Just curious what--if any--develop settings or presets others are running in Lightroom upon Import.
I have usually opted not to run a develop setting on Import because the range of the images varies so much when importing, say a 32gb card with images over a 5 hr span.
Is anyone using a broad import develop setting that works across a range of photos?
Yes! I only have two presets. One color, one B&W. I apply the color one to all our photos. It's one I've made and tweaked over the past 5 years or so. This is the biggest key to a fast workflow IMO.
I've got 2 import settings, one for indoor pics and one for outdoors. For mixed images I'll apply the presets after import though.
I've found in developing my presets after importing a shoot, I'll keep a mental note of things I seem to adjust on most images. If I always seem to bump the exposure up on each image and darken the blacks, I'll build that into the preset. The less individual tweaks I need to do the faster my PP work will be.
I used to do this, but found it easier to just edit the first image of a section and sync the rest; then repeat. The initial import settings were rarely kept.
For instance, I import an entire wedding. Prior, I would have a default import change to all the basic panel, sharpening and calibration panels. Over time, I found that the first image I began to edit would have nearly everything changed anyway.
While I generally use the same array of presets on my images, they often change combinations from prep to ceremony to reception, and all in between, based on lighting changes. Basically, I found that using a single import preset was really just wasting time when I ended up changing everything anyway.
You're better off designing a few presets for the different situations (different types of prep, different types of ceremonies, different types of receptions) and having them ready to apply to the first of a group, that can be sync'd to the rest. Don't forget basic preset settings like different types of sharpening, noise control and grain to correct groups of images. This is the way I do it, and it has made things much faster. I often select a range and "live-sync" them as I edit one image. Selections based on attributes like ISO for controlling noise with a single click across hundreds of images also makes things immensely faster. I've found all this saves an enormous amount of time.
