Lightroom presets .... do you use them?

[Keith]

The one I seem to consistently use is the red high contrast filter when processing in black and white. When you first select it the image can look blown out with very deep shadows but I find it to be a very good starting point. Often I just reduce exposure slightly then start bringing up the shadows etc and will reduce highlights slightly when necessary.

This method seems to consistently give me the look I'm chasing with my digital conversions and it's very quick.

Having been an ACDSee user over the years it's taken me a while to get my head around LR since getting the M240 .... but it really is a very good piece of software IMO.

Please offer your tips and favourite settings etc if you feel inclined. 🙂

 

[x-ray]

Lightroom is my preferred raw converter but I've never used the presets. I feel every images needs its own individual treatment. Actually I e used LR for several years and never explored the presets.

 

[lynnb]

I use some of the presets as a starting point (I like Sepia and Creamtone) but usually I lean towards Filmbot's presets (it's freeware) - particularly their Rollei Retro presets, and the BW_Wet_Plate preset (which does things to the tonality that I have a very hard time replicating otherwise). The Wet Plate also introduces vignetting and split toning, but you can dial those back to 0 easily.

 

[bobbyrab]

I find LR presets very heavy handed, I don't think there's one I like, it surprises me actually that they are so poor, nothing subtle about them, it may well be they're designed as a starting point.
Mostly I use presets I've created myself, particularly B&W conversions.

 

[Godfrey]

I use Lightroom presets extensively but only rarely use any of the supplied presets. I've made hundreds of them for Develop, Slide Show, Printing, and Web modules. Also for Import.

For my B&W renderings, I have about 20 or so presets that provide a range of starting points from gentle flat and normal to totally pathological. I can't even begin to say what my favorite settings are because it depends completely on what I had in mind as I previsualized the photos...

I generally recommend to LR learners that they experiment, experiment, experiment rather than try to guide people to do it my way. I change my methodologies all the time as I learn new techniques and come up with new visual ideas. There's no downside to experimenting with LR ... Press one button and you've reset a file (or as many files as you care to select) to the initial defaults instantly.

Presets extend your capabilities and efficiency when using Lightroom. Learn how to use them and your image processing will become more fluid and productive.

G

 

[Richard G]

Lightroom is my preferred raw converter but I've never used the presets. I feel every images needs its own individual treatment. Actually I e used LR for several years and never explored the presets.

This. Maybe I am missing something... I don't do anything as a routine at import. I agree with X-Ray. Every image needs a little something, or almost none, or quite a lot.

 

[Doug]

Lightroom is my preferred raw converter but I've never used the presets. I feel every images needs its own individual treatment. Actually I e used LR for several years and never explored the presets.

Me too.... Though I do start working a related batch using the same preliminary settings for most controls including exposure and contrast, then go back and refine them a few more passes. I find that over time I am progressing in using more fine-tuning such as HSL, vignetting, etc, and find that my taste changes too. A learning process, and I should look into making my own presets.

 

[Contarama]

I am a LZ user as opposed to LR and have been for a few years. I make all sorts of custom presets and use LZ presets too. My dilemma is I find myself beginning to not like PP so much anymore. I want to get back to more basic straight out of camera vision. It all has began to look 'fake or phoney' to me in some way. I look at so many images nowadays, my own included and maybe especially my own, and think to myself - there is that boring ubiquitous crap that everybody is doing. It is almost like digital is rearing it's ugly side for me. Stealing my joy of photography.

Somehow it reminds me of painting materials...acrylics and gouche look so cool but oils and watercolors are where it has always been. If that makes any sense at all.

 

[Pioneer]

I do. I also roam the interweb every now and again looking for free presets to add to my collection.

Usually I use them as a starting point, and it is rare that I just accept where any preset leaves things.

 

[Mudman]

Dittp Pioneer. I have a boatload of free presets I got once, and I still use them for B&W conversions. I also have DxO filmpack 3 which works wonders on file colors and B&W conversions.

 

[Tonkatsu-Dog]

I use Lightroom presets extensively but only rarely use any of the supplied presets. I've made hundreds of them for Develop, Slide Show, Printing, and Web modules. Also for Import.

Same here I created my own ones for different lenses and cameras. They do enhance processing speed a lot. I bulk adjust and then make minor adjustments on top of individual shots as needed after that. Also I use silver effex for most of my B&W. Its superior in to LR itself. Unfortunately it slows down processing a bit.

Also I find myself trying to do my LR adjustments more and more subtle as I learn more and more. There is so much heavy handed digital processing out there now days that I want to avoid for myself. I often ask myself if what I have done is too obvious and if I should tone it down a bit.

Also as I learn more and more I see mistakes and things I don't like in my older processed photos... but thats water under the bridge. If I start re-processing my old shots there is no end to it.

 

[Peter David Grant]

I use presets all the time.

On import they all get Tri-X by Replichrome with the grain removed, as I don't like it.(https://www.gettotallyrad.com/replichrome/icon). From there I balance exposures between photographs with the slider, and do local adjustments with the dodge or burn tool, to bring in / out elements as needed. Otherwise, I pretty much leave everything else as it comes.

All the photographs here: oxford/https://peterdavidgrant.com/an-unseen-oxford/ have been done that exact way.

I personally find that if I use anything other than a preset, when I look at a sequence of photographs they all look random, and sporadic.

While I do find Silver Efex is better than LR and Replichrome, the time required simply isn't worth it.

 

[taemo]

I also love using the red high-contrast filter for my B&W shots, however my most used is VSCO
Film 01 for Portra and HP5+
Film 04 for Velvia 50
Film 05 for Neopan 400
Film 06 for Pushed Portra

I'm not going to try and defend the accuracy of VSCO to the real thing, however I like using it as baseline preset for my digital photos for a consistent look and color

I see that Film 07 has Tri-X 320 and Plus-X 125, hmm....

 

[willie_901]

I use LR presets for global tasks.

• zeroing all rendering parameters (starting over)
• initial conditions for B&W conversion (zeroing HSL parameters)
• initial sharpening during raw import.
• changing aspect ratios
• initial tone curves for certain cameras or scanners.
• pushing brightness for rendering with pseudo ISO-invarient cameras (ISO is always at base ISO then shutter time and aperture are set as appropriate; I have 1, 2 and 3 stop "exposure" slider push presets)

But I rarely use them for rendering on a per image basis.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

A lot at beginning with LR and DSLRs.
A lot with bw film scans.

Now I mostly deal with the right side for minor adjustments.