Lightroom Presets

Lightroom 4 Presets: Black & White for Landscape Photos

I’ve updated a few more of my Lightroom 4 presets. I’ve been digging black and white more lately. I actually wrote a post last week about a class that recently changed my thoughts on black & white photography, so make sure you read that if you haven’t yet.

Anyway, while I love Nik’s Silver Efex Pro for B&W photography, I know a lot of people don’t have the plug-in. A while back I created a few custom presets for landscape photography so I went back and updated them for Lightroom 4, as well as changed a few of the settings to ones that seem to look better for different types of photos. You’ll see there’s 4 presets in this download. I went through my photos and realized that most of my landscape photography falls into several categories (canyons, beaches, photos with lots of green in them, and photos with a lot of sky in them). So I created the settings for the presets to show off those different elements in the photo. Here’s a quick before/after of the canyon preset.

And of course, you’ll probably end up finding photos of a beach with lots of blue sky. In that case, experiment a little with whichever preset looks best 🙂

Enjoy!

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26 comments

  1. selina hernandez 28 September, 2012 at 19:48 Reply

    For some reason when i click on the link to download the presets it opens up a new window but then nothing happens….it worked on the sharpening presets but wont work on anything else..help 🙂 thanks!

  2. SC 19 August, 2012 at 19:11 Reply

    Thank you! I just finished my second serious attempt to B&W conversion from a [color] RAW file- entirely from Photoshop CS6.
    Because of your presets, I will redo the last B&W conversion I did, using your presets to experiment further.
    I found this link to your presets when I was trying to find a way to access the files for your Extreme Photoshop CS book. It looks like the friensofed.com site doesn’t exist any more.
    At the time I bought your book, I was totally ignorant about Photoshop. I was just toying with Photoshop Elements. But your Extreme Photoshop CS techniques looked so cool that I bought the book anyway. (You could say that your book inspired me to follow the Photoshop route.)
    Now, I am more conversant with Photoshop techniques applied to photography (since I am getting more and more into photography) and would like to start practicing your Extreme techniques. Will you be please send me a link to the files for your Extreme Photoshop CS book?
    By the way, I got your Photoshop Compositing Secrets although advanced masking and compositing are way out of my league. That’s how much fun your books look to me.
    Thanks in advance,
    SC

  3. Mike 14 August, 2012 at 17:06 Reply

    Matt,

    I’m having trouble opening the download page when I click on Here’s the Link to Download…… I get this message at the bottom of the window. Failed to Open Page (See activity window) I did manage to download some presets but others are giving me this message…..

  4. Kim Shapiro 13 August, 2012 at 22:25 Reply

    I downloaded the presets, unzipped them but was not able to import it into LR4. When it unzipped, I was left with one file titled “matts_black_and_white_presets” with a file type of “file”??? I downloaded about 6 presets and half worked, half did not. Any suggestions?

  5. Peter 6 August, 2012 at 15:46 Reply

    @casey @Richard I downloaded both b/w presets for landscape and portraits on a Windows 7 PC, no problem alt all!! Unzipping works fine without any problem. Just to let you know

  6. Richard1959 1 August, 2012 at 16:12 Reply

    Matt, just installed the B & W for Landscapes they look excellent the little play I have had with some photo looking forward to trying them out properly

  7. Richard 30 July, 2012 at 21:22 Reply

    Hi Matt,

    Well like Casey I am on Windows 7 platform PC and cannot “unzip” your file. I get an invalid message. Hmmm, mus be that Mac vs PC thingy…

  8. Richard 30 July, 2012 at 11:47 Reply

    Matt,

    You have THE best website on Adobe Lightroom on the internet! I can spend hours and hours here!! Thanks for sharing all your knowledge, I have learned a lot!

  9. Casey 30 July, 2012 at 07:46 Reply

    Ok Matt, I need help. I am new to Lightroom and to your blog (which I enjoy very much). I decided today for the first time to download one of your presets. I dig B&W. When I try to open the zip file I get an error messge saying it is invalid. I tried some of your other downloads and I always get this messgae. Suggestions?

    • Matt Kloskowski 30 July, 2012 at 09:05 Reply

      Sorry Casey, I don’t know what the problem could be. Just tried upzipping the file on 2 computers and it works fine. Make sure you’re not trying to install the zip file into LR but that’s the only thing I can think of. Good luck.

      • Casey 30 July, 2012 at 09:23 Reply

        No, I just clicked the link and tried to open the zip file. As an alternative, I saved the file then tried to extract. Both processes failed. That process gave me a message that the folder was empty. Would you be able to email me the zip file? Is this a Mac/PC problem? I am using a PC.

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