Do you guys use preset in LR? or just keep original?

[dusuacangmong]

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Hi guys,

I'm newbie to leica and I've a Q.

 

I just wonder that you guys use Presets in Lightroom to make the best images, or prefer to keep as much as original ( just adjust the slide/brightness/exposue/etc) ? 

If yes, could you show the process of yours?

I'm really struggling to pick which way is better. 

Would love to hear what you guys think.

[RichardK]

For me I use an iPad Pro and a combination of Snapseed and Adobe Photoshop Express. Luminar looks quite interesting, but it’s desktop computer only at the moment. I’m not fond of LR ...  the latest version seems oversimplified.

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[microview]

Using LR5 I process each mage separately. Briefly I had a Nikon Z7 and for that I did save a preset, but it didn't seem 100& applicable to every shot, and withmy  Leica M262 and QP I have no presets.

[jaapv]

You can make a preset that works well with a number of shots, and tweak any that are not to your taste. Use a file that represents a typical photograph that you normally take, postprocess that one optimally to your taste and save it as your default preset.

One size fits all cannot work, obviously, but there is no rule against making life easy on yourself.

[Ray Vonn]

Just obvious minor adjustments in PS for me, the biggest one every now and again being temperature adjustment which I occasionally find necessary when using a camera with a CCD sensor.  For me that's the "Leica Look"* which immediately goes away upon insertion of a preset. 

* Don't worry, I know it's a silly phrase.

[dusuacangmong]

1 hour ago, jaapv said:

You can make a preset that works well with a number of shots, and tweak any that are not to your taste. Use a file that represents a typical photograph that you normally take, postprocess that one optimally to your taste and save it as your default preset.

One size fits all cannot work, obviously, but there is no rule against making life easy on yourself.

So in your process, you will make all images taken by Leica to your own style ( a consistent style ), just like when people you look in a photo, they will now exactly this is yours style. 

Or you will do adjust diffirent style to fit the best for each images? 

 

 

[jaapv]

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Well, I do use a profile and preset, but I judge and process each image (that I want to keep) individually.

[dusuacangmong]

3 minutes ago, jaapv said:

Well, I do use a profile and preset, but I judge and process each image (that I want to keep) individually.

Thank you.

[evikne]

I used to try all kinds of tweaks and presets because I missed "something" in my images. They were in a way too perfect and boring. Thanks to this forum I discovered the world of older lenses. Now I usually get the look I want, straight out of the camera, and only very small adjustments, if any, are necessary.

But this isn't possible with the Q of course.

[dusuacangmong]

4 minutes ago, evikne said:

I used to try all kinds of tweaks and presets because I missed "something" in my images. They were in a way too perfect and boring. Thanks to this forum I discovered the world of older lenses. Now I usually get the look I want, straight out of the camera, and only very small adjustments, if any, are necessary.

But this isn't possible with the Q of course.

Because when i looked into leica images post, i saw that all leica user output nearly same style and this would call "leica style", it is distict to other type of camera. I wonder that other guys just keep the original straight out of the camera? right?.

My goal at the moment i think i want to achieve the "leica feel" as much as possible. I'm really tired of trying many preset.

[evikne]

I think that if you think you see a consistent "Leica style" across most images here, it's because they are more or less straight from the camera, otherwise the images would have looked too different. So just keep you images as they are, if you are satisfied with this. All kinds of presets will only take you further away from the original "Leica look". 

[dusuacangmong]

1 minute ago, evikne said:

I think that if you think you see a consistent "Leica style" across most images here, it's because they are more or less straight from the camera, otherwise the images would have looked too different. So just keep you images as they are, if you are satisfied with this. All kinds of presets will only take you further away from the original "Leica look". 

Yes, totally agree with you. 

[jaapv]

TBH, I do process my images towards the "Leica Look" whatever that may be. For instance, using a light touch of the sharpening brush on essential image elements, which enhances the 3D effect.

[Jared]

I do use a pre-set for all images as a starting point.  Different pre-set for each camera.  It covers very little, though... For the Q2 I reduce color de-noise a bit from the default since most images don’t have that much chrominance noise and I lose saturation in fine details on a 47 megapixel chip with the default value.  I also turn on lateral chromatic aberration suppression.  I also reduce the radius on the sharpening, bump up the amount a touch, then put in a contrast mask to reduce the likelihood of sharpening noise.  I also add just a tiny amount (2) of clarity.  

This is my starting point for the Q2.  It may evolve as I get more time with the camera, but it’s a reasonable place to begin.  The next step for me is culling.  I go through the images and mark the ones for deletion.  I mark only those I am confident are either technically flawed in a profound way or just completely uninteresting in terms of content, composition, aesthetic value, etc.  Things that are borderline are kept—they might become part of a “story” as background.  I then delete the images I marked. 

Next step is to go through the culling process again, this time flagging images I think I might like to keep, show, or print.  On a good day, this will be 10% of the remaining images.  I create a filter for those so I can see them as a group and generally a new album for them as well.  Each of those images receives individual editing to taste.  I am definitely NOT trying to create a particular look across multiple images, though it may come out that way if the images are all part of the same story or were shot in the same location or under the same lighting.  But I don’t consciously have a particular look I am going for across all my photography.  Subconsciously, perhaps we all do.  Particularly for a given type of photography.  Some of us prefer lower contrast because we shoot mostly portraits.  Some of us prefer more saturated colors because we shoot mostly landscapes.  Some of us prefer black and white to emphasize textures and tones over hues.  But it’s not like I decide I want the “Leica Look” so I will always handle greens in a certain way, or I will always try to use lenses with a touch of spherical aberration to add “glow” (or accomplish the same in post).  I just try to process the pictures in a way that draws out and emphasizes whatever characteristics made me want to take the picture in the first place.  As Ansel Adams once said, and I’m paraphrasing, there is nothing worse than a sharp picture of a fuzzy concept.  I agree with that (even if I struggle with executing it).  I try to think about what is actually interesting in the picture, then through cropping and post processing enhance those characteristics.  Obviously, this process should start long before post processing.  It should start before you ever press the shutter.  But it continues all the way to the final print or posted image.  How much time I spend on all of this depends on lots of factors—whether I’m working for myself or a friend or a client, whether I’m trying to make one or two really good pictures I will print, or just document a trip for friends and family.  But the process, at least at a basic level, is always the same. Every photo I care about enough to share gets at least a minute or two of work.  If I don’t care about it enough to do that, there’s no way the viewer is going to.

Edited August 7, 2019 by Jared
Typos

[dusuacangmong]

7 hours ago, Jared said:

I do use a pre-set for all images as a starting point.  Different pre-set for each camera.  It covers very little, though... For the Q2 I reduce color de-noise a bit from the default since most images don’t have that much chrominance noise and I lose saturation in fine details on a 47 megapixel chip with the default value.  I also turn on lateral chromatic aberration suppression.  I also reduce the radius on the sharpening, bump up the amount a touch, then put in a contrast mask to reduce the likelihood of sharpening noise.  I also add just a tiny amount (2) of clarity.  

This is my starting point for the Q2.  It may evolve as I get more time with the camera, but it’s a reasonable place to begin.  The next step for me is culling.  I go through the images and mark the ones for deletion.  I mark only those I am confident are either technically flawed in a profound way or just completely uninteresting in terms of content, composition, aesthetic value, etc.  Things that are borderline are kept—they might become part of a “story” as background.  I then delete the images I marked. 

Next step is to go through the culling process again, this time flagging images I think I might like to keep, show, or print.  On a good day, this will be 10% of the remaining images.  I create a filter for those so I can see them as a group and generally a new album for them as well.  Each of those images receives individual editing to taste.  I am definitely NOT trying to create a particular look across multiple images, though it may come out that way if the images are all part of the same story or were shot in the same location or under the same lighting.  But I don’t consciously have a particular look I am going for across all my photography.  Subconsciously, perhaps we all do.  Particularly for a given type of photography.  Some of us prefer lower contrast because we shoot mostly portraits.  Some of us prefer more saturated colors because we shoot mostly landscapes.  Some of us prefer black and white to emphasize textures and tones over hues.  But it’s not like I decide I want the “Leica Look” so I will always handle greens in a certain way, or I will always try to use lenses with a touch of spherical aberration to add “glow” (or accomplish the same in post).  I just try to process the pictures in a way that draws out and emphasizes whatever characteristics made me want to take the picture in the first place.  As Ansel Adams once said, and I’m paraphrasing, there is nothing worse than a sharp picture of a fuzzy concept.  I agree with that (even if I struggle with executing it).  I try to think about what is actually interesting in the picture, then through cropping and post processing enhance those characteristics.  Obviously, this process should start long before post processing.  It should start before you ever press the shutter.  But it continues all the way to the final print or posted image.  How much time I spend on all of this depends on lots of factors—whether I’m working for myself or a friend or a client, whether I’m trying to make one or two really good pictures I will print, or just document a trip for friends and family.  But the process, at least at a basic level, is always the same. Every photo I care about enough to share gets at least a minute or two of work.  If I don’t care about it enough to do that, there’s no way the viewer is going to.

Thank you Jared, this helped me a lot with your very detailed process.

[marchyman]

I do not use presets.   I also do a lot more than tweak a few sliders.  Every image is different and needs different processing.

Recent versions of Lightroom have a functional "Auto" button.  I will sometime hit that button and use the resulting Lightroom settings as my starting point, tweaking things to my liking from there.   I find Auto often reduces the contrast slider more than I like in addition to adding too much, in my opinion, vibrance.

[dusuacangmong]

4 hours ago, marchyman said:

I do not use presets.   I also do a lot more than tweak a few sliders.  Every image is different and needs different processing.

Recent versions of Lightroom have a functional "Auto" button.  I will sometime hit that button and use the resulting Lightroom settings as my starting point, tweaking things to my liking from there.   I find Auto often reduces the contrast slider more than I like in addition to adding too much, in my opinion, vibrance.

Yes, the Auto button i did often use as start to see how it work. Then i'll fix it to fit my taste.

[Matero]

One vote more for the auto as a starting point. 

[microview]

16 hours ago, Matero said:

One vote more for the auto as a starting point. 

One vote less here! Must confess I had never tried it and first couple I experimented with looked ghastly. Chacun á son gout.

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica Q

[evikne]

I am no fan of the Auto Tone either, because it makes all images look HDR-ish, by reducing highlights and lifting the shadows. Maybe suitable for some landscape shots, but not for portraits.