sunday school: more fun with lightroom presets

Last winter, I shared a post on Adobe Lightroom Develop Presets along with a free set of 15 presets that I had developed.  I thought it was about time I created some new presets for the Shutter Sisters community, so I've gathered up my favorites from recent months and packaged them into a new set of 11, which you can see examples of in the photo above.

To see larger photos of these examples, you can go to this gallery of images and click on any thumbnail to see a larger version.  To download a zip file of these presets, click here.  You can view instructions on downloading presets here.  FYI, most of the presets I've created this time around are non-destructive to the basic tone settings (i.e., exposure, recovery, fill light, black, brightness and contrast), so you will most likely want to play with those settings after applying the preset.

Something I've learned about creating your own develop presets since last year's post is that you can pick and choose which settings you want to save as the preset.  For example, if you don't want to impact the original photo's basic tone, you can unselect items such as exposure, fill light, black, brightness, etc., and the preset will not affect those settings when applied. 

I also find that when you're developing new presets, it's a good idea to use a photo that's already properly exposed SOOC (Straight Out Of Camera).  I also like using a photo that contains a person (to see the impact on skin tone) as well trees or grass (to see if the greens look like they are a part of nature).  I try to apply a new preset to a variety of photos to make sure the effects are consistent with what I was trying to achieve.

I love seeing how presets I created weeks or months ago can still be applied to new photographs.  Sometimes, I'll see a photo I'd taken SOOC, and I'll know right away which of my presets to use to achieve the affect I want.  I can spend hours playing around with just one image, marveling at the different mood created by changing the saturation, or the highlight tone, or the vignette, or hues, or on and on and on.

If you've been having fun with Lightroom Presets since the last time we talked about them, we'd love to see what you've been up to!

Comments

[mika]

yay new LR presets! can't wait to try out your new set! :)

[Elizabeth Harper]

These look very helpful....thanks. I'll give them a try.

[vanessa]

wow! great presets! i just discovered you could make your own not too long ago (clearly i'm a new lightroom user). my favorite is almond!

[MelodyA.]

Thanks! I'm having a hard time adjusting to Lightroom. So many people love it so I'm still trying.

[Puna]

I hear Lightroom is reallly nice but I already used Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. However, I just downloaded a beta version of Lightroom 3 and will experiment. Thank you for the presets. I just downloaded them. Can't wait to try it!

[cindy]

thank you so much! i enjoy using presets and it is fun to take one and make it my own by modifying it. these look great!

[Leah]

Sweet, thanks! I just got lightroom and am very very new at it but I will love playing with these!

[Patty Reiser]

Thank you Sarah for creating these presets and sharing them. I absolutely love Lightroom! I find it so much easier to make adjustments to the actually pictures than Photoshop Elements. Just last weekend I took photographs of my daughter and her friends before they left for their Homecoming Dance (which you can see here http://pkphotography.us/2009/10/thursdays-thirteen-the-homecoming-edition/) and was able to quickly prepare them and upload them to my Photobucket account all within Lightroom.

[Caroline]

Thanks so much! I just downloaded them...can't wait to give them a try!

[Mel]

love them, thank you so much! my husband thought I lost the plot as I was squeeking with delight!!!!

[Toni]

Thanks so much, I love the fact that fb posts keep me connected here!

[amymom24]

Thank you!

[sophie_vf]

Thank you for posting these - I I love looking at people's preset to figure out how the look was achieved - this, in turn, helps me develop my own, though I have an awful lot to learn. I also appreciate your tip on unselecting some boxes when saving a new preset - I don't know why that never really occured to me before.

Here's a Halloween photo using a preset inspired by Flickr member yosigo!! (exclamation marks his :) )

http://www.flickr.com/photos/limesally/4059091429/

[Allie O.]

These look great - thank you thank you!

[Nellie Guerrero]

You are awesome thanks so much for sharing!

[May]

THank you so much for your presets - I love using the first set you created. I am looking forward to trying these out.

[Chasity]

I can't seem to get the presets into LIghtroom. I am using an older version of Lightroom (1.0) and I have no options to add my own. Any advice? I'd love to try these

[Kelley]

Thank you! It is a great set of presets and the Meadow preset looked especially great on photos from an outdoor shoot this weekend. Thanks for sharing!