How are the images in this link achieved?

The first image appears to just be a levels adjustment.
Second image, again levels adjustment. Then probably the ellipse tool, feathered edge, and either a blue filter, or a blue fill.
There are a lot of great tutorials on the web, you just have to find them.
Onone Software has a lot of great shortcut plug-ins for Photoshop. Might be worth giving it a try. They have free trials before you buy...

Forgive my cynicism, but this woman is charging USD 500 to teach you how to move a Levels slider and over-sharpen while still blowing the white balance? People who hire her spend $3000 on snapshots with magenta skin? On a scale where Uncle Harry is a 1 and Steve McCurry (Joyce Tenneson, etc) is a 10, she is no more than a 3.

Clearly I need to find a cute female photographer to partner with, and we can 'mentor' folks for $500 a pop.

So the mods don't delete this. The first of the two images she shows has only a Levels or Curves adjustment. The white balance is blue-ish, but not too bad. To achieve this, double-click the Highlight eyedropper in the Levels or Curves dialogue. Set the RGB values to 245, 245, 245, click OK. Now click on a white area in the image. Choose one that is not QUITE the brightest. Walla! (sic) You've not only saved $500, but you've fixed the white balance, too.

On the second image. Do the same Levels thing. Then duplicate the background layer. Now make sure the BOTTOM layer is active. Filter-Sharpen-Smart Sharpen. Radius 1.1 pixels; Amount 200. Eyes need to look like marbles. Now make the dupe layer active. Layer-Layer Mask-Reveal All. Brush tool set to black, opacity 100% Paint over the eyes, hair, and anywhere else you want over-sharpened. Now hit Ctrl-Alt-Shift-E (Cmd-Opt-Shift-E on Mac) to stamp your layers into one layer on top of the stack. Make a vignette with the Elliptical Marquis. Feather the hell out of it. Select-Inverse. Choose a color. Edit-Fill-Foreground color. Drop the opacity of the layer until you like it. Save.

I find the _before_ images much better.

Lacey's comment about onOne Software's product is right on the mark. The efx that I see on the photographer's website look a lot like those in onOne's "Photo Tools 2.5":
http://www.ononesoftware.com/detail.php?prodLine_id=29 .

As was pointed out, such effects can also be easily achieved without purchasing additional software. As far as I can tell, the main advantage such add-on's offer is speed and consistency of look over a set of pix. Since you are not making up each effect from scratch for each image, the results are usually more consistent.

Finally, w.r.t. Les' comment, unfortunately, there are many, many photographers who have earned a good living for many years by selling a "look" or "style" to their clients. Many members of the public are hungry for something new, even if the folks here can immediately ID the "look" as a Tiffen DFX, PhotoTools or a Nik Color Efx Pro preset.

Cheers,

Tom M

i can see a texture added.
some kinda of screen or overlay layer as well.
blue color cast
slight vignetting.
obviously eyes were enhanced isolated.
try this.
add a color balance layer, increase the blue a bit. try different blending if needed
add a levels adjustment, set to soft light, move middle slider towards the left.
vignette the corners
and perhaps add local contrast for final layer. select all, copy merged, paste, apply high pass filter to 250px. set layer to overlay. opacity 50%

its a start

Cool thanks guys. Thanks Les, I agree too. But also for Photographers who love doing what they do but can't afford it her prices are abit steep. 800 for a camera, 700 on a lens, 250 for a flash, 50 on a tripod, 800 on software, 100 on filters. And then someone to charge 500 makes no sense. :-) This is why we are blessed with a great community like Photo.net. Cool people make cool things happen!