Things have been super busy around our household! I have lots to update on but it might have to wait another week or two when things slow down a bit. I wanted to take the time to look into some LightRoom presets. A favorite photographer of mine that I stalk follow on Instagram had her presets on sale recently and of course I wanted to break out my wallet! I, however, have never used them before, didn't know how to use them, and wasn't sure if I'd even like them.
Off to Google...
I found this great article that explained how to download presets and what they are. Then I had to go in search of a program to open the zip files. (Am I qualified to be a programmer yet?) Hah!
After I figured out it might be worth a shot, I found this great website with many FREE LightRoom Presets! I downloaded about 6-7 of them and picked a few photos that I liked. This was a great way to test out my skills and even make new presets of my own!
Below were the results:
So for the first photo I used the preset (one click, my friends). In just one click I felt like that photo went from amateur to "woah she might have a fancy camera." Then I brightened the photo, popped the blue color for his eyes a bit, and softened his skin with the luminance setting. No rhyme or reason. I just play around with settings most of the time. Then I felt like my photo went to a whole new level with the extra adjustments.
This second photo I did was an outdoor picture. I wanted to try one of each. I used a different preset and got a dramatic first (one click! squee!) effect. I then brightened, highlighted blues, and added more vignetting as well. I absolutely love the end photo and it didn't take me 10 minutes to go through every setting like it used to.
Less than 2 minutes, people!
If you haven't used a preset before, I encourage you to try! I absolutely love them! I will probably try to make some of my own from photos I've edited before and these new presets and see how I like them. After that I will certainly look into buying other photographer's presets because I just don't see myself starting a business any time soon so this will strictly be for family and close friends anyways.
I have read in a few articles that Photoshop does "actions" which are similar, but you cannot edit the picture afterwards. Also, I saw that it sometimes depends if you shoot in RAW vs JPEG but I haven't tested that theory yet. I will since I can shoot both at the same time and compare the different images.
Here are some more of my images that took me almost no time at all to edit once I set up some individualized presets...
