To fine a good PSD file that will be available freely online is not very easy. Some websites charge a small fee for downloading a PSD file, others just don’t offer them in the first place. Here are some really good PSD recourses that can help you to sharpen your skills.

Incredible free.psd file by Manicho fromdeviantART. This is an iPhone image with all it’s features and highest quality file. Download here. Tis fine is free for any sort of use, however you should link to the author’s page if you decide to use this image.

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This is a very nice Orb created by Paul Willocks back in 2005. Even though this PSD file is rather old and quite small (when you will download, you will see it’s hardly a big avatar size), it’s has a few very interesting effects and interesting metal-like frame. Download this file here. If you like artist’s style and want to see more of his works, take a look at his another psd orb here.

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Last year, Psychopulse, one of my all-time favourite Mac-style designers made this PSD file available for a free download. This zip folder includes 5 files that can be used either for a stylish signature, or (the original idea) for posting our desktop screenshot in a sort of thumbnail in the forums. Particularly widely spread technique in Aqua forums, but in any case, you are going to love the styles and learn from them. If you want to use them for anything else, you must ask for author’s permission. Grab the file here. If you like his style, I recommend to also check out his other downloads, snapshot 05, chalkboard, wood and frame.

As the so-called desktop design is gaining popularity, you might find this PSD file to be especially useful. it includes a few badges, note and photo effect. The author of this download — Deluxive, definitely made a lot of web designer’s life easier. Get the file here, you are going to love it.

Aero Vista. The word says it all, we all want that glossy sleek look and those semi-transparent frames. FastNFurious

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Although the title of this Photoshop action “Rock Music” slightly misleads, this is still an awesome action. We would probably except to see a high contrast image, but this action gives a more vintage-like effect, similar to what you’d see in perfume adverts on pages of Vogue magazine. It gives a nicely mild purple shade to the photo, using the gradients technique. The 22-years-old author put his logo backwards on this image… try to ignore artist’s mishap

Download the actions and read the details here.

Yet another fantastic Photoshop action that does not just enhance colours, but actually adds a unique and artistic effect.  Roughly speaking, it turns all the dark shades of the photo to a very dark green hue, and somewhat flattens the high contrast curves. It could be idea for signatures, landscapes, photos and portraits.

The downsides of this action is that it adds contrast and reduces the Saturation, which means images that has high contrast in the first place will end up having very light areas. It’s safe to say that this action works best with darker pictures.

Download the action on artist’s page at deviantART here.

This is a very generous collection of Photoshop brushes by a Czech guy — Ario Asten. The set includes 195 different brushes, ideal for DK and photo editing. Even though the set mainly concentrates on smudges, semi-transparent and somewhat grungy brushes, it also included lashes, blurry dots, and various smudged shapes. Unfortunately some brushes come in a very small resolution (like 15 pixels in diameter) which means enlarging them results in loss of quality, however others come in a huge format of over 500px.

Bottom line is, this is a very big and useful download that brings you almost 200 artistic and original brushes for rendering, creating effects, and polishing your art.

Download the brushes pack (.abr file)

This is yet another great action for adding glamorous look to an ordinary dull photo. Developed and offered freely by iScarlett on DeviantART. What does it do? It adds intensity to the colours (contrast), adds a bit of glow and lightens the image. As a result, any simple photo taken in domestic light conditions can be brought to a stage of professional photography.

It’s particularly useful because it applies same settings to ANY photo, which means you need not sit and reduce darkness or add contrast manually for each photo. The downside of the action, just like any other action, is that if your photo is originally too light, this action will add too much contrast and as a result the outcome will hurt the eyes.
The Skin Glow Enhancement action was made by the author in CS3, and has not been tested in earlier versions of Photoshop so I guess anyone with CS2 and lower version just have to try and see if it works.

Download and details about this release here.

Terms of use:

Use freely wherever you want; on templates, wallpapers, personal and commercial use are okay as long as you:

1. Don’t claim the image was created by you.
2. Don’t resell the image itself.

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Download the full version

This is one of the first tutorials I was making when I tried to promote Lorelei Web Forum. It’s a very nice style, looks like it was caramelized and it has a lot of depth. You will certainly going to enjoy this file but please remember that this is my material and must not be redistributed without permission.

Download Caramel Style Effect (250 kb)

This a download file I made last year for my design forum, appearantly it still gets downloads, only in the forum it’s not open for viewers, only members. Here I thought I’d share it freely on this blog. All you need to do is open the psd file in photoshop, select each layer and load the layer styles, then save.

Download the PSD with layer styles (477 kb)