How do you turn a boring snapshot into a photo with emotion? Easy – just add some faded vintage effects. They're nothing new but these Premium Looks actions by SparkleStock have plenty of new features never seen before in Photoshop actions. They create exposure-neutral effects with layers that let you control the amount of color, contrast, and fade. And just in case you have a 200MP Hasselblad medium format camera lying around, you’ll be glad to know that the included light leaks are 100% vector. If you want to improve your photos with zero effort, then you have to download and try out these free Photoshop actions.

Before and After Examples

See how these Photoshop actions completely change boring snapshots into something that tells a story. In the first example, the “Reminiscence” action was added to this boring tourist photo to make it look like it was shot with a film camera. Now it looks a lot more nostalgic.

The “Brisk” action is particularly useful for creating an eerie look and can be used to make photos look haunted.

Every effect is customizable. By increasing the fade and reducing the contrast, you can get an effect shown in the image below.

There are also light leak actions that can be used to add subtle or strong light leaks. These are great for adding a vintage look to your photos.

Features

The free download includes five photo effects and three light leaks. With the pro edition, you get all twelve photo effects and eight light leaks.

The actions are so simple to use. Simply play one action and all the effects will be prerendered for you so that you can pick the best effect without playing each action one-by-one. You can even increase the color, contrast, and fade to get the perfect look.

All the effects including the light leaks are nondestructive. You can use them on any image size and any aspect ratio. Because the actions only use nondestructive techniques, they run fast and keep your file size small.