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

[Jared]

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2 hours ago, evikne said:

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. 

I agree.  I will use the auto button very occasionally as a starting point, but am rarely pleased with the result and generally “undo” and start fresh. It virtually always adds too much saturation (vibrancy, actually, which is just saturation with skin tones suppressed), and it always tries to resuscitate shadows and pull back highlights, then compensate for the resulting extra contrast.  This works for some images, but not many.  Not generally a fan since I am rarely trying to make HDR postcards.

[bags27]

In Camera Raw, auto gets you in the ballpark. But the real trick is to adjust the first 6 sliders--from exposure to blacks--yourself. Easiest is to hold down the shift key on the mac and hit the space bar. this creates the maximum value for each of them, except for contrast. Even more exacting is to hold the option key on the mac and slide it gradually until it goes from black to part of the image: that point suggests it's gone too far and buried shadows or blown highlights, as demonstrated on the histogram at the top. This really gives you maximum tonal range in CR and control over whether you want to push a bit in either direction. Then in PS, Levels and Curves give the best fine tuning and artistic expression, especially Levels in B&W, where you can made final aesthetic decisions about whether you want to shift to the left or right of the histogram.

This is one method, at least. Adobe is so rich (complex) that everyone has their own way of creating tonal range.

Edited August 10, 2019 by bags27

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[marchyman]

21 hours ago, evikne said:

because it makes all images look HDR-ish

Yes, that is true.  But it is only a starting point.  I usually restore shadows and highlights, sometimes by tweaking the sliders, others by playing with point curves.   Also, I do not hit the auto button for every image that I edit.  Depends how well I got what I was looking for in camera.  If I don't like the results after hitting the button a cmd-Z gets rid of the change.  It's another tool to use that is sometimes helpful.

Edited August 10, 2019 by marchyman

[01af]

Am 7.8.2019 um 11:40 schrieb dusuacangmong:

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)?

This question just doesn't make any sense.

[Gobert]

LR is so first decade of this century....

[evikne]

Instead of making complete presets containing sets of adjustments, I have made a lot of presets containing only one adjustment (for example Auto Tone, Auto WB, WB As Shot, different degrees of Clarity, Contrast, Saturation, Exposure, Devignetting etc.). I then group them together in the Presets panel to the left so I can find what I am looking for fast and easily. I have also made new presets containing each of the Adobe Color and B&W profiles, even though they already show up in the Profile brower to the right. But I think it's even faster to collect both presets and profiles in the Presets panel. 

I've found that clicking and combining these presets is a very smart and time-saving way to work, because when holding the cursor over them I see what the adjustments would look like before I activate them, and this way I can easily compare, see things before and after, with or without, etc. Of course I can fine-tune all settings manually if needed.