User manual for Wallflower

Install and get started

Click the button below to download the software bundle.
Copy the file wallflower.jsx to Photoshop’s scripts folder. On Mac it’s in /Applications/Photoshop 202x/Presets/Scripts and on Windows 10 it’s in C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 202x\Presets\Scripts.
Restart Photoshop and make sure Wallflower shows up in the menu File/Automate.
Install the actions by clicking on the hamburger icon (≡) in the actions palette in Photoshop, choose Load Actions… and then select all action files (ending in .atn) and click on Open.
Start experimenting by running one of the installed Photoshop actions with an image open.

How to run

You run the script by running one of the supplied actions, or by making your own actions. If you expand an action and double-click on the settings you can edit the script recipe.

What Wallflower does

The script simulates the look of photographic prints on paper by applying several effects:

Reduces saturation in shadows and highlights
Adds a subtle color cast and adjusts overall contrast to mimic the tonal characteristics of printed images
Slightly blurs the color channels and adds gentle noise to smooth out color transitions
Overlays a textured cream-colored layer to replicate the base tone of photographic paper
Applies an additional color layer to mimic the pre-flash commonly used in RA-4 printing processes

Using and editing the ready-made actions

Wallflower actions are built from recipes (script settings), that determine the resulting look. By default, the images won’t be saved after the script runs, leaving them intact. Because of this, the actions won’t work for automation (such as droplets) just yet. If you make a droplet at this stage you’ll be prompted to save the image on every droplet run.

When you’re ready to have an action save the resulting image, or when you want to edit the recipe of an action, expand the action (click on the right bracket) to show the recorded script name, Wallflower. When you double-click on this, a dialog will open where you can edit the saved recipe. Click the button labeled Use this recipe to save your changes.

If you check Save and close when done the script will start saving and closing the image after it runs, so leave this unchecked while you’re still trying out different recipes.

Making your own actions

Make your own recipe actions by duplicating an existing action (click on the small hamburger menu in the upper right corner of the Actions palette and choose Duplicate) and change the name (by double-clicking on it) and edit the recipe as outlined above.

You can also record your own actions from scratch by having an image open and then click on the plus icon in the Actions palette, name the action and start recording. Choose Wallflower from the File/Automate menu, paste the recipe you want, make sure Save and close when done isn’t checked (otherwise the image will close and you can’t stop the recording) and click Use this recipe to run the script. When it’s finished, open the recipe again as outlined above, check Save and close when done and save the recipe, if you’re ready for the script to start saving your images.

You can make as many actions with different settings as you like.

Recipe settings

A recipe is a text string with script settings that follows a specific syntax. It contains a number of settings, separated by a ; (semicolon) and an optional blank space for readability. All settings must always be specified and in the following order:

Pre-flash filter RGB – Red: [0–255]
Pre-flash filter RGB – Green: [0–255]
Pre-flash filter RGB – Blue: [0–255]
Pre-flash layer opacity: [0–100]
Fog layer (paper base) opacity: [0–100]
Black point adjustment: [0–50]
Shadow point adjustment: [-50 to 50] — positive moves up, negative moves down
Midpoint adjustment: [-50 to 50] — positive moves up, negative moves down
Highlight point adjustment: [-50 to 50] — positive moves up, negative moves down
White point adjustment: [-50 to 0] — negative moves down
Shadow saturation reduction: [0–128]
Highlight saturation reduction: [0–128]
Shadow tint adjustment: [-50 to 50] — negative adds green, positive adds magenta
Shadow warmth adjustment: [-50 to 50] — negative adds blue, positive adds yellow
Highlight tint adjustment: [-50 to 50] — negative adds green, positive adds magenta
Highlight warmth adjustment: [-50 to 50] — negative adds blue, positive adds yellow

This is an example recipe, ready to be pasted into Wallflower:

255; 245; 225; 10; 10; 4; -1; -3; -5; -10; 128; 16; -5; 0; 0; 0

Contrast Settings: 6 to 10

Settings 6 to 10 control image contrast by adjusting a luminance curve. These settings modify five key points on the curve:

Black point: [0, 0]
Shadow point: [64, 64]
Midpoint: [128, 128]
Highlight point: [192, 192]
White point: [255, 255]

Neutral Curve

When all five settings are set to 0, the curve remains linear. This means no change is applied, and contrast stays neutral:

Inverted S-Curve

The following curve corresponds to the settings 0, 10, 0, -10, 0.
This creates an inverted S-curve, which reduces overall contrast:

Flattened Inverted S-Curve

The last example uses settings 15, 10, 0, -10, -15.
This creates an inverted S-curve with lifted blacks and lowered whites, resulting in a flatter image with reduced dynamic range:

Hardcoded settings

In addition to the recipe settings, there are a number of settings only available in the script file itself.

blur_lightness: The amount of blur added to the lightness channel, for a softer look overall.
blur_a: The amount of blur added to the a channel.
blur_b: The amount of blur added to the b channel.
blur_ab_noise: The amount of noise added to the a and b channel after blur has been added.

Tips and tricks

Leave all settings at 0 to only apply the color smoothing. This is useful for subtly reducing digital “crispness” without changing the overall look of the image. This is a zoomed in example image, where Wallflower with smooting only has been applied to the right half [click to enlarge].