Lightroom presets

[jon_brown5]

<p>Hi,<br>

I'm just starting out as a wedding photographer and have been researching the different approaches / styles to wedding photography. I would like to achieve a more consistent look to my work and I would like to shoot in a natural and reportage style. <br>

www.jonbrownphotography.co.uk</p>

<p>Please could anyone recommend a good preset pack to use with Lightroom which may help achieve a more consistent style.</p>

<p>Thanks </p><div></div>

[william-porter]

<p>Jon,</p>

<p>We've had some debates here about this subject in the past. This is my take.</p>

<p>Forgive me for saying so, but I think you've got the wrong end of the stick.</p>

<p>A preset in Lightroom (or any other program that has them) is simply a saved adjustment or set of adjustments. You could use a preset that makes every single picture (say) duotone, with a dark vignette, and +20 clarity. And it'll make your photos look superficially "consistent" — <em>from twenty feet away.</em> But at that point, you're simply in Instagram territory: You've slapped a canned filter on a photo and you're pretending you've achieved a "style". And since LR has (potentially) an infinite number of presets, nothing magic happens if you decide to use one for a while. I mean, if you find yourself moving from style 7853 to style 311 to style 1009 without presets, using presets just makes the process of changing the look of your photos easier. </p>

<p>There's certainly a value to having a personal style, and having a personal style almost by definition implies some degree of consistency. And I do understand that it's valuable to be able to process your images consistently. Lightroom gives us so many options that it's easy for a beginner to find every option irresistible, like a starving man at a hotel buffet. And this isn't specific to Lightroom: Aperture, DxO Optics Pro, PhotoNinja, and certainly Photoshop give users more options than any one user needs. </p>

<p>But if you are aware that your photos lack that "Jon Brown" <em>je ne sais quoi</em> that would make your photos identifiable even without a signature or watermark, well, it's just a sign that you're still learning — and nothing wrong with that! I think the best course is to keep shooting and let things develop naturally. It's a good thing to try different approaches. Beginners do it to learn; masters do it to shake themselves up and keep things fresh. As you grow, you'll want to pay attention to craft on the one hand (craft being what we all have in common) and pay almost equal (but not quite equal) attention to what your gut tells you, on the other. I mean, your gut will guide your eye, and soon enough, that will produce results that will be yours. I say you should pay "almost equal but not quite equal" attention to your guy because, you can't develop a personal style by force. If you try too hard to push the personal side harder than the craft side, you'll almost certainly come up with a "style" that is very artificial or completely derivative.</p>

<p>In short, I think of a <em>true style</em> as being rather like a vocation to the priesthood. You can go looking for it, or you can sit quietly and wait for it to make itself known to you. But you can't get it on demand, by force or calculation.</p>

<p>Or by the use of a Lightroom preset....</p>

<p>Will</p>

[shawn_mertz]

<p>To make photos that look natural starts with the camera. Not meaning what camera you use as much as how well you use it. Learn to make great exposures, and good color settings. I think the photo you posted doesn't look natural, skin color is way off and whole thing over exposed.<br>

I have a couple mild contrast curves i have made as presets to add after, but as far as presets you can download to make things look natural, i can't think of any.</p>

[pete_s.]

<p>You need to shoot somewhat consistent to arrive at a consistent look.</p>

<p>If you take a bunch of photos and look at them all at the same you'll see if the visual style is consistent or not.<br /> For instance try <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=salgado&bih=875&tbm=isch">this.</a><br /> You'll see that the images have a coherent look although there are some variations.</p>

<p>Some visual styles are also suitable for some things but unsuitable for others.<br /> Try <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=romantic+comedy&tbm=isch">this.</a><br /> Compared to <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=action+movies&tbm=isch">this.</a></p>

<p>If you look at a movie you might not notice that it has a specific visual look. Some more than others. Now think about that each and every scene were shot at different settings, in different lights and most likely on different days too. Still they all looks like they belong together. It didn't happen by luck.</p>

<p>First off they had a plan how the movie should look and usually they do a lot of testing before hand. Then it was shot with the final look in mind. It was lit having the look in mind. Finally it was post processed and the colors were tweaked until it looked like they had in mind. Each and every scene.</p>

<p>To end up with a visual look you like you need to do the same thing.<br /> First try to find images you like from others. See if there is something in common with these images. Then try processing your own images so they look like the ones you liked. Try to find a few variations. Process a bunch of images using the different looks you liked. View them all together and take away the ones that stick out as completely different or that doesn't fit with the rest. See if you can make the odd ones sit better if you change the strength of the processing and if not get rid of them.</p>

<p>Usually the ones that fit together have similar color saturation, similar contrast or other similarities. For example a heavy contrast, gritty and grainy black and white image wont fit together with a bright, pastel colored light image.</p>

<p>So do your homework. Find out what you like. Find out what fits together. Pick a few different styles. And go for it.</p>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>I started off with free LR presets from <a href="http://lightroomkillertips.com/?cat=8">Matt Kloskowski</a> and a couple other sources. Helped me to understand the range of adjustments and the effects produced. From there I developed my own presets to get better shot to shot consistency in my photos from each session. I tweak 'em a bit to suit each digital camera since each has unique responses.</p>

<p>If you study some of the trendy faded, vintage or pastel photo effects you'll see these presets often use extreme adjustments to the white balance and camera calibration settings in Lightroom. So even if you don't use those presets as-is you may pick up some tips on how to create your own. That was an eye opener to me - it seemed so non-intuitive I wouldn't have considered such extreme WB and camera calibration tweaks on my own. But the results can be interesting for some looks.</p>

<p>Beyond that, some folks use Lightroom in conjunction with Nik, DxO, onOne's Perfect Effects (nifty but *very* resource intensive - it seems to crave a good GPU in addition to RAM and a fast CPU). Of those three Nik may offer the best versatility and performance.</p>

[akphotograph]

<p>I create a preset for every wedding. Not only that, but I create a preset for each lighting scenario. <br /><br />I have one called "Starting" that applies sharpening, fills shadows, brings down highlights. I then set the white and black points using the "Alt" key until I am happy with that image. I apply that preset to all the images in the same light and tweak them slightly. I edit every photo so a fast workflow is essential.</p>