There are hundreds of free or for-sale actions available on the web. In the video lesson below I’ll teach you how to install 3rd party actions using an action I made called “Scrapper’s Guide Custom Shadow.atn.”

You can download the Custom Shadow action and a PDF manual with all the steps written out here. (Note:This lesson was filmed in 2007. Scroll down to see updated file paths.)

Watch the video to see how I use the action to create a custom shadow in seconds that makes the photo appear to be popped up off the page!

It may take awhile for the video to load, depending on your internet speed.
To start the video, click the triangular play button.

Here are updated file paths for Actions:

Windows7 & Vista
C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\your version\Locale\en_US\Workflow Panels\actions

Note: If you don’t see ProgramData, you must reveal hidden files by following these steps:
• Open the Start menu and choose “Control Panel.”
• Click on Appearance and Personalization.
• Click on Folder Options.
• When the Folder Options dialog box comes up, click on the View tab at the top.
• Under the Folder “Hidden files and folders” click “Show hidden files and folders” and click okay.

Windows XP
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\9.0\Locale\en_US\Workflow Panels\actions

Mac
Macintosh HD (not Applications) /Library /Application Support /Adobe /Photoshop Elements /your version/Locale/en_US/Workflow Panels/actions

The next time you start Photoshop Elements, the action will appear in the Automated Actions Guided Edit menu.

Note: Actions in Photoshop Elements 9 are not working like they should on layered documents. It makes a merged copy of the document at the top of the Layers panel and applies the action to that layer. This makes many actions not effective on layered documents.