15 Color Grading Photoshop Actions to Enhance Your Photos

I love running Photoshop Actions on my images to quickly spruce them up with subtle photo effects, but one thing I love even more is creating my own batch of Actions. It’s fun experimenting with combinations of adjustment layers to alter the appearance of an image with different contrast and colour casts, then it’s exciting to test out that series of alterations on a range of photos to see the results. These Color Grading Photoshop Actions quickly enhance the tones of your images. Choose from the 15 presets to apply a range of effects, from subtle washed out looks to high contrast vibrancy.

15 Color Grading Photoshop Actions

Load the .ATN file into Photoshop, then choose one of the 15 Action recordings and press the Play icon to process your image with a range of preset adjustments. To fine tune the result, adjust the Opacity of the Group to tone down the impact of the effect, or dive into the adjustment layers and manually change the settings. I have just as much fun naming my Actions as I do creating them, here’s an overview of the aesthetics of each one:

Blackberry Stain
Add a slight purple colour cast to your photos. This is a great choice for subtly grading your images.
Morning Mist
Washes out the colour from your photograph to leave a cold and fresh feel like a misty Winter morning.
Horror Movie
A dark and sinister cinematic look with a cool green tint matched to the colour of zombie flesh.
Dad’s Camera
Subtle yellow tones to give your photos a bright vintage/retro vibe, just like those family photos from the beach.
Raspberry Tart
Produces a sweet reddy-pink colour shift with slightly washed out tones.
Steam Train
Nostaglic yellow filters and a heavy dose of film grain to mimic the appearance of antique photographs.
Midnight Party
Intense contrast and vibrant colours. Perfect for night shots and cityscapes.
Fresh Moss
Enhance the greens in your nature shots to give them an enchanted fairy tale look.
Sweet Perfume
Beautify your portrait photographs with a bright studio like appearance.
Faded Dream
Turn your images into lost memories with faded tones and faint colours.
Teacup Storm
Run this Action on your landscape photographs to set the sky on fire.
Stunt Driver
Create thrilling action shots with vibrant colours and high contrast.
Animal Lover
Use this Action to create the most beautiful portraits of your furry friends.
Sunday Picnic
Bright, warm tones to generate a relaxing atmosphere within your photographs.
South Coast
Blazing hot reds, yellows and oranges that give your images an upbeat summer vibe.