Scott here. Many of you know that I’m the primary retoucher here around the Chase Jarvis studio. I was surprised to get into a fairly spirited debate the other day with some of my co-workers. The topic? Adjustment presets and plug-ins in Aperture or Lightroom or Photoshop.
I’ve got a strong opinion on this, but this experience has once again reminded me that there are a thousand ways to skin a cat and that my way is just that, my way.
Instead of letting a debate rage inside the office and then fade out, I figured, why not make it public? I want to hear from you.
Do you use presets for the post production of your images?
Do you make your own, or download them from other users online?
Do you use them for initial inspiration, or to create your final files?
What are your favorites and why?
I’m interested to hear your thoughts in the comments below. Don’t be shy. For those of you who give a rip, I’ll follow up this post with my personal take and we’ll all be a little more informed.
I’ll be honest Scott, I have issues to create presets…. Big time…. I’ll need to really work on this and review how to make good one because I’ve never been able to create my own…
Coming from a photojournalism perspective, I don’t often use presets. Many publications consider these edits as altering reality.
For fine arts or personal work, I prefer to edit images on a case by case basis. That said, I definitely see the merits of using presets for keeping tone/color/style consistent, or for the time they save when dealing with a huge volume of images+tight deadlines. I could also see using them if you’ve specifically tweaked the settings yourself over hundreds of shoots in similar conditions (ie snow). However, if they become something that you slap on all your images and not something that’s a starting point, over time the same presets can make your work stale–or to borrow your words Scott, drab repetition.
What worries me most about downloaded presets is that photographers using them don’t need to understand the technical process behind creating that effect. As a fine arts teaching assistant, I saw many of my students use downloaded presets. When asked how they might create the effect on their own, the deeper understanding of how light works wasn’t there.
Does this matter? Maybe no one cares how you get it, if you can get the look you and/or the client wants by the deadline. But I think there’s something lost in the process of creating if you are using downloaded presets.
Great topic Scott.
I believe presets are imperative if a photographer wants to develop an individual, consistent style, but one needs to create their own and not lean only on the out-of-th-box, one-click solutions.
With digital imaging, the workflow is not complete until the image gets through the processing stage. Learning how to create your own presets is as vital as every other step of the process.
Yes I use presets- Esp when I have go over lots of photos from an event or different variations of the same..
I make mine also adjust/edit few.
I don’t use presets, primarily because I usually don’t like photos that have been heavily post-processed — my work tends to stay simple and straightforward. There’s some great post/retouching work out there (Scott), it’s just not for me.
Besides, it does seem like a lot of photos these days start converging in post-processing style, which of course diminishes the impact, and makes it feel more like a fad.