PhotoFANatic Friday: I'm Hooked on MCP Actions!

For a budding photographer such as myself, blog stalking research is critical. I've been blog stalking researching for years now...even before I knew what to do with a camera and kept seeing photographers die over good action sets. As I began to fiddle with Photoshop and tried out different actions, I found one that I knew I HAD TO HAVE. Enter Jodi Friedman of MCP Actions!

My primary focus as I'm getting started in this photography world is portraits. MCP Actions offers a KILLER action set called Magic Skin and another called Eye Doctor & Dentist. I can't get enough of either! The best part about Magic Skin is the price -- $42 bucks is a STEAL for what this set can do for you!!! I also recently purchased the Quickie set and really really like those too, but honestly, need to practice on them more. Even better, in order to try out MCP Actions, a number of them are shared for FREE -- ya, you heard me!

Jodi Friedman is incredibly nice. I emailed her and asked her to participate in my little feature and she was so gracious and quick to respond.

1. How did you go from shooting to developing your own actions? Actually they happened at similar times - well sort of... I started with photography as an eBayer - and got my photos of my kids (infants at the time)and the children's clothing - to look like studio magazine shots. From there I started getting asked to train online store owners and ebayers on photography and especially photoshop. So the training came 1st. Soon after I created the 1st set of actions I started marketing - the eye doctor and dentist. This was 3 years ago. And from there I started developing other sets. In the past year I made training videos to go with each set as well which further differentiates my products. (How cool is that?!)

2. What makes a truly great shot to you? Great light - to me the most important aspect to a shot is light. There are a lot of close seconds too - like focus, composition, ability to relay emotion, etc. But if your lighting is right, it can make a ordinary photo magical. (So far, my biggest challenge...why can't this be easy?)

3. And what was the best piece of advice you were given when you first started out? 1st - It takes time to build a business. Do not rush things. Be patient. 2nd - network with others doing similar thing. If you read my blog you know that I am a HUGE advocate of this. (We bloggers know a thing or two about networking, don't we???)

4. What's your favorite action? Wow - well depends how you define favorite. My main workflow is a personal batchable action - that is a combination (tweaked so I can batch with them) of Color Burst from the Complete Workflow Set, the Eye Doctor, and Magic Skin's Skin Cast Blast. That combination is used on most of my photos. But there are many more I love but use less (like Crackle from the Quickie Collection and Extreme Color from All in the Details). I also use and LOVE my Magic Blog It Boards as they make sharing photos on the web and blog so much easier. (the BLAH BLAH BLAHger is going to switch to the Magic Blog It Boards IMMEDIATELY!)

5. Can you make a Magic Skin Skin Cast Blast in real life to take away my dark circles and wrinkles? (Just kidding, I didn't ask her that. In real life, I use this and this.)

To get a better taste of what MCP Actions can do, please see some examples below!

Before

After

And below are some of her INCREDIBLE photos, too! A wedding and some shots of her darling twin daughters...aren't they so delightful?!

See??? These actions are GENIUS and I highly recommend you run out and get them ASAP! Click on the image below and it will take you straight to Jodi Friedman and MCP Actions!!!


To see what other people are hooked on, visit Julia's site Hooked On Houses!