p.1 #5 · Excellent collections of Lightroom Classic presets?
Be sure to carefully establish compatibility ... some 'excellent' legacy presets that were created using older versions of Lightroom/ACR may or may not behave as expected under new RAW process versions as the sliders and/or underlying algorithms may have changed, some substantially.
butchM wrote:
Be sure to carefully establish compatibility ... some 'excellent' legacy presets that were created using older versions of Lightroom/ACR may or may not behave as expected under new RAW process versions as the sliders and/or underlying algorithms may have changed, some substantially.
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butchM wrote:
I agree ... find free versions if you like ... season to taste.
It's not rocket science to create a preset. Building your own will certainly increase your overall proficiency.
They aren't "presets" per say, which is what makes them extremely useful. They have taken tons of film stocks and scanned/analyzed them to create RAW look-up-table style profiles that are calibrated to specific films*. It is an interesting bleed-over from digital cinema where LUTs are a necessity to match footage from multiple cameras/lenses.
As a raw profile, they are more future-proof because they are slider-agnostic. Which leads to the best part, is that they leave every adjustment completely untouched, so you have 100% freedom to adjust AFTER you have found the core aesthetic you want for the image.
I also like that they arent named some pseudo-artsy name. They just use the name of the film stock that was analyzed to produce it, which means I can get a basic idea of the look without having to guess what "moody skies" means or something like that......
Get the version 5 though, version 4 is not the same functionality.
Highly recommended for color. I still use Nik for black and white because the grain emulation is better.
They aren't "presets" per say, which is what makes them extremely useful. They have taken tons of film stocks and scanned/analyzed them to create RAW look-up-table style profiles that are calibrated to specific camera models. It is an interesting bleed-over from digital film where LUTs are really common.
As a raw profile, they are more future-proof because they are slider-agnostic. Which leads to the best part, is that they leave every adjustment completely untouched, so you have 100% freedom to adjust AFTER you have found the core aesthetic you want for the image.
I also like that they arent named some pseudo-artsy name. They just use the name of the film stock that was analyzed to produce it, which means I can get a basic idea of the look without having to guess what "moody skies" means or something like that......
Get the version 5 though, version 4 is not the same functionality.
Highly recommended for color. I still use Nik for black and white because the grain emulation is better....Show more →
These are pricey, but they do look interesting. I am going to download their demo. Thank you.
p.1 #10 · Excellent collections of Lightroom Classic presets?
Sorry to be argumentative but why on earth would any artist (as any serious photographer is/or should be) want someone else's decisions to shape - or even to start - his/her work decisions ??
p.1 #11 · Excellent collections of Lightroom Classic presets?
krug wrote:
Sorry to be argumentative but why on earth would any artist (as any serious photographer is/or should be) want someone else's decisions to shape - or even to start - his/her work decisions ??
Consistency? Speed? Baseline starting point? Looks and feel of a film they liked? I'm guessing you are really just anti-preset rather than not really seeing why *some* may like them?
p.1 #13 · Excellent collections of Lightroom Classic presets?
No actually Andrew I was being flippant - to be more serious I really do not want 'consistency' in my images (however they are made) because I am not consistent in my aims, intentions etc for any particular image - the processing needs to fit the image not the other way around. Similarly I do not want 'speed' if an image isn't worth taking time over it is only a snap and detail processing doesn't matter. "Baseline starting point' - same as consistency.
Different people different aims and intentions ... thank the gods that we are not all the same, eh ?
p.1 #14 · Excellent collections of Lightroom Classic presets?
krug wrote:
No actually Andrew I was being flippant - to be more serious I really do not want 'consistency' in my images (however they are made) because I am not consistent in my aims, intentions etc for any particular image - the processing needs to fit the image not the other way around. Similarly I do not want 'speed' if an image isn't worth taking time over it is only a snap and detail processing doesn't matter. "Baseline starting point' - same as consistency.
Different people different aims and intentions ... thank the gods that we are not all the same, eh ?...Show more →
Completely agree that we all have different aims. I was more reacting that it seemed like you weren't being mindful of those aims that would call for presets. My bias is in the taking of good photos with the intention of the outcome from an artistic standpoint, not spending hours at a computer overdoing things to make something that only slightly resembles photography. I want to take the photo and nail, knowing I was taking a solid B&W photograph.
p.1 #15 · Excellent collections of Lightroom Classic presets?
Even now - at my great age - I am pleasantly surprised Andrew by how often you start poles apart but after thinking seriously end up agreeing.
Of course there are some players esp in the political field with whom it would be impossible to achieve that in a millennium but thank the gods that 'art' is not politics - well not always at least !
p.1 #16 · Excellent collections of Lightroom Classic presets?
When we used film, we selected film stock based on the look we wanted (and other ASA/ISO we needed). Color films were mostly not “true” to color, but they produced images with a palette that was pleasing, at least the good ones did.
So there is nothing wrong with selecting a preset you like.
Sadly, you will find more presets which only look good on a narrow range of images, if even that. Developing a good “general use” preset takes a lot of skill.
The major users of presets are wedding photographers, followed closely by portrait photographers. They need to produce a consistent body of images, at least for an individual customer, and most prefer to have a consistent look across their work.
VSCO used to dominate, but it has disappeared from all but phone apps (and really is not the same there). Mastin is the dominant preset maker. RNI (already mentioned) has a presence.
p.1 #17 · Excellent collections of Lightroom Classic presets?
charlyw wrote:
Presets are pure snake oil, never ever purchase those!
I'd both agree and disagree. Mainly because the term "presets" is a bit outdated and may refer to very different things. So what is your dislike about?
- "Artistic" presets, that implement someone else's creative edits?
- Film presets, that emulate a certain film stock?
- Specialist presets, that allow you to do some technical job, for example convert a scanned negative to a positive image, quickly?
Very similar for me. If we are talking about film presets (not someone else's creative edits) RNI Films 5, by far, is the most favorite package in my toolbox.
As mentioned, they are not really presets, as they are not presetting your Lightroom sliders, but rather some clever profiles and bits of code wrapped as presets. The output is quite pleasing: very much consistent with the actual films they're built after, nice highlight rollout, built-in clipping prevention, the color separation - just very good, with nice neutrals and rich skintones, something you wouldn't be able to achieve with just HSL sliders and curves. It just feels like a very high-quality well-balanced product.
Being quite pricey by the preset standards they are still rather affordable by the general photographic measure. Arguably $200 is much less than a decent 35mm lens, while the impact on your output could be much more profound, of course if color matters to you.
Apart from RNI I can also highly recommend DXO Silver Efex Pro - very lovely package for BW edits, classy and mature product made by some smart people, worth every penny.
p.1 #19 · Excellent collections of Lightroom Classic presets?
tradeOfAllJack wrote:
I'd both agree and disagree. Mainly because the term "presets" is a bit outdated and may refer to very different things. So what is your dislike about?
- "Artistic" presets, that implement someone else's creative edits?
p.1 #20 · Excellent collections of Lightroom Classic presets?
Some examples from the RNI film pack
It offers a ton of variety, from having a very punchy modern digital look all the way to not just a film-based look, but heavily faded old film-stock look. All of these had additional work done after the base profile, such as HSL sliders, exposure/highlight/shadow/curves, image stacking for dynamic range or noise reduction, panoramas, etc.
Loxia 85, Kodak E 100G; 25-shot panorama for composition and dynamic range.
Sigma 35 f1.2 DG DN; Afgha Optima 200 v4; 35-exposure stack for impressionistic feel/foliage movement in the wind, lots of tone adjustment and masking for final image.
