New Presets – Burnt Tone

As you may have seen, I took a couple of days off but I’m back from my quick trip out west and I’ve got another free preset for you. This one was actually inspired by a poster I saw in Las Vegas this past weekend. The effect was a very strong burned feeling and I set out on the flight back home to recreate it.

When you download the presets (and unzip the zip file), you’ll notice that there are two presets in this package. One of them is for people and the other is for anything with a sky in it. One thing I noticed when creating it is that skies reacted differently (mostly in a bad way) to the people preset so I made a couple of changes to account for anything with sky in it (which ended up doing bad things to skin tones, hence the “sky” name). That said, rules are made to be broken so feel free to give either preset a try on any photo to see which one you like better.

Click here to see a before/after sample of the preset.
Click here to download Matt’s Burnt Tone Preset

Monday Presets – Cinematic Midnight Effect

Today I’ve got the first visitor-suggested preset download. Last week I got a ton of ideas and suggestions for presets and one of them came from Julie Mcleod. She suggested the “Midnight” effect from Nik Software’s Color Efex. It turns a daytime photo into something that looks more like it was taken at night. Not totally at night but it’s a cool cinematic styled effect nonetheless. As I usually like to do, there’s a few different levels of the effect that range from light to dark so you have a choice when applying the effect. Many thanks to Julie for the idea. She’ll get a free month subscription to Kelby Training’s online training site. Happy presetting!

Click here to see a before/after sample of the preset.
Click here to download Matt’s Midnight Preset

"Suggest a Preset" Recap

Hey gang! Below you’ll find a summary of my findings from Tuesday’s post about preset suggestions. Yep, I read every single one of them. First off, like I thought, you guys have a ton of great ideas. Thank you for sharing them. Some are definitely doable and some are just not in the realm of Lightroom Version 1. If we’re lucky maybe we’ll see more features in the next version of Lightroom though. We’ll have to wait and see.

Anyway, here’s a quick recap of some of the suggestions.

Recreate the Effect of a Line Drawing – Not possible in Lightroom

Lens Blur Effect – Blurring isn’t possible in Lightroom

Super Saturated, Super Contrast – Definitely a possibility

300 Movie Effect – Already done on this site.

Old Fashioned Glamor – Great idea!

Soft Focus or Dreamy Effect (lots of requests for this one) – Nope. No “soft” or “dreamy” features in Lightroom. That’s blurring and that’s Photoshop’s job for now at least.

Creative Sharpening – I like it!

Fluffy Clouds Preset – At first I thought “huh”? Then I started playing around and there’s something to be said for this one. Look for a cloud-related preset in the future.

Dodge and Burn (from Florent) – Come on Florent. You know there’s no dodging and burning in Lightroom. I can’t add features. Wish I could, but I can’t. Nice try though.

Bleach Bypass – We may get close in Lightroom. I’ll give it a try

Glamor Glow – Probably not. I’ll try but there’s not glowing in Lightroom

Jill Greenberg – Some of the high contrast presets here will achieve the post-processed look there. However, I’m convinced that 90% of what Jill does is in the camera.

Pirates of Caribbean – Great idea! I love it! And yes Lisa Epp, I did get all the way down to your post

Die Hard 4 – I’ll give it a try.

Classic B&W – Great idea.

Valentines Day High Contrast B&W with Red – Sounds good to me.

Soft and Romantic – Nope. No soft and I’m not romantic

Noise Reduction – Lightroom’s noise reduction controls are, well… pretty lame. I don’t use ‘em so I probably won’t be creating presets telling others to use them.

Orton Effect – Nope. No combining images in Lightroom yet. Combining a sharp and blurry photo are the basis of this effect so this one can’t be done.

Cool Shadows / Warm Highlights – I like it.

Neutral Density – No gradients in Lightroom. You’ll have to do it in the camera or stick with Photoshop for this one.

Kevin Kubota Styled Presets – These are more workflow related and special effects. Not something really geared for Lightroom.

More Creative ID Plates – I’ve been toying with this idea so you’ll definitely see more ID plates in the future.

Landscape B&Ws – Great idea!

Splitting Controls at Bottom of Tone Curve – You can split the sliders in the Tone Curve?! Honestly, I never do it and you know my feelings on telling people to use things I don’t use. Maybe I’ll make a video just to let people know what they do though.

Skin Tone Softening – Sorry, no softening here.

Underwater Photos – Perfect candidate for a preset. If anyone has any killer underwater photos I can use as candidates let me know.

High Key – Possibly.

Patrick Hoelck Effect – Same as the Jill Greenberg one above. There is some post processing going on there but I really think the effect you’re after is done in the camera.

Skin Coloring – Cool idea.

Midnight Preset like Nik Color Effects – I’ll give it a try.

Photo Filters (Warming 85, 81, etc.) – Awesome idea.

Tri-X, Portra, Afga film stocks – I’ll take a look at them.

Preset to Organize Presets and/or A Preset for Sharing Presets – No can do. However, a video sounds like it’ll help.

Lomo Effect – Great idea! I’ve been playing around with a good one in Photoshop. Sounds like it’s time to try it in LR.

Compatibility Issues with PC and Mac and Print Presets – I’ll answer this one quickly. Yes there are issues. I have no idea why though. If I find out I’ll let you know.

Infrared – Nope. You gotta shoot it this way or you need Photoshop. (edit: I have to admit that I’ve been experimenting with this today and I may have been premature by saying no. It’s not going to be a really good IR image but there is some potential here. I’ll see what I can come up with.)

HDR Controls (Reprogramming Lightroom) – Not possible in LR. You can’t combine images. Hopefully we’ll see something like this in the future though.

Awesome Sepia Tone – Yep, not just a Sepia Tone preset but an “awesome” sepia preset. I’ll give it a try.

Photo Frames with ID Plates – Another great idea.

Presets to Bring out Detail in Snow – I’ll see what I can whip up.

Mimicking great painter styles (Van Gogh, etc…) – Sorry. No painterly like effects are available in LR.

Exporting Presets – Might make a good video topic.

So it looks like I’ve got my work cut out for me. I’d better get started. Thanks again for all of the ideas.

Monday Preset – Aged Texture

After the nostalgic-styled preset last week I got a comment that got me thinking. Some one had said it was a shame you couldn’t easily apply cool textures to your photos in Lightroom to really give you that “old” feeling. They were pretty much right. Sure there’s workarounds, and I’ve tried them over the last week but it just became too much of a pain. Especially when I knew I could get exactly what I wanted in Photoshop in about 10 seconds. So this week’s preset is something totally different. It’s not exactly a Lightroom preset but I think you’ll agree it falls into our preset category and is a nice change of pace. So here it is – an old texture file. It’s a JPG file and here’s how to use it.

1. Work on your photo just as you normally would in Lightroom. Then apply any presets to it.
2. Go to Photo > Edit in Photoshop and open the photo in Photoshop.
3. Download the texture I’ve given you (or find/create your own) and open it. Drag the texture on top of your photo and transform it to fit.
4a. Here’s where things get cool. The texture is black with a white background. So if you change the layer blend mode to Multiply you’ll drop out the white and leave only the black parts which gives a nice old look. You can also drop the opacity to fade it.
- or -
4b. Or… if you want a white texture (which works a little better for printing on a white background) then press Ctrl/Cmd + I to invert the colors (black becomes white and white becomes black). Then change the blend mode of the texture layer to Screen. This will drop out the black and keep the white.
5. Either way you go (step 4a or 4b), save the file just like you would any Lightroom based image in Photoshop. Go back into Lightroom and now you can take your textured into any output module just like you normally would.

I know it’s a weird workaround but it’s a way to get a very “Photoshop”-like effect but still keep your photo to output in Lightroom.

Click here to see a sample of the texture.
Click here to download the aged texture image

It's Preset Monday! (on Tuesday again)

This time around I’ve got my take on a nostalgic-styled effect for the Develop module. This preset gives you that older look and is slightly tinted. I’ve also boosted the contrast and clarity significantly because that seems to be what was missing from some of the presets included with Lightroom. You’ll see that there are 2 presets included. Each one has a different level of color saturation. However, this preset (like most of the others I release here) relies on you processing your photo first. That means setting the white balance, exposure, blacks, etc. (I try not to mess with that stuff in my presets). So have at it and enjoy. As always, comments are welcome and links to pages where you use these effects are even better. Thanks!

Click here to see a sample of the presets.
Click here to download Matt’s Nostalgic Effect Presets
Click here to see a video on how to install presets.

Monday Presets – The "300" Look

Happy Monday everyone. I’m proud to report that I finished the Disney Marathon yesterday (all 26.2 miles of it!) and lived to tell the tale. Scott Kelby has a mini-report and photo up on his blog. Thanks to everyone who posted comments of encouragement and congratulations here. You guys are great!
Now to the Lightroom preset. As you probably saw from the title, this one is my take on the “300″ look from the movie The 300. It’s very similar to what I did in Camera Raw on Photoshop User TV this week, but doing it in Lightroom is even better. I actually saw a great take on this preset from Mike Lao Photography. I had a few things that I wanted to add to it to take the effect in a different direction and that’s where this preset comes from. You’ll notice there are 2 presets in the zip file. One of them is for a harsher stronger look (good if you’re looking for that gritty effect). The other one is for a softer look (better for portraits that have women in them).

Click here to see a sample of the presets.
Click here to download Matt’s 300 Look Preset
Click here to see a video on how to install presets.

Monday Presets – 5 Across Print Preset

This week, I’ve got some really sweet print preset. First, I was looking at a frame that a friend of mine (RC) picked up for me at IKEA. It was one of those 5-across layouts. I thought “Hey, I can do that in Lightroom”. Then it actually got even cooler after I started thinking about the other week’s video on stacking panos in Lightroom. I was getting the presets ready for this week and accidentally clicked on several of the photos in my panorama stack. I looked at it and thought “Hey, now that’s pretty cool!”. It’s kind of like a fake pano spread across the layout. Now I know the photos aren’t actually stitched together but I still think it looks pretty darn cool. That said, it wasn’t created for that purpose so you can just use it for any photos. But the pano does look pretty sweet too. Enjoy.

Click here to see a sample of the preset.
Click here to download Matt’s Pano Print Preset
Click here to see a video on how to install presets.

Monday Presets – Holiday Slideshows

In the spirit of the holidays I’m switching gears this week to a holiday preset for the Slideshow module. I’m sure plenty of you will be taking photos during the holidays. Naturally, your family expects to see these photos right away. OK, they want them in 5 minutes right? Well, once you’ve imported the photo, jump over to the Slideshow module and show ‘em off in style. Step 1) Download these two backgrounds and place them on your desktop. Step 2) Position your Lightroom window in a way so you can see both Lightroom and the desktop. Step 3) Turn on the Background Image option in the Slideshow module. Then drag the background over the little thumbnail area on that panel. It’ll pop up as a background image for your slideshow. Try resizing your actual photo as well so you can see more of the background if you want. It’ll add that extra bit of holiday spirit as your family, friends, or clients look at the photos. Enjoy!

Click here to see a sample of the preset.
Click here to download the holiday backgrounds

Tuesday's Monday Presets

I know, the presets usually come on Monday but I wanted to change it up this week. Actually, yesterday just got away from me. Anyway, this week I’ve got some presets for you that are specifically geared for sunsets with lots of sky. As I was looking through my photos I realized there were basically two types of sunsets – cool or warm. The cooler ones typically had lots of blues and some reds in them. The warmer ones had more of a yellowish color to them. So I made a few tweaks in White Balance as well as HSL and saved them a while back. Now whenever I have a sunset photo I usually give these a try first and I get great results most of the time. If anything, it’s a great starting point and you can always go tweak the Temperature and Tint settings under White Balance for more or less of the effect. Have at ‘em!

Click here to see a sample of the preset.
Click here to download Matt’s Cool/Warm Sunset Presets
Click here to see a video on how to install presets.

Presets – Contrast Boost

Here’s another set of presets right from my personal workflow. They’re all contrast-boosting presets (there are 5 of them). I use the Tone Curve to add contrast to my photos. I used to just click on the Point Curve options at the bottom of the Tone Curve panel (Linear, Medium Contrast, Strong Contrast) to see which one I liked the best. Finally I just created some presets for them, as well as a couple other settings, because I found the difference between the 3 was a bit too broad. So now they’re yours for the taking. The “0″ preset is a flat Tone Curve while the “4″ one is fairly steep and the largest contrast boost out of all of them. What’s nice about these is that once they are installed you can just hover over them in the Develop module and see the preview in the Navigator panel so you don’t even need to click on them to apply. Have fun with ‘em!

Click here to download Matt’s Contrast Boost presets
Click here to see a video on how to install presets