DEAL: this week only our very own 101 Lightroom Presets and 101 Landscape Lightroom Presets are 60% off.
In my previous article you learned how to create a vintage effect using Lightroom. I started by showing you some Lightroom Develop Presets you can use as a shortcut, and finished by demonstrating some techniques you can use yourself. The hidden message in the article was that one way to learn how to use Lightroom is to buy some Develop Presets (or download some free ones) and analyze them to see how they work. You can then apply the same techniques to your own photos, and even create your own Develop Presets.
Today I’m going to give you some tips on analyzing other people’s Develop Presets. I’m going to do it using some presets I downloaded from onOne Software. These are free presets that anyone can download and use themselves (just follow the link), so it is easy for you to follow along.
Preset: onOne Instantastic – Daisy
The Daisy preset, part of the onOne Signature Collection Presets (Vol. 2), gives an Instagram filter effect. There is a slight matte effect and a blue colour cast.
A. Original photo B. Daisy preset
Vibrance and saturation adjustments
This preset uses two techniques to create the colours. The first is applied in the Basic panel. The preset increases Vibrance to +20, and reduces Saturation to -20.
To understand the effect of these tweaks you need to know the difference between Saturation and Vibrance. Saturation affects all colours in the photo evenly. Reducing Saturation to -20 has a uniform effect on all the colours within the frame.
Vibrance, on the other hand, affects the least saturated colours in the photo the most. The net effect of decreasing Saturation and increasing Vibrance is that the strongest colours in the frame are desaturated while other colours are not desaturated nearly so much.
A. Vibrance 0, Saturation 0 B. Vibrance +20, Saturation -20
Tone Curve adjustments
The rest of the colour adjustment is carried out in the Tone Curve panel, with two adjustments to the blue and red Tone Curves. Here’s what the adjustments look like.
Raising the blue curve on the left creates a matte effect and a blue colour cast. Pulling the right hand side of the curve down adds yellow (the opposite of blue) to the highlights. This comparison shows the difference.
A. Blue curve lifted on left. B. Blue curve lifted on left and pulled down on right.
The red curve adjustments are also a subtle colour and tonal adjustment. Moving the bottom left corner to the right adds cyan and makes the shadows a little darker.
Moving the top right corner to the left adds magenta and makes the highlights a little brighter.
This comparison shows the difference the red Tone Curve adjustment makes. The difference is subtle, so you may have to look closely.
A. Blue Tone Curve adjustment only. B. Blue and red Tone Curve adjustments combined.
Preset: Nicolesy Matte 3
The Matte 3 preset, part of the Nicolesy Matte Presets for Adobe Lightroom 5 set, creates a subtle matte effect and a red colour cast.
A. Original photo. B. Matte 3 preset.
The Develop Preset does its work in the Tone Curve and Split Toning panels. Let’s take a look at each.
Tone Curve adjustment
The Tone Curve adjustment combines two adjustments in one to the RGB curve (the colour curves haven’t been touched). First, the bottom left corner has been moved upwards to create a matte effect. Second, the center of the RGB curve has been pushed gently upwards, making the mid-tones brighter. The net effect of this Tone Curve adjustment is to add a matte effect and make the mid-tones brighter at the same time. This comparison shows the difference it makes.
A. Linear Tone Curve. B. Adjusted Tone Curve.
Split Toning
The colour has been added to the photo using the Split Toning panel. The preset adds hot pink to the Shadows, and a luminescent green to the Highlights, with the Balance slider pushed to the right to give prominence to the green tone. This comparison shows the difference the split tone makes:
A. No Split Tone. B. With Split Tone.
Putting it all together
In my last article I wrote that buying Lightroom Develop Presets made by other people (or downloading free ones) is a shortcut to creating effects like these. One benefit of using other people’s presets is that you can take advantage of their knowledge and hard work and use the presets for yourself.
But the main advantage is that other people’s presets can introduce you to new and creative ways of processing your photos, using techniques that you may never have thought of by yourself. The real benefit comes when you take a close look at the settings altered by the preset and take the time to understand how they work. Your understanding of Lightroom will become deeper as you do, so that you can use these techniques in your own photos.
For example, in this article you have learned how to use the Tone Curve panel to create a matte effect and change the colours in your photos. You have also learned how to use the Split Tone panel in combination with a Tone Curve adjustment to create another type of matte effect. The rest is up to you.
Can you come up with ways to use these techniques creatively on your own photos? What Tone Curve adjustments can you make? What Split Tone combinations can you apply? Have fun, experiment and good things will surely follow.
Mastering Lightroom: Book Four – The Photos
My new ebook Mastering Lightroom: Book Four – The Photos takes you through ten beautiful examples of photography and shows you how I processed them step-by-step in Lightroom. It explores some of my favourite Develop Presets and plug-ins as well as the techniques I use in Lightroom itself. Click the link to learn more.
DEAL: this week only our very own 101 Lightroom Presets and 101 Landscape Lightroom Presets are 60% off.
