There are three different suites of Photoshop Union Actions.

• Photo Designer
• Portrait Suite
• Texturize

Within each suite, the user has various are sets of Photoshop Actions to pick and choose from.

What I like about these 3 different sets of Photoshop Actions is that not only can you  just click a button to apply professional retouching techniques, but they are organized in such a way that one can study and explore how the actions behave. This adds the flexibility of being able to tweak any of the actions to your liking. As the author of the actions states, it gives the user “Total Workflow Control.”  Sweet!

Photo Designer

This collection of actions replicate common (and not-so-common) filters and dark room techniques. The suite includes the following sets.

Vintage

This set of actions skews colors and increases contrasts – taking your ordinary photo to another level.

UA Vintage actions include:

• Vanilla Cream
• Warm
• SX-70
• Classic
• Blue Dawn
• Nostalgia

Original Photo	Nostalgia Action

Vignette

This action set is a powerful collection of custom vignette actions. It lets you fine tune the focus of your image by drawing attention where you want it to be. These post-process vignettes are both customizable and reversible.

This set includes the Burn Edge action. The Burn Edge action set uses the vignette workflow to burn your edges instead of underexposing them. The Vignette set offers several different resolution actions (low, mid, and high-res).

UA Vignette actions include:

• Vignette
• Burn Edge

Original Photo	Vignette Action

Tone

The UA Tone collection is the most comprehensive set. It includes 14 different actions. Eight of the actions are a ‘solid’ tone. The remaining 6 is a series of split tone actions. The split tone actions tint the highlights in one color, the shadows in another. The effect can be more dramatic than using one color.

Original Image	Sepia Action	Sepia Highlights Actions

Lens Filters

These actions replicate some of the most popular photography filters.

UA Lens Filters include:

• Graduated Neutral Density (skey enahnce)
• Graduate Neutral Density (ground enhance)
• Infrared
• Infrared – touch of color
• Polarizing

Original Image	Infrared – touch of color

Light Leak

Add a streak of light to your images by using an action within this set. The actions in this set let you overexpose parts of your image. Each of the eight actions lets you apply a light leak to a different part of your image (top, bottom, upper corners, etc.)

Original Image	Light Leak (left side)

Toy Camera (Lomo)

Lomography (lomo for short) is becoming more and more popular in the photography world. The UA Toy Camera lomo action increases saturation, adds film grain, and softens the focus. This set of actions also include black and white versions.

Original Image	Lomo	Lomo Black and White

Click here to view more details for the Photo Designer Suite. (affiliate link)

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Portrait Suite

This suite of Union Actions brings you professional portrait editing right to your fingertips. The action sets in this suite affect the skin, eyes, lips, and teeth.

Skin

This set of actions smooths out unwanted blemishes and wrinkles.

UA Portrait Skin

• Simple Soften
• Advanced Soften
• Blemish Blaster

Original Image	Simple Soften

Eyes

This UA Eyes action set effects the eye tones, colors, and vibrancy.

UA Portrait Eyes

• Enhance Catch Lights
• Iris – Increase depth/enhance color
• Eye Sharpen
• Brighten the Whites
• Eye Enhancer
• Eye Color (light blue, blue, light green, hazel, brown)

Original Image	Eye Color

Lips

This set of actions brings life and vibrancy to a huge focal point of any portrait. These various actions affect the lips color and brightness.

UA Portrait Lips

• Lip Gloss
• Lip Shade Enhancement

Original Image	Lip Shade Enhancement

Teeth

This set of actions removes unwanted discoloration, leaving a bright and clear smile.

UA Portrait Teeth

• Whiten
• Super Whiten
• Brighten

Original Image	Whiten

Click here for more details for the Portrait Suite. (affiliate link)

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 Texturize

Adding texture brings a whole new dimension to an image. The UA Texture Suite includes 32 custom textures, ranging from weathered to vintage.

Original Image	Texturize

Click here to view more details for the Texturize Suite. (affiliate link)

If you do any retouching with your photos, I highly recommend these Photoshop Actions. Each suite is only $49. And, right now they are running a two for one. Click here to visit Union Actions (affiliate link)

Photo by Images Money on Flikr

When I put together a proposal for a client, I include the the ongoing costs. These costs are the investment fees to keep the site up and running beyond the initial launch of their site.

The initial investment of a site was covered in a previous post. This post covers the ongoing costs of a website.

There are a number of ongoing costs associated with a website:

• renewal of domain name
• webhosting fees
• updates to site
• SEO optimization

The first two are given. The third cost, updates to site, will vary depending on how much updating you require. Let’s cover each one.

Domain Name

Domain names can be purchased from 1 year to 10+ years. I like to set up client’s domain name to renew every 1 to 2 years. It’s a good reminder to them and it gives another opportunity for me to touch base with them.

Domain names run from $5/yr on up. I like to handle the domain name registration for my clients, to assure them they won’t ‘accidentally’ lose their domain name. I’ve had clients lose their domain names because they didn’t know to renew them each year. If the client has me take care of that, they won’t need to worry about losing their domain name.

Webhosting Fees

Webhosting fees vary. Again, I recommend your web designer taking care of these fees for you. I also recommend going with the host recommended by your web designer. If they use a specific host, they are familiar with that host, how to handle any technical issues, can more easily and fully support your website, and better protect your site. And, if they monitor these fees, you can be assured your annual fees will consistently be renewed.

Webhosting fees range from $10/month on up. Large, dynamic sites can be in the $100+ range/month. I recommend not just going with the cheapest, but going with the option that best supports your site month after month. There are always software upgrades, new malicious-ware, spy-ware updates, etc to consider on a web server. Let your web designer make this decision for you and be willing to pay for their expertise in overseeing your site.

Updates to Site

Your site performs better with search engines if it’s being regularly updated. Plan to invest in updates to your site on a consistent basis. If you want to be able to perform routine updates, let your web designer know from the beginning. They should be able to set up the site for you to do this. (WordPress is one of the best options for this.) Also, plan on investing a bit more from time to time to do more complex updates to your site. This may be adding or deleting a page or section. It may be adding a newsletter subscription option to your site. Or, it may be adding a gallery. Your web designer may need to get involved with these more complex updates.

If your updates require consistent help from your web designer, ask them about a maintenance plan. A maintenance plan provides monthly support for your site at reduced rates. It usually guarantees a set number of hours at a certain rate. I offer a Gold Plan and a Silver Plan. The gold plan is up to 4 hours/month at a 20% reduced rate. The Silver Plan is up to 2 hours/month at a 10% discount rate.

If a client does not go with a maintenance plan because they don’t require consistent support for updates, I will give them an estimate per project or per update.

SEO Optimization

If you really want to  optimize your site for SEO, it’ll require additional investment. Search optimization has become its own science. SEO firms focus on making sites perform optimally. A web designer may or may not offer these services. At a minimum, a web designer needs to set up your site with the keywords (provided by client), page descriptions, and page titles. You also want to use keywords towards the top of your text on each page. An SEO firm will take all of this to the next level and perform studies on the best keywords and titles to use, in addition to a lot of other research geared towards your site.

Rates for SEO vary widely. There is usually a minimum amount of time they require as search engine results take a number of months. A local firm charges $300/month for a minimum of 12 months. A national firm I recently checked with wanted $24,000 for a year.

What’s your experience with ongoing costs for a website? What questions do you have about ongoing costs?