the archive.
Skin Tone Photoshop Action
Soften skin tones without losing the natural look of skin texture! This free Photoshop action is a one-click solution for everyone, who wants to hide some skin imperfections. It’s easy to work with this Photoshop action: a couple of clicks and you’re done, no special design knowledge required.
Faded Film Photoshop Action
This Photoshop action will give your photos a beautiful faded look reminiscent of photos taken with film cameras. It doesn’t matter what Photoshop version you have as this action goes well with the CS3 or newer. After applying the asset, your photo will obtain a calm, muted, bluish color, so aesthetically appealing and cinematic!
Sunrise/Sunset Free Photoshop Action
With this free Photoshop action sample, you can give sunrise and sunset effect to your photos with just a click of the mouse! The effect is non-destructive and leaves the original photo layer unharmed. This means that you can quickly revert to the original photo if you’re not happy with the results. Give your outdoor photos that are missing aesthetics!
PRO Skin Retouch Photoshop Action
This Photoshop action will give your images a modern look! This file has been tested on a variety of images, all with unique results so versatile and suitable for any image. This action is specially developed for designers and professional photographers. Create magical graphics in just a few seconds. The file comes with a detailed help file to guide you through the process.
Deep Matte Lightroom Preset and Photoshop Action
Need to have a strong, deep matte effect for your photos? Great, ‘cause you’re looking at one of the best Photoshop actions, capable of doing that and even more — expressing the hidden beauty of a dim shot. Works with any Photoshop version, so you don’t need to worry about it and just focus on the process and an achieved result.
50 Winter Wonderland Photoshop Actions
Winter is the time of fairytales, magic stories, and a feeling of miracles happening around! If the nature of this season decided to be not as festive as you expected it to be, don’t worry, we’ve got Adobe Photoshop actions, allowing you to create amazing photos in just a single click! These actions are effortless to use and can be used by everyone, from beginners to pro photographers.
HDR Photoshop Action
This free Photoshop action allows you to imitate HDR-like effects for your photos easily. Just choose the action, click Play, and the effect will be applied to help the picture resemble an epic high-quality shot, increasing the image’s dynamic range. The action is compatible with every version of Photoshop since CS4.
Free Sunset Photoshop Action
This free Adobe Photoshop action will allow you to enhance your sunset photos or give your photos the feel of being taken during golden hour or at sunset. The lack of nature’s mercy on the moment the photo is taken won’t be a problem anymore when you have this little helper in your toolbox, always ready to brighten up an image.
Nightmare Photoshop Action
It’s the color correction that makes horror movies even more terrifying. The art of picking the most suitable filter plays a significant role in making the best impression. If you need to give your photos a dark, haunting effect, this free Photoshop action, called “Going Under,” is at your service.
Skin — 5 Retouching Actions
Retouch skin like a pro with these Photoshop actions that will let you heal, mattify, and airbrush skin with one click. It also includes actions for brightening eyes and increasing contrast; the former reduces redness and increases brightness in the eyes while the latter increases contrast without clipping highlights/shadows. Simply play the action then paint over the areas that you want to retouch.
Free Cinematic Photoshop Actions
These free Photoshop actions are very easy to use. Just one click and your photos are given an awesome mood and style. Moreover, you can tweak the individual settings of every action and customize the filter. This means that your creative possibilities are pretty much unlimited and know no boundaries!
100 Free Eye Photoshop Actions
Download the free collection of Eye Pop Photoshop Actions to make eyes on portrait photos look more vivid and bright but still natural. These free actions for eye-editing are suitable for both JPG and RAW format pictures. It’s an irreplaceable bulk of assets for professional photographers taking fashion or documents-related pictures.
Majestic Black & White Photoshop Actions
Meet the set of Photoshop actions that has been hand-crafted and tested in order to produce a diverse collection of Photoshop presets to suite a variety of photographic genres. From intimate portraits and delicate still life to breath-taking landscapes and astrophotography, they’re guaranteed to help take your photography to the next level and smooth out your workflow!
Free Cinema Photoshop Action
Enjoy the beautiful cinema-inspired effect with the help of this free Photoshop action. The Warm Cinema action is a magic button for bringing some European coziness to any photo, no matter where it was taken. And irrespective of your cinema choice, the shots come out splendid, high-quality, and eye-pleasing.
HDR Real Estate Photoshop Actions
Whether it’s a graphic design project that happened to wait around the corner, or you’re busy selling your parents’ place, the best option to edit the shots with buildings, apartments, and any architecture would be applying these Photoshop actions. They would increase the photo’s quality to the maximum even if the source shot wasn’t that lucky.
Free Shifted Photoshop Action
This free Photoshop action will convert your multicolor photos to black & white ones, with a hint of a colored tone. The effect, called Shifted, is a nice solution for turning any image into the old-school photo from your grandparents’ youth. It’ll be nice to have this asset among the other Photoshop actions for portraits, collected in your toolbox.
INSTAGLOW Lightroom & ACR Presets
How about a cyberpunk-inspired Photoshop & Lightroom Presets collection? You can create stunning photos with the classic yet still gorgeous cotton candy colors, blues, and pinks elevated with the fantastic bokeh. Recreate the editing style of the best, most-followed photographers easily in under 30 seconds with this simple to use Lightroom preset.
Fitness Model Lightroom Presets
This is a collection of filters and Photoshop actions that will help you create sharp look unique effects and enhance details for sport and fitness theme photographs. Suppose you’re an amateur or professional photographer, graphic designer, or blogger. In that case, you’re likely to spend a lot of time in front of the screen, retouching photos, and these presets will speed up your workflow, giving the images a fresh look.
Instant Hipster — Instagram Actions
Meet 27 sunny Photoshop actions! Give your photos a retro look similar to those found on Instagram. Play one action, and all the effects will be automatically generated for you. Using Photoshop’s snapshots feature, you can switch between the effects instantly without running another action. These actions use RGB curves to change the color and contrast, they give you the maximum image quality, dynamic range, and consistent results with any photo.
Blogger & Instagram Lightroom Preset
The matte effect + moody + vibrant Lightroom Presets collection features 24 Photoshop actions to add a magical but cozy touch to food, lifestyle, and travel photography, as well as a vivid and dreamy tone to your photos. The toning and colors of these presets are quite warm to add some magic, though some presets also emphasize a beautiful pale and relaxed mood.
Aspyn Ovard Lightroom Photoshop Presets
These Photoshop effects will add a bright and colorful tone with orange saturation to your photos within a few clicks! Spend more time shooting and less time editing. Each Photoshop preset has been crafted to look great with a wide variety of images. You will be able to get a great result with a single click! However, you can always make adjustments to suit individual photo concepts.
Vintage Filters
Oh, the never-dying trend for vintage and retro! So many creators fall for its classic movements, once changed the whole perception of design with other fields bordering on it. Old-school grain, noise, and scratches — everything is right here, in these Photoshop actions!
Retro Prime Photoshop Action
Get a set of professional free Photoshop actions and textures to rejoice yourself with retro-looking images that won’t remain inappreciable. Vintage has always been in vogue! So these Photoshop effects will transform a common photo into a piece of retro film with a few clicks without reducing its quality.
Free Vintage Matte Photoshop Action
Renegade Vintage Actions
Get a useful set of vintage Photoshop actions to add realistic retro effects to your photos in seconds. This tool will be extremely handy for your kit full of different design treasures. The set includes 4 actions and 2 textures for that authentic analog look, which is light leaks and dust, by the way. Adding some retro effect to your image will be a piece of cake!
Polaroid Generator Action
Retro Engraving Photoshop Action
Let your collection of vintage and retro items get more extended from now on! We introduce you to the Photoshop action, adding the effect of engraving to your images and some nostalgia to your mind. You can apply it to your images, play around with commercial and printout ideas, apparel designs, branding, and visual identities, labels, and even more!
Vintage Colors Photoshop Action
30 Dust and Scratch Overlay Textures
Add that vintage feel to your images using the optically captured dust & scratch overlay textures. It’s made as a Photoshop action to make workflow easier for you. If you are a wedding, portrait or family photographer and your aim is to create realistic retro photos, this toolkit is the right choice for you. Enjoy the aesthetics of a daguerreotype style!
LITHPRINT Vintage Filter
Vintage Effect Photoshop Action Set
These Photoshop actions allow you to give that old time vintage look to your photographs or images. From the sepia drenched, wild west through to the cool retro, black and white of the swinging sixties there’s an action here that will create the effect you’re looking for. One click runs all 10 actions allowing you to see all your options at once and select the one you like most.
Old Photo Effect Actions
90s Style Photo Effects Photoshop
Each of you probably has these photos in your photo archive, but this does not mean that this style is in the past! These Photoshop actions are an easy way to give any image a look as if it was taken in the 90s on a cheap film camera. This set contains unique actions that create lens distortion, automatically generate glare film, add a date on the photo (which you can replace with any text), and have 7 color correction options to simulate different old film types.
Analog Double Exposure Action
Vinta-Tone Printing Press Action
It took a few weeks of tests to obtain this fantastic Photoshop action! In the 30s, 40s, and 50s, the images in newspapers, magazines, books, catalogs, and many publications were printed in the famous halftone of a single tone, usually black, but often used colors like red, blue, green, or yellow. So Vinta-Tone is a small printing machine of halftones: this visual effect will bring back many memories!
Bitmap — 8-Bit Effect Actions
Plug & Play – Halftone Action
An array of CMYK halftone dots is yet another retro-inspired technique, easily recreated with Photoshop action! Splitter is a one-click halftone color separation for Photoshop. Prep full-color images for silkscreen or RISO in less than 30 seconds. Or simply use it to get the retro print look. Includes dot and line halftone actions that separate any image or design into 4 colors. Simply open the canvas, load the actions, and press play!
Frequently Asked Questions
It’s easy to use Photoshop actions, and, to be honest, you don’t even have to be a designer to understand how to run it. You just need some basic editing skills and a lot of time to experiment on many repetitive tasks. The hardest thing here, in my opinion, is to master hdr photography and acquire high-quality pictures in order to receive non destructive editing. To explain the usage in simple terms, you just have to install Photoshop actions, go to the , choose the right effect and click the play button. After you managed to do that, every time you want to repeat the tasks, just click on the load action button.
Yes, there are completely free Photoshop actions that you can download and use without any additional payments. However, the Photoshop actions you pay for usually have more effects and content you can use in your graphic designs, making them more professional and good-looking. Therefore, more experienced designers use expensive Photoshop actions in order to complete some repetitive tasks fast and perfectly.
Although free Photoshop actions cannot be compared to those you have to pay for, they can produce a lot of different editing styles, from matte effect to light leaks and retro effect. Even if you are a novice, such a tool can significantly increase your productivity and ability to complete different jobs, making the design process more easier and faster.
Excellent article. My favourites are sunrise/sunset, warfighter and faded film 🙂
Thank you, Juliet! Guess time is coming to bring another selection with the actions — already have a few great ideas on what to feature there 🙂
Hello, is it free? Do you need to register to pay for the download? thanksgiving
Hey Guo!
In this post we selected Photoshop actions available for free download. But note that some of the included websites require your email address to download the resources.