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.
Interesting debate! I certainly look forward to reading your follow-up from a professional’s point of view. For me, presets are only the starting point to my photographs (if i decide to add more than the typical post in the first place). I’ll occasionally use an Adobe preset but 99/100 times if i go with a preset it will be from the Totally Rad collection (because, well..they’re effing rad!). I use those presets as a starting point then take initial inspiration and tweak from there. It’s incredibly helpful Totally Rad provides a light/med/dark preset as well so i can see what changes are being made and adjust to the specific look i want. If i’m not using their presets i’m playing around with Lightroom’s split toning to get the look i want; each time i start from scratch on these images. I have not made a preset based on my own adjustments.
I view it the same as i view all photography; everyone (should) strive to be creative in their own entity. Photographers pull inspiration from literally everything; an awesome Phoenix song on your iPhone that just played, a picture perfect scene laid out in front of you, an epic scene from a Guy Ritchie film, or another photographer’s work. It’s all inspiration. When i’m creating a post adjustment you can bet your buttons that no matter how i do it i’m being inspired by something to do so. It shouldn’t matter where that inspiration is from (another phtographer’s image, a scene from a movie, or a Totally Rad preset) as long as you’re striving to be creative a.k.a. do some things yourself, bro. That’s what it’s all about anyways, right? So a long winded explanation of how presets = inspiration to me (but not my final version!).
Honestly I almost never use presets and have never edited a photo just by applying some preset or plugin. Every image is unique and in my opinion needs a different work. I do have a few presets that I have created like vintage look/old look that I apply to specific images, I find images from summer from the sea side to look nice with this look, but again this are mainly my personal projects/personal photos, for the clients I have never used a preset.
The same debate is raging at our studio, where we don’t use canned presets, but one of us (me) has a hate on for Hipstermatic.
Canned presets aren’t tweaked to an individual feel that every image deserves. You also lose the curiosity driven trial-and-error process of learning the opportunites and limits of colour grading. Often we find a colour treatment then discuss how to light for that, working backwards. It’s all learning, and the final result neds to match the content and purpose.
Canned presets are the antithesis of that, and it’d be a shame to lose sight of both that knowledge and the curiosity.
On the far end of the the scale you have Hipstermatic – the cocaine of all photo apps. It’s freely available, people think it’s cool, and it alters your perception just enough to make you believe that all your shit is worth putting out there for all to see. “Oh look, another 47 images of my cat with a retro colour treatment. I should put these on Facebook”.
But that’s just my opinion…
I used to download presets and never used them. Now I don’t even download. I’m having my own presets. Actually it’s a single one I prefer to use. So in case I start using a freshly installed software without presets, I know very well where I’m going and I can go without presets.
My favorite presets are the light setups 🙂 They do the best job.
I do use presets within Lightroom, both my own and ones that I have found from a handful of professionals around the web.
Mainly I use them for initial inspiration and then tweak photos from that starting point. Sometimes though the preset is exactly what I am looking for.
My favorite presets are a few of my own of course, but outside of that I really enjoy Matt Kloskowski’s presets the most!
Presets aren’t cheating, they just make things faster. If I find a setting that I like in a certain situation, I am going to save that preset in order to get a similar look the next time a have a fitting photo. If that is a desired look why would I spend hours on end trying to recreate the process when I can just click one button and bring up a previous setting that I have saved.