David Farkas's Presets

[johnbuckley]

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This news may already reside elsewhere in the forum, but if you have not seen this, David Farkas of the Leica Store Miami has just posted on the Red Dot Forum presets for virtually every Leica camera.  It is an incredibly generous act, and I for one appreciate it.

 

https://www.reddotforum.com/content/2020/04/lightroom-presets-for-leica-cameras/

[250swb]

All very well, but developing the skill to edit your own work down to a few images before embarking on post processing saves on the need to streamline post processing. I mean, just because you can take a lot of photos with digital doesn't mean there are more keepers.

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[andybarton]

It’s a generous offer no doubt, but if you want your photographs to look like yours and not David’s then learning the basics and developing your own skills is the only way. 
 

I might download them to have a look at how my shots would look, “The Farcas Way” though. 

[bags27]

An interesting discussion might be had on whether someone else's presets limit you own originality more than (say) the camera's own algorithms. Do we trust Leica's auto white balance rather than setting it manually with a grey card? And at the other end, folks proudly announce that they've used (for example) Silver Efex Pro which is nothing more than a whole bunch of presets. Are Farkas's presets any more constricting than the Nik Collection? 

I think once we embrace digital photography and depend on a computer chip, we've surrendered our creative souls completely to the brutal beast of capitalist control (just kidding! 😄).

 

Edited April 25, 2020 by bags27

[andybarton]

As opposed to surrendering to the control of Kodak or Fuji or Agfa?

 

Plenty of advice out there to make your own photographic plates, if you want full control. 

[farnz]

2 hours ago, bags27 said:

folks proudly announce that they've used (for example) Silver Efex Pro which is nothing more than a whole bunch of presets.

Silver Effex Pro is a whole, whole lot more than simply a bunch of 'click and accept' presets.  Certainly there are presets available as a starting point for a picture but if one moves past those and delves into the tools available in Silver Effex Pro you'll find a massive amount of opportunity to process pictures to your own taste, not least the Control Point technology.

Pete.

[Jeff S]

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I would imagine that David Farkas considers his presets as starting points as well.  He’s not a dope.

Jeff

[bags27]

4 minutes ago, farnz said:

Silver Effex Pro is a whole, whole lot more than simply a bunch of 'click and accept' presets.  Certainly there are presets available as a starting point for a picture but if one moves past those and delves into the tools available in Silver Effex Pro you'll find a massive amount of opportunity to process pictures to your own taste, not least the Control Point technology.

Pete.

Sure, Pete: I agree completely. It's a very powerful tool. But David's presets just get you to a certain point as well, from which you can easily modify to personal taste. It's sort of like bringing up a dng in Camera Raw and hitting "auto" and then taking it from there.

[jaapv]

I think using presets is just fine - if you like the result they can save a lot of time and effort and it might lure some photographers away from "out of camera" jpg hiding hole.

The best use, however is to start photographers on the  road to developing their own individual processing skills and style. And creating their own default starting points.

For experienced digital photographers they can be convenient and time-saving shortcuts. Or a way to automate complicated processes, like Dan Margulis' PPW for Photoshop.

[strangeboy]

I think it's cool of him to share his basic set-up, and there are those who will find value. I used to do the same but abandoned that practice some years ago. I felt that subjecting photographs to a predetermined scheme kinda stunted their growth. Sounds weird, I know... but I couldn't shake the idea, so I stopped. I don't miss it.

[Exodies]

26 minutes ago, strangeboy said:

I think it's cool of him to share his basic set-up, and there are those who will find value. I used to do the same but abandoned that practice some years ago. I felt that subjecting photographs to a predetermined scheme kinda stunted their growth. Sounds weird, I know... but I couldn't shake the idea, so I stopped. I don't miss it.

I know what you mean. I have the same feeling if I press the “auto” button in Lightroom. The picture immediately looks better but then I don’t know what to do with it.

[Per P.]

I think it is pretty cool too. I enjoyed seeing his preferences and comparing with my own. His style shine through very clearly and I agree with a previous statement that this would just be his starting point. It is very clear he knows, and cares about, what he is doing. 

[strangeboy]

15 hours ago, Exodies said:

I know what you mean. I have the same feeling if I press the “auto” button in Lightroom. The picture immediately looks better but then I don’t know what to do with it.

Ha! "I baked a cake... don't know how I did it but it sure looks tasty!"

[winmore]

I think it very generous of David. How we implement them is clearly personal preference.  Given there are many commercial sites selling sets of presets and David is operating one himself, I count myself fortunate to have free access.

[robert blu]

I oft use preset as a starting point, most of time with SEP. Than I refine with  SEP itself or  LR or rarely PS.

I think Davod offers is generous.

[hoppyman]

I wasn't aware of these and found them through a quote in an S3 thread.
Thankyou David Farkas. I am experimenting with these for several systems. Its instructive to compare with my own