Lightroom...Presets...Good, Bad, or Indifferent?

[MichaelHenson]

Basically, does anyone use presets developed by others for your photography? If so, what ones? If not, why not?

I'm slowly evolving and am going to be shooting my first session with the intention of some photos ending up in my portfolio on my website and the idea of using presets to achieve a consistent "feel" and quality (not to mention speeding up the workflow) is intriguing. What are your thoughts?

 

[SnappingShark]

Just remember that presets are just that. pre-set. You can do them yourself if you had the time.

I've a pack from nicolesy but that's about it. Sometimes it's good to use them and then just alter the sliders to adjust to what you need.

Saves time. That's about it for me.

 

[MichaelHenson]

That's how I plan to use them. I know that eventually...with a lot of time and practice...I'll end up with a "style" (preference) for how I like for things to work. In the meantime, I like the idea of having some stylistic consistency while expanding my horizons...and saving a ton of time.

 

[Derrel]

I downloaded all of the Matt K's Lightroom Killer Tips pre-sets for Lightroom from his blog, and I use a number of them as the basis for some of my processing looks. Lightroom comes with a lot of pre-sets, but Matt K has some nifty ones too.

 

[KmH]

There are some other threads and posts regarding pre-sets in the Graphics Programs forum.

LR is a parametric graphics program.
Photoshop is a raster graphics program
Illustrator is a vector graphics program.

I make my own pre-sets.
Using popular and commonly used pre-sets makes your photos look like a lot of other peoples photos.

 

[midgeman]

I use presets and then adjust them to my liking and to suit the photo. Saves time.