Photoshop in 60 Seconds: How to Create a Cinematic Photo Effect With Actions

Welcome to our Photoshop in 60 Seconds series, in which you can learn a Photoshop skill, feature, or technique in just a minute! In this quick video,you'll learn how to create an easy cinematic photo effect using Photoshop Actions.

Cinematic Photoshop Actions

Improve your photo editing workflow with Photoshop actions. Perfect for the beginner to Adobe Photoshop, actions allow you to save time while also applying incredible effects to your photography. Explore the amazing selection of actions available to you on Envato Market.

Check out this quick video below to learn how to create a simple cinematic photo effect.

How to Create a Cinematic Photo Effect

For this quick effect, I'll be using this Cinematic Effect Action you can download through GraphicRiver. Feel free to also download the main photo I used of this Young Woman's Portrait.

First load the action into Photoshop. To do this, go to Window > Actions and select the Load Actions option located within the Actions panel. Select the action you just downloaded and hit Load.

For this particular effect, there is one main action named "Cinematic Action," accompanied by follow-up actions that are used to adjust the intensity level. When you're ready to apply the effect, select the Cinematic Action then Press Play.

How to Play a Photoshop Action — To create the cinematic effect, play the first action located under the main folder. Then adjust your result with the follow up actions.

Adjust the darkness, color, and depth intensities by experimenting further with the Adjustment Layers automatically created when you play this action.

Here's the final effect:

Cinematic Photoshop Action from GraphicRiver

A Bit More Detail

Want to learn more about Photoshop Actions? Check out these links below:

60 Seconds?!

This is part of a series of quick video tutorials on Envato Tuts+ in which we introduce a range of subjects, all in 60 seconds—just enough to whet your appetite. Let us know in the comments what you thought of this video and what else you'd like to see explained in 60 seconds!