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 have a few presets I created after I realized I was doing the same primarily steps in most of my photos. I prefer more photo and less shop, so I try to keep my manipulation to a minimum.
More often than not i think happy amatures use presets because they find it hard to achieve the feeling they want and instead end up with an image that looks somewhat like they want but are a dime a dozen.
Using presets is fairly individual and i myself have never used them. I like the fiddling around to get the right feel in final images.
Again, this is just my way of doing it.
It really depends on the shoot.
When i shoot a wedding and have 5000+ images to sort through and pressure for a quick turn around, presets are a must. That being said once i narrow down my final collection i will usually touch up all the images by hand; at that point its down to (hopefully) less then a thousand. This process can be monotonous, so in the middle of using the same preset over and over again, if I come across an image i really like, i will spend some extra creative time with it. Usually this will result in me revamping the original preset, as well as me feeling a little better about myself.
I usually start with a preset I have found online (presetsheaven.com mostly) that I like and change it up to better fit my needs. I don’t particularly like this idea since it takes some of the originality out of my images but practically speaking I would be lost in a sea of images for years if i didn’t, not to mention with more than a few angry brides after me. Its always a little disheartening though when i come across an image from another photographer and i can tell we used the same preset, but i suppose that is the business. Its next to impossible to come up with a truly original look, so as long as i am happy with the final product i can let go of the fact that its not entirely original. Besides – in the end – the image itself should be the original part, i would like to spend more time and energy creating an original image more than an original preset; that notion contradicts itself anyway.
It is general mix depending on which project i am working on. I like to use presets to give a quick insight into how a picture wil look (e.g. high contrast B+W). Sometimes I will use a preset as bas and work from it making my own adjustments. I create my own and also download other ones online. I think there is nothing wrong with using presets even if they are of others since we all get inspired by other peoples work somewhere along the creative line.
yes I do use presets.
the zero’d presets is my starting point for all the images i’ve taken, from there adjustments such as as highlight recovery, sharpening and noise reduction, or chromatic aberration are also automated according to lighting conditions. From there on most of the images are treated individually. Some actions will or will not be automated depending on the Job (for social events for example, they must look the same). But I almost always make individual adjustments. As far as inspiration sometimes others/built-in presets are my starting point or some of my older work, it all depends.