95% of Presets are gimmicky and don't work!

Photogaz

Photogaz

Suspended / Banned
Messages
445
Edit My Images
No
I'm starting to use Presets I've made in Lightroom but I've also downloaded a lot that I sometimes use.

I've found that out of the 100s of presets I've found, only 10 or so actually work well. There's so many gimmicky ones out there and I find most of the liked ones on say preset heaven only work on a small percentage of photos to get the look you want.

I know alot will use presets to get the look they want but many photographers seem to be very protective of their presets.

Are there any you use that you'd consider very good that give a wow factor but aren't gimmicky.

Preset heaven pro seems to have a few good ones but I'll no way pay for them before using them.
 
I only use one preset and that is for my 1940s shots, and that is a preset I made, based on one of the ones that came with Lightroom 2.

Not a huge fan of them otherwise, prefer to just fiddle with each image as and when.
 
Don't think of presets as a be all and end all. Think of them more as a starting point. Apply the preset and adjust as per taste. That said I I'll agree that quite a lot of them are more gimmiky than useful.
 
I think of presets as a starting point rather than just a one-click method of processing. I'll click a preset then look at the right-hand panel to see what's changed, then play with those settings to see if I can get a look that I like. If I don't like the result, I'll click in the History to go back to where I was before I clicked the preset. Then I'll try another one, and so on. I do this as much with my own presets as I do with those I've downloaded.
 
I don't preset all my images and don't really do the one click approach but just find alot of them are useless.

I have a good B&W one I made as well as one that gives a nice warm glow to images with a very mild HDR look to it.
 
I use a few presets, mainly with the adjustment brush, but the ones I made are the ones I use the most.
 
I have a lot but most of the ones I actually use I made myself. Thing is most of the ones you download are made for a particular image by the person who made it, it may look rubbish on any other pic (and many do!)
 
I have made a couple which uploaded to preset pond.. Vintage style ones, but again they don't work with every type of image

Also, does anyone know if you can stack presets? say for example.

When I import all images I can apply a preset that corrects lens distortion, then apply a processing preset after?
 
Last edited:
Yes you can. Obviously they could work against eachother if they modify the same parameters.

I have various presets that set the lens file, camera configuration & vibrance on import. Then sometimes add another one on top with a vignette.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top