Conversations around photographic style have always felt a little odd to me for a few reasons. It’s something I get asked about a lot by my students, as they feel that without a style, a visual signature, then they will fid it very difficult to differentiate themselves from other working artists. So much of today’s communication is done through brands and visual identity that it’s a natural response for photographers to seek to find some way to make these things work for them, and as so much of the photographs themselves act as both product and advertisement many are looking to make their brand inherent to their images. [Read More…]
This is why you should or shouldn’t use Lightroom presets
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Presets for Lightroom and other applications are often the centre of controversy. Some people can’t live without them and actively panic when their software updates and no longer reads their old presets accurately. The other extreme puts those that use presets in the “you’re not a photographer if” category.
In between, though, there is some middle ground. Things are rarely this black and white. Mango Street, who happen to sell some presets of their own, weigh in with their thoughts in this video on why you should or shouldn’t use presets, and what to keep in mind when either buying presets or making your own.
Visual Flow launches Lightroom and ACR presets based on lighting conditions
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If you use presets in Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw, here’s a new approach to them that you may find interesting. Visual Flow’s “lighting condition-based development” is a new way of creating presets. As the name suggests, it takes into account lighting conditions in the images, which makes these presets different from others currently in the market. There’s also a retouching toolkit that lets you do all the retouching work in Lightroom and ACR. So, let’s jump right into these and see what they offer and how they work.
Stop wasting money on Lightroom presets: here are three reasons to create your own
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Lightroom presets can be a handy tool for learning how to edit. However, it’s easy to fall into a trap of thinking that they’re a quick fix for all of your images. In this video, Mark Denney explains why buying presets isn’t such a good idea. Instead of investing money, it’s much better to invest some time and create your own presets, and here are three big reasons why.
VSCO Film Presets for Desktop are being discontinued in March 2019
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VSCO has announced that the much loved VSCO Film Presets for Desktop are coming to an end. The company says they’re moving completely away from the desktop to focus solely on their mobile app.
The Presets for Desktop have been rather popular over the years, although that’ll all come to an end on March 1st, 2019. VSCO hasn’t really said why they’re killing them off, except to say that they are “always moving forward” and focusing on mobile.
New Preset Converter lets you use your Lightroom presets in Capture One
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One of the big draws of Lightroom for many users is its ability to use presets. And there are a million of them out there. Free and paid Lightroom preset packs are everywhere you look these days. But there are very few available for Capture One.
It’s those purchased presets that put a lot of photographers off switching away from Lightroom. They don’t want to feel they’ve wasted their money by no longer using them. But now, a new Lightroom to Capture One preset converter, the imaginatively titled Preset Converter, might make your choice a little bit easier.
Start your color grade with the Infinite Color Panel
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The Infinite Color Panel has arrived and I have been pushing the create button ever since. The panel has been announced for quite some time and when it was close to being released you could feel the hype picking up on Facebook. The $129,- Photoshop extension looks deceptively simple, so why would you buy a big button?
Photoshop CS6 gets Dehaze thanks to these handy free presets
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I’m one of those seemingly odd people who kept hold of CS6 after Adobe switched to its new subscription model. The reasons for it aren’t important, but I know I’m not alone. Every day I see questions online from people also still using CS6. While we have the advantage of not having to keep paying for software every month, there are disadvantages. The big one being we don’t get updates any more.
This means no Dehaze feature in Adobe Camera Raw. Although, it turns out that the raw engine for CS6 does actually support the feature. There’s just no slider for it. But now, there’s a set of free presets available to let you use Dehaze, thanks to Photoshop guru, Dave Cross. Last week I had the opportunity to help Dave test out the presets before release, and boy are they a welcome addition.
This website takes JPG photos and shows how they were edited in Lightroom
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If it happens to you to see a photo and wish you could recreate the look, you will find this website really handy. Piotr Chmolowski has launched Pixel Peeper, a website that reads EXIF data from JPG image and instantly shows what process was used for editing in Lightroom, as well as the camera settings. We chatted with Piotr about his project and the plans for the future, and it seems there will be a lot more useful stuff for photographers on this website.
Can the reliance on presets cost you your career?
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When you’re editing photos, you probably use presets from time to time. But do you think you use them too much? I have stumbled upon an interesting video from photographer Hans Rosemond which could affect your view on presets.
(Over)using them today may seem fun, easy and as a huge time saver. But what will happen ten years from now? Can your heavy reliance on presets eventually cost you your job?
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