Hello
Does anyone use Lightroom Presets with built in AI bundles?
I keep seeing loads up for sale on Facebook with too good to be true prices.
Just wonder what people on here use ?
I will primarily use it for portraiture and amending background colours.
Thank you
I'm not a fan of preset packages, if you buy presets you end up of a load of them, often with weird names and no idea what they do and what images they work best with. I have about a dozen presets which i've created myself and which I use on a regular basis. As I've created them and there are only a few, I know how to use them with best effect.
I've found them useful for auto masking.
it's scary good at doing people, faces, eyes, lips, backgrounds / sky etc.
they ofthen have options for applying presets, but find it will get some way to what i wanted but can then select the mask and tweak it further for what i was trying to do.
I create my own for what I need. I do know someone who bought and downloaded such a package. Lightroom Classic didn't like them as they were incompatible.
I do most of my editing using presets, but I use all my own presets. Many of these preset packages are largely a waste of money, the whole “special 90%” discount stuff is a complete scam as they’ve never been the originally listed price.
If you are new to LR and editing then using other people’s presets can be useful in terms of a starting point, learning from them and making them your own. But you also need to realise they have been created by someone to use on their own images and therefore based around the way they shoot (such as lighting) and the way they like their shots to look. There are plenty of presets you can get for free so don’t feel like you need to pay for presets, and remember LR comes with loads already bundled with it.
For portraits I use adaptive presets to apply adjustments to skin, eyes etc. I also have presets that do targeted adjustments such as a tone curve adjustment, or a radial mask minus the subject to create a vignette. I also have presets for a base set of adjustments for a studio shoot, or an outdoor shoot. Generally I’ll setup one shot as I like it and then sync the edits across all the other shots in the same set, and also use match total exposures when shooting with ambient light
I know I'm thick but isn't every photograph different.
How do you apply standard actions to different photos?
I use two “presets” a lot.
Import from LR or PS into Exposure, convert to Kodachrome 64 or Tri-x. Actually the Tri-x has the equivalent of N-1, N, N+1 and N+2 development settings in old fashioned Zone system terms.
Both conversions are based on film scans, so they get it right.
I shot with those two films (plus HP5, which I didn’t love), so all I want is for digital to match my film work. (Still shoot a bit of Tri-x).
If I could find accurate presets for Tri-x and K64 I’d buy them immediately. Don’t seem to exist. Plenty of poor imitations.
Otherwise, no interest in someone else’s “arty” ideas for colours in my photos.
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My approach is amost opposite to JPea - whose approach I deeply respect :)
My aim is to practice, simplify and standardise so that I know exactly what the end result will be as I lift the camera. Then forget about the camera and just concentrate on the “feeling”.
Kind of a Zen approach.
Cartier Breslin said “Zen in the art of archery” was the best book written to learn photography.
I’ve read it a few times….
Thank you for your reply Huw and I understand what you are describing.
I think indeed we process in opposite ways and that my approach puts me in a dark small corner...not literally of course.
I don't try for any film look.
Just the effect that seems to work for the particular image I am processing and that is as a result of a lot of fiddling.
I shoot black and white in my head or colour and have some idea of the end point. But most of my concentration is on the mood and structure of the image.
JPea said
Thank you for your reply Huw and I understand what you are describing.
I think indeed we process in opposite ways and that my approach puts me in a dark small corner...not literally of course.
I don't try for any film look.
Just the effect that seems to work for the particular image I am processing and that is as a result of a lot of fiddling.
I shoot black and white in my head or colour and have some idea of the end point. But most of my concentration is on the mood and structure of the image.
Yep, two opposite “technical approaches “ aiming at the same result…. Recording a feeling.
My “film look” approach is purely out of laziness. ;)
Edited by Huw