From the Manual - Photoshop Elements

Install and Run the Action

• Install the Travel Photo Action included in the downloads for this class.
• Installation Instructions: Enroll in The Fundamental Five Free Class
• Open an image (File > Open) from your travels.
• In the Layers panel, make sure the image layer is the active layer.
• In the Actions panel, click on the name of the action and then press Play.
• Press Stop.

Adjust the Image Without Layer Masks

• If the image is too light, in the Layers panel click on the LIGHTNESS layer to activate it, then lower the Opacity.
• If the image is too sharp, in the Layers panel click on the SHARPNESS layer to activate it, then lower the Opacity.
• If the image is too saturated, in the Layers panel click on the SATURATION layer to activate it, then lower the Opacity.
• When satisfied, in the Actions panel click Play.

Adjust the Image with Layer Masks

• Use the layer masks if only part of the image needs to be adjusted.
• In the Layers panel, click on one of the layer masks to activate it.
• Get the Brush tool.
• In the Tool Options, open the Brush Picker and choose a Soft Round Brush. Set the Mode to Normal and the Opacity to 50%. If black is not the Foreground Color Chip, press the letter D to reset the Color Chips and then press the letter X to switch the Color Chips.
• In the Layers panel, click on the layer mask of one of the layers.
• On the image, brush over the over-saturated subject.
• To make your brush larger, press the Right Bracket key.
• To make your brush smaller, press the Left Bracket key.
• When satisfied, in the Actions panel click Play. 

From the Manual - Adobe Photoshop

Install and Run the Action

• Install the Travel Photo Action included in the downloads for this class.
• Installation Instructions: Enroll in The Fundamental Five Free Class
• Open an image (File > Open) from your travels.
• In the Layers panel, make sure the image layer is the active layer.
• In the Actions panel, click on the name of the action and then press Play.
• Press Stop.

Adjust the Image Without Layer Masks

• If the image is too light, in the Layers panel click on the LIGHTNESS layer to activate it, then lower the Opacity.
• If the image is too sharp, in the Layers panel click on the SHARPNESS layer to activate it, then lower the Opacity.
• If the image is too saturated, in the Layers panel click on the SATURATION layer to activate it, then lower the Opacity.
• When satisfied, in the Actions panel click Play.

Adjust the Image with Layer Masks

• Use the layer masks if only part of the image needs to be adjusted.
• In the Layers panel, click on one of the layer masks to activate it.
• Get the Brush tool.
• In the Tool Options, open the Brush Picker and choose a Soft Round Brush. Set the Mode to Normal and the Opacity to 50%. Flow can be 100% and Smoothing will be 0%. If black is not the Foreground Color Chip, press the letter D to reset the Color Chips and then press the letter X to switch the Color Chips.
• In the Layers panel, click on the layer mask of one of the layers.
• On the image, brush over the over-saturated subject.
• To make your brush larger, press the Right Bracket key.
• To make your brush smaller, press the Left Bracket key.
• When satisfied, in the Actions panel click Play. 

From the Transcript - Photoshop Elements

Finding the need to constantly add adjustments of lightness, saturation, and sharpness to your travel photos? In this video I'll walk you through the steps for using an action that was specifically created for that problem.

While creating a travel album for my daughter and her husband I found myself going though the same editing routine with nearly all of the photos I placed into her book. The problem is the naked lense of the camera simply cannot capture the amazing colors and sharpness that the naked eye can. So for those of us who are paying attention, the captured image can often disappoint. For this reason I created and action that saved me boat loads of time. Here is how it works.

Begin by installing the travel photo action included in the download for this class. If you need instructions on how to install and use actions, I’ve also included a link to a free video in our classroom showing how to do so. Then, open an image from your travels. One thing to keep in mind with this action is that it's meant mostly for scenery and images that do not contain closeups of people. But I’ll show you how to get around that a little later in this video. Because this is an action, there’s not much for you to do. Simply make sure that the image layer is active in the Layers panel, and then in the Actions panel click on the Play icon.

In a split second you should be left with four additional layers and a dialog box with a Stop button. The message in this dialog box will remind you of what I’m about to show you. It will also remind you to press Play when you’re finished adjusting the settings so that the action will finish up. So, I’ll press Stop. And then back in the Layers panel, you’ll see there are three layers with layer masks and they are all marked in capital letters to help draw attention to themselves. Let’s start at the bottom.

First, ask yourself if the image that you are looking at is too light, if so, click on the LIGHTNESS layer and then lower the Opacity of that layer until you like the image better. Then moving up the Layers panel, let's think about the sharpness. If you believe that the sharpness is a bit too much on your image, click on the SHARPNESS layer and again lower the Opacity of that layer. And then finally, ask yourself if the image is too saturated. Sometimes it’s hard to know unless you move the Opacity slider around a bit. For this particular image I will probably move it down to around 70%. 

For most travel images you can ignore the layer masks attached to these three layers. So when your photo looks great do you, make sure to return to the Actions panel and click on the Play icon to finish the action process. In this photo we ignored those layer masks, but there are times when the layer masks are going to come in handy and this photo is for that example.

I'm going to go ahead and run this action on this new photo. Go to the top, and when the travel photo action is highlighted, click on the Play icon. In the dialog box press Stop and then return to the Layers panel. Again I'm going to go through the process of adjusting the lighting and the sharpness and a little bit on the saturation.

Some photos especially ones that contain people will often suffer from too much saturation in certain spots. For example I like the overall effect on this image but the saturation applied to this person makes him look way to red. So if you have a case in which only part of your image needs to have the effect reduced even farther, then you'll need to utilize the layer masks. 

To do that in the Layers panel click on the layer that you want to adjust. In this case I want to just the saturation because there's too much saturation on the person. Then I'll click on the layer mask of that layer until it has a box around it. This means that the layer mask is active. Then I'll get the Brush tool. In the Tool Options of the Brush tool open the Brush Picker and get a soft round brush from the Default Brushes. Don't worry about the size for now, but we are going to set the Opacity of this brush down to around 50% and the Mode should be Normal .

On the image you'll want to make the brush slightly smaller than the subject that you are going to brush on. To increase the size of your brush, press the Right Bracket key. To decrease the size of your brush, push the Left Bracket key. And then one more thing, the Foreground Color Chip needs to be black. If it's not, you can press the letter X to set black as the Foreground Color Chip. Then on the image click and drag to reduce the saturation of the part of the image that you want to adjust.

Keep in mind that my brush is only set at 50% opacity, so if it's still needs a little bit more saturation removed, I can simply click and drag again. Let's see what a difference that made. Here is before my layer mask was applied. See how red he is? And here it is with the layer mask applied. Much better image. And then just as before, once you're satisfied with your image, don't forget to return to the Actions panel and click the Play icon to finish up so that all the layers are merged into one. So that is how to use the travel photo Action from Stories From the Road. 

From the Transcript - Adobe Photoshop

Are you finding the need to constantly add adjustments of lightness, saturation and sharpness to your travel photos? In this video I'll walk you through the steps for using an action that was specifically created for that problem.

While creating a travel album for my daughter and her her husband, I found myself going through the same editing routine with nearly all of the photos I placed into to her book. The problem is that the naked lens of a camera simply cannot capture the amazing colors and sharpness that the naked eye can. So for those of us who are paying attention, the captured image can often disappoint. For this reason, I created an action that saved me boat loads of time. Here’s how it works.

Begin by installing the travel photo action included in the download for this class. If you need instructions on how to install and use actions, I’ve also included a link in the manual to a free video in our classroom showing how to do so. Next you will need to open an image from your travels. One thing to keep in mind with this action is that it’s mostly meant for scenery and images that do not contain closeups of people. But I’ll show you how to get around that later in this video.

Because this is an action, there’s not much for you to do. Simply make sure the image layer is active in the Layers panel and then click on the name of the action, in the Actions panel, and then click the Play icon. In a split second you should be left with four additional layers and a Stop message. The message will remind you of what I’m about to show you. It will also remind you to press Play when you’re finished adjusting the settings, so that the action will finish up. So, I’ll go ahead and press Stop.

You’ll see there are three layers with layer masks and they are all marked in capital letters to help draw attention to themselves. Let’s start from the bottom. First, ask yourself if the image is too light. If so, click on the LIGHTNESS layer and then lower the Opacity of that layer. Next, ask yourself if the image is too sharp. If it is, click on the SHARPNESS layer to activate it and then lower the Opacity of that layer. And then finally, ask yourself if the image is too saturated. Sometimes it’s hard to know unless you click on the layer to activate it and then play around with the Opacity settings. 

For most travel images you can ignore the layer masks attached to these three layers. So when the image looks great to you, like I said before, you will need to return to the Actions panel and click the Play one more time to finish up. Like I said, most travel images you will be able to ignore the layer masks. But there are some images you will want to use the layer mask with. I am going to play the action on this image.

In the dialog box, I am going to go ahead and click Stop and then I will begin by adjusting the lightness a little bit. And the sharpness, I think I will leave it right about where it is. And the saturation, that could go down a little bit too. But I do like this image that is much more saturated, the problem is that it contains a person and People often do not look good when they are over saturated. This is where the layer mask will come in. 

To mask away the effect on any of these layers in very specific places, all you need to do is to click on one of the layer masks to activate it. I want to reduce the saturation of this person, so I will activate the SATURATION layer. But then I will also click on the thumbnail of the saturation layer to make sure that it has a border around it.

Then I am going to get the Brush tool. In the Tool Options I will open the Brush Picker and choose a Soft Round Brush. The Mode will be Normal, and the Opacity, I’m going to put it down to 50%. Flow can be 100% and Smoothing will be 0%. And, one more thing I need to check. The Foreground Color Chip needs to be black. If it is not, then press the letter D to reset the Color Chips and then press the letter X to switch the Color Chips. Now black should be the Foreground Color Chip.

Once more I am going to make sure that the layer mask is active. It will be active when it has a border around it. Now on the image, I want my brush to be just a little bit smaller than the subject that I am going to be dragging over. To make your brush larger, press the Right Bracket key. To make your brush smaller, press the Left Bracket key. I am going to set my brush to about the size of his head and I am going to simply click and drag over his body to reduce some of that saturation. Remember the opacity of my brush is only 50%, so if you feel it still needs more reduction. go ahead and brush again.

Now let's see what a difference that makes. Here was the image before I used the layer mask. And here is the image with the layer mask used. I was able to benefit from the saturation layer in the scenery, but I didn't necessarily have to saturate the person. Now just as before, when I am finished messing with my photo and I go back up into the Action panel and click the play icon to finish up. So that's how to apply my travel action to your travel photos.