Lightroom TipsNews

Fading Lightroom Presets

I’m in Houston, TX getting ready for my full day Kelby Training Lightroom seminar tomorrow. I always get a little anxious the night before, especially since I haven’t used Lightroom in about 2 years (totally just kidding!). If you are at the seminar though, make sure you stop by the front and say hi. I always enjoying meeting people from the blog. OK, on to the tip for today. A blog reader turned me on to this clever little Lightroom plug-in. It’s simply called, The Fader. Kinda like Darth Vader but without the Darth and the V is really an F in this case. So, maybe not just like Darth Vader, but close 🙂

Anyway, it does exactly what it says. It fades presets. If you’ve ever applied a preset and like the effect, but just think it’s a little “too much” then that’s where The Fader comes in (insert deep echoed breathing here). You pick a preset and then move the slider to tone it down a bit. That’s it. Here’s the link to download it.

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37 comments

  1. Stacee 29 May, 2011 at 18:34 Reply

    Doug, the only files I found in the downloadable zip file were .lua files. Did I not get the right download? Did I miss something? I’m really excited to be able to use this… but just can’t get it loaded. Sorry to be such a pain. 🙁

  2. Graham Morgan 3 April, 2011 at 19:00 Reply

    This looks like a very useful idea, actually I’d say it’s inspired! The simplest of things often provide the greatest reward, I hate having to constantly adjust and readjust the sliders for each shot, it’s slow-time consuming. The ‘fade’ option in PS comes to Lightroom, working through a stack of wedding photos needs a slick workflow, I’ll be trying this one out for sure. Cheers.

    Graham

  3. Doug Owens 29 March, 2011 at 16:20 Reply

    After downloading and unzipping file to a place where you will remember where you saved it:

    Open Lightroom.
    Pull down ‘File’
    Select ‘Plug-in Manager’
    When Manager window opens, click the ‘Add’ button
    Select the folder that you previously saved the plug-in (must be .lrplugin)
    Click ‘OK’
    You should now see ‘Knobroom The Fader’ in the plug-in menu on the left and should state ‘Installed and Running’

    That’s it! You’re done! Hope this helped someone.

  4. Lester 29 March, 2011 at 15:56 Reply

    Thanks Matt!!!!
    I just have a question… how do I install this plug-in?, sorry but I’m new in this field!
    hope you have a great time @ Photoshop World!!!!!! CHEERSS!!!!!!!!!!

    • Stacee 29 March, 2011 at 22:02 Reply

      Finally got the link to work (you must have had too many people downloading it). Guess that’s a great problem to have!! 🙂 However, now it’s not able to be installed. There aren’t any “.lrplugin” files in the zip folder only “.lau” files. Please advise.

  5. Havanai 29 March, 2011 at 13:36 Reply

    Maybe the web-site is overwhelmed with volume from Facebook-LIghtroom users, but I cannot get knobroom.com to open. Anyone else having a problem?

    • Maureen Petru 30 March, 2011 at 13:27 Reply

      To Install, you open lightroom and go to the Develop modual. Then go to the left and scroll down those menus until you get to “User Presets”. With your cursor over the words “User Presets” you right click. A small menu should pop up with “import”. THen navigate to the folder where you have placed the preset (if it is in a zip folder from download, make sure you unzip the folder first), and click import. It will then pop up under your User Presets now!

  6. Sally Poppema 12 March, 2011 at 16:01 Reply

    I loaded some presets before so I can do that but never loaded a plugin. How do I install the plug in? I downloaded the files to my computer….now what.
    Thanks.

  7. Alan Silverblatt 11 March, 2011 at 21:12 Reply

    Matt,

    I really enjoyed the Lightroom workshop in Houston. Here is the info on the book we discussed (about how to make a truly great slideshow): “Secrets of Proshow Experts: The Official Guide to Creating Your Best Slide Shows with ProShow Gold and Producer” by Paul Schmidt. I think you’ll like it as much as I did.

    Alan

  8. Gerrit van den Bosch 10 March, 2011 at 04:29 Reply

    This is a very cool and usefull tip/plugin.

    I am not coming to Houston, but I wil be on Professional Imaging in ‘Nieuwegein” in The Netherlands next monday. Maybe I meet you there!

    Gerrit (@boschg on Twitter)

  9. harley130 9 March, 2011 at 07:10 Reply

    Have been using the Fader plug-in for several months now. It works when you need it. I’ve not experienced it trashing any of my presets that I originally apply before applying the Fader.
    A nice tool to add to your LR Tool Box.

  10. RON 9 March, 2011 at 05:26 Reply

    Matt,

    I was reading on the fader site that it changes your preset and deletes it and replaces it with a new version created after you fade.. or something like that. I like my presets, some are yours from this site, I don’t want them trashed. The fader site has not much info about the plugin can you shed more light on it and try not to fade..lol well you know what i mean. if it works as fading a filter in PS and leaves the presets alone, I think it would be awesome to have.

    Ron

      • Jarno Heikkinen 9 March, 2011 at 15:10 Reply

        No, it does not touch your presets.

        It computes new values on the fly, based on the previous settings, selected preset and the opacity slider. You will see the results instantly and you can experiment with different settings.

        Jarno (I’m the author)

      • RON 11 March, 2011 at 20:04 Reply

        http://www.knobroom.com/the-fader-r102/

        The Fader v0.4.102, Lightroom 3 plugin for applying develop presets with custom opacity.

        Ever since the first version of The Fader, it has been generating excessive amounts of lrtemplate files into your trashcan. This is caused by Lightroom’s SDK API which moves plugin preset to trashcan when ever preset with same name is added – and the only way to update preset is to add new one.

        This issue goes way back, even Knobroom MIDI plugin suffers from it. So far, I’ve been trying to ignore it, but it pops into my mind everytime I empty my computer’s trashcan.

        Since Lightroom does not really read lrtemplate files anyway when running, I’m now just deleting the lrtemplate after preset has been applied. I know – it’s ugly – but at least it keeps trashcan tidy!

      • RON 11 March, 2011 at 20:08 Reply

        on the landing page it says this;

        The Fader

        The Fader, Lightroom 3 plugin for applying develop presets with custom opacity.

        I got tired of the boring Lightroom Presets, as they are so static.

        Meet The Fader, the weighted preset plugin for Lightroom 3! Instead of the boring static 100% presets, you can now dynamically choose how much of the preset you want to apply. And of course, The Fader goes up to 150%, so you can over-process your over processing! And if you REALLY hate cross-processing, you can have up to 50% less of it simply by moving the slider below 0%.

        The Fader works by dynamically applying a “faded preset”, it does not modify any of your existing presets.

        but when you click the link to get it it says the other.

    • Doug Sundseth 10 March, 2011 at 10:11 Reply

      From the fader site:

      “The Fader works by dynamically applying a “faded preset”, it does not modify any of your existing presets.”

      I don’t think you need to worry.

    • Ariana Falerni 10 March, 2011 at 13:06 Reply

      The site specifically says that it DOES NOT alter your existing presets..
      “The Fader works by dynamically applying a “faded preset”, it does not modify any of your existing presets.”

    • Shawn Rakestraw 10 March, 2011 at 17:10 Reply

      I believe what the site actually said is that the plugin generates a “new” preset based on where you drag the slider. This “new” temporary preset is used to apply the change in Lightroom and then the “new” temporary preset is deleted. Your original preset is not altered or deleted.

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