what actions or filter that make a photo look like this?

the effect on the photograph is light

1 light source that I would call shade but a good camera set to cloud would be ok as well

i.e, any image;

• taken from a few feet back (use a tripod)
• on ruff base
• with a single dull light (too dark is better than too light because you can add lights in Photoshop)

will merge well into that background in Photoshop

as a photo its ok... not epic but good

as a portrait its a challenge to recreate because it was not done in a studio but ocd isn't needed for portrait work its just that it attracts them

This is shot with a telephoto lens from far away, at a fairly wide aperture.

Slightly underexposed and left uncorrected. The vignetting may partly be original, most lenses have some vignetting at wide apertures, but the couple then lightened a bit.

This isn't the kind of image you get from a phone, which is why it may seem "manipulated" to some. With a proper camera you can get this look straight off the memory card, if you know what you're doing.

Nice shot, very effective.

It would depend on your target photo and how it was lit etc… However:

* Minor desaturation of specific or all hues

* Vignetting or another similar methods

* Select Subject/Inverse/Lens Blur or similar methods

I agree this is not a photomanipulation, and it looks to me like it was the natural light that gave it the look it has. As always with Photoshop, there are a lot of different ways to achieve things if the original doesn't have the look you want.

Do you have a specific photo in mind, and if so can you post it?

Well, that's a bit of a tough one. After looking at it, they are actually seem like they are in that scene, and aren't over a different background. You can see the rocks they are standing on and all that. I am pretty positive this was shot on film too. Which makes it a little harder to recreate. There is no shortcut to coolness, so this one is a bit of a challenge to do. Wide lens, shallow aperture, film to boot. But one way you can recreate that look to some extent it through some of the different filters in the Nik Software plug-ins available for photoshop. There are some film processes in there and some cross-processing things that would make this pretty easy looks wise at least. But you have to get the shot first of course.

as in you want to put people in front of a different background image?

cut the model out tutorial is a good starting point mate