Please be gentle...noob question on LR CC

[JohnSw]

Hello all, I am new to the Lightroom CC world. Can someone recommend some presets and where to get them?

 

[Dillard]

Try googling "free lightroom presets". There are hundreds out there for you to try out!

 

[JacaRanda]

Also several that come with it.

 

[JohnSw]

Thanks so far, I have "googled", there were so many I was hoping to see what others were using to start out with.

 

[sabbath999]

Suggestion?

Open a good base picture you have taken and start moving the sliders... make your own pre-sets by learning what they do, and what changes are made.

I suggest paying close attention to the Clarity, Saturation & Vibrancy area when messing around, that's where much of the magic happens. Also, contrast.

 

[ronlane]

lightroomkillertips.com has some. You searched for presets - Lightroom Killer Tips

 

[Braineack]

LR presets generally make my images look like trash.

I set my own preset on import based on my camera and perferences.

basically:
+5 contract
+10 clarity
+20 vibrance
+2 saturation

I adjust highlights, shadows, blacks, and whites by hand on every image I process. No two (unless in controlled settings) are ever really alike. and if they are, I just sync settings.

the only time I do find myself using a preset is for a specific trendy instagram cell phone image look.

 

[ronlane]

the only time I do find myself using a preset is for a specific trendy instagram cell phone image look.

I thought you WERE the trend setter on instagram.

 

[Braineack]

I thought you WERE the trend setter on instagram.

No, I process my images so they look realistic and show detail. no one wants that.

 

[KmH]

Which presets you'll want to have depends on what genre of photographs you make.
Someone shooting mostly landscapes will want different presets than someone mostly shooting their kids.

So you should say what genre of photographs you mostly make.

Frankly, it makes more sense to me to learn the fundamentals of image editing.
Then once you have built a good solid foundation of editing fundamentals you start developing your own presets.

 

[Derrel]

New York fashion shooter and frequent CreativeLive.com presenter Lindsay Adler shows how she creates and saves custom Lightroom presets in this short video.



I got my largest group of presets from the old "Matt's Lightroom Killer Tips" website, ones developed by Lightroom guru Matt K. I've found about fifteen of them to be immensely useful, especially high black and white color filter effect presets.

One thing to note is that many of the Matt K presets,especially the B&W ones, can require a significant exposure adjustment in order to make the image look good; initial roll-over of the presets with the mouse/pointer in the Preview window might very often show a very light-looking image, which will be rendered more correctly with a significant minus exposure adjustment.

 

[Jim Walczak]

Suggestion?

Open a good base picture you have taken and start moving the sliders... make your own pre-sets by learning what they do, and what changes are made.

I suggest paying close attention to the Clarity, Saturation & Vibrancy area when messing around, that's where much of the magic happens. Also, contrast.

I have to give a +1 here to Sabbath's comment! The truth is that whether we're talking seasoned pro or complete novice, no two photographers are alike and quite often situations can vary from one to another. Aside from the idea that "presets" may or may not provide the results you are looking for and may or may not be applicable to all situations (in other words, it's likely to be A LOT of hit or miss, trial and error to see IF a given preset does what you need for your own work), I think it's probably a good idea to learn and get used to how all that stuff works in any case, so you can get the most of your images. After all, the whole point of processing your own images (as apposed to taking them into Walmart and letting the machine do it) is so that you have the control.

If we were talking about specific "styles", say creating images with a vintage cinematography look, such downloadable presets could have an advantage for someone just learning, however to me at least, it sounds like the OP is just trying to learn how to adjust his own images for a better over-all look...and I think most people usually benefit more from simply learning how to do it themselves.

The other thing I would add is that if you're not sure how you want (or think) your images should look, snoop around online and find work that's comparable (in terms of genre...if you shoot landscapes for example, look for comparable landscape images, as baseball and football images probably won't help) and use those as a base reference for doing your own adjustments. This alone will get you used to working with the controls (sliders) and give you a sense of how you want your images to look. To use an analogy here, as a musician when I'm working in the studio, I will often reference the work of other artists I admire when mixing and doing eq work and such...for example, Steely Dan's "Aja" is considered by many as the ipso-facto standard for good recording, so I will listen to such material to get my ears "warmed up" so to speak. I think the same is true of photography (or other art forms in general)...it's always a good idea to reference the work of others you admire, to give you some sense of where you want to go with your own work.

Just my own opinions, but again I have to agree with Sabbath there...learning to do it yourself instead of relying on downloaded presets will likely give you better images once you understand the nuances of the controls.