Instant Snow Action

Here in the UK snow is something we get once or twice a year, which makes it a fairly rare event round these parts. So whenever snow arrives, everyone rushes out to build snowmen, go sledging and record the event with their cameras.

Instant Snow-1Now I realise some of you get snow all the time and some of you never see snow from one year to the next, but don’t let that stop you enjoying this weeks Friday Freebie.

You can download the action here: instant-snow

This is a one click action, so once you’ve unzipped it and installed it, you only need to hit the play button. The first thing the action will do is to make a copy of your photo and it’s the copy that gets the effect, leaving your original photo untouched.

The action will make three layers of snow and I’ve left all three layers active at the end of the action. That means you’re free to alter, adjust and tweak the snow in numerous different ways. Another nice feature of the action is the random nature of the snow. Put simply if you don’t like the snow the first time you run the action, just close the image down and run the action again and the snow will be different.

Usual rules apply:
The action is copyright Gavin Hoey 2013. You may use it for personal, non-commercial purposes only and please do not redistribute without permission. There is no support offered with this action and you use it at your own risk. Thank you and enjoy.

Instant Snow-2

 

102 thoughts on “Instant Snow Action”

  4. Thanks for the action, Gavin. I can’t wait to add it to my PSE 10 and give it a try. Where I live, it hasn’t snowed since 1939.

    Reply

  14. Sir Gavin, Lord of the Friday Freebie,
    On behalf of my computer and myself I would just like to say [ Thank You] one more time and because of you Gain, I look forward to Fridays.

    Reply

  17. Hello Gavin,

    at first a huge compliment on your blog! I came across FStopperst on your site.
    You present all your themes totally understandable human but also professionally.

    And then there is something for free … rihaaa: D How cool is that?
    And such wonderful tool!

    I had as one of my “learning issues” soon snow on the program … wanted to apply it to an actual picture, but at the end a
    i was a little bit lazy. ,-D

    I have now done with your action and that result is shown here:
    http://500px.com/photo/23656703

    Thank you and do definitely keep it up!
    Greetings from Germany
    Christian Wolf

    PS
    If you want to i can link your blog entry in my prescription of the pic? Is there a tut that i can purchase how u create the action?

    Reply

  21. Hi Gavin I’m all for Actions but i like them best of all when i have made them myself, I have a Mac and i have been trying for a Snow effect. Van Dar Lee seems to be just for windows.
    I have downloaded the snow effect you have here and it works well would you have a pdf of it.
    Thanks James

    Reply

  24. Hi, I am running PS CS5. I downloaded the zip file, opened it and photoshop started up. Where is the snow option? When you said “Hit play” what did you mean, am I being a ding-bat!
    Love your tutorials, I have learned a massive amount.
    Thank you!

    Reply

    1. Firstly did you load the action into Photoshop, once loaded drop down the windows tab, then under that you should see the Actions label. When you open that the Snow action will be at the bottom of the list. Click on the instant snow folder then click on the Snow folder. Then press the play button underneath and hey presto.. instant snow. If your not sure how to load the action into PS check this out. Hope it helps. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ2OR6gtl-0

      Reply

  27. Found your site and tried a few thing, this is one;-http://www.flickr.com/photos/72339061@N05/
    many thanks

    Reply

  28. I just discovered your tutorials and they are most informative. I ran across this one, Instant Snow, and just tried it. I love snow. I applied it to a photo taken in Yosemite. It was snowing but the snow did not show in the photo well. Applying your snow effect has added the snow that I was trying to capture. Thank you very much for this. Love it.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/17705330@N08/

    Reply

  29. Hi Gavin, i used your snow action on a club competition print… Southwick…where you gave a great talk recently, and it was awarded a full 20 by a highly regarded local photographer / judge Ken Scott aka “Touching the Light”….. Thanks for all your hard work helping us mere mortals.
    Link to the image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24814887@N06/8641821113/

    Reply

  32. Thank you SO much! I’m using it on a non-commerical school project. It’s not easy to take a photograph to theme ”winter portrait” when there’s no snow. So thanks again for saving my grade!

    Reply

    1. You’ll need to unzip the file (Right click on a Windows PC) and then install it into to Photoshop (drag and drop it onto the Actions panel).

      Reply

    1. It should work OK Katy. You’ll need to unzip the file and then drag & drop the action right onto the action panel in Photoshop (or Elements 11, 12, 13 etc)

      Reply

  39. Thanks Gavin Hoey

    I downloaded the snow effect ………….. and stick it in the photoshop

    Where can I find it? Plz.

    Best regards

    Saeed

    Reply

  40. Hello. Your brushes are wonderful. Thank you very much.
    I have one question (stupid) – how do you instal snow preset?

    Thank you 🙂

    Reply

  46. Gavin, I have been searching for a realistic snowing effect for some deer I photographed in the snow. Yours is the best by far that I have seen. There are some horrendous ones out there. Thank you so much. Just signed up to your newsletter as well.

    Reply

  57. Thanks for a really great action! Is it just me or does the action downsize the picture? My original picture is 7360 x 4912 pixels, but after I have run the action the picture is 1708 x 1140 pixels.

    Reply

  58. Many thanks Gavin for your Snow Action – really useful for me in Australia as it is currently 35c and snow is the last thing we can hope for at Christmas – Peter

    Reply

  70. Thank you very much for this amazing action. It’s the best I’ve seen for adding snow.

    Much appreciate!

    Rich

    Reply

  74. Hi Gavin, luv your online lessons more than any others! You are the real thing among so many who haven’t a clue!! That comes from a Professional Photographer of 30 years who still wants to learn new tricks! Thank you 🙂

    Reply

  75. Hi Gavin: While one has to go quite a bit south of Sydney to get snow (and not in December, mind you), this will allow me to at least pretend I can. Thanks for the snow action!

    Reply

  80. Truly a great teacher and photographer. Someday I hope to
    be able to obtain photos a fraction as well done as Gavin.

    Reply

  82. Thank you Gavin sir. I am from India and I have learned a lot from your videos from YT, Your simple tricks and ideas inspires me and forces me to push my boundaries to create something new. Thanks sir for being there for us and teaching us through your videos.

    Reply

  89. I retired from the US and now live in Peru. Where I used to live we got a lot of snow. Luckily I took a lot of pictures of this. Now when my grandchildren ask what snow looks like I can show them. Last night I used this action and the other Snow Action 2 on one of the photos. Not even I could tell which was the Photoshop made snow from the real. It matched the pictures perfectly. Thank you so much for this wonderful addition.

    Reply

  91. I’ve loved using your Snow action and it worked fine until lately: every single time I use the action now, the entire computer shuts down. I have no idea why; has anyone else had that happen or is it just me??

    Reply

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