Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips

Hey gang! Below you’ll find a summary of my findings from Tuesday’s post about preset suggestions. Yep, I read every single one of them. First off, like I thought, you guys have a ton of great ideas. Thank you for sharing them. Some are definitely doable and some are just not in the realm of Lightroom Version 1. If we’re lucky maybe we’ll see more features in the next version of Lightroom though. We’ll have to wait and see.

Anyway, here’s a quick recap of some of the suggestions.

Recreate the Effect of a Line Drawing - Not possible in Lightroom

Lens Blur Effect - Blurring isn’t possible in Lightroom

Super Saturated, Super Contrast - Definitely a possibility

300 Movie Effect - Already done on this site.

Old Fashioned Glamor - Great idea!

Soft Focus or Dreamy Effect (lots of requests for this one) - Nope. No “soft” or “dreamy” features in Lightroom. That’s blurring and that’s Photoshop’s job for now at least.

Creative Sharpening - I like it!

Fluffy Clouds Preset - At first I thought “huh”? Then I started playing around and there’s something to be said for this one. Look for a cloud-related preset in the future.

Dodge and Burn (from Florent) - Come on Florent. You know there’s no dodging and burning in Lightroom. I can’t add features. Wish I could, but I can’t. Nice try though.

Bleach Bypass - We may get close in Lightroom. I’ll give it a try

Glamor Glow - Probably not. I’ll try but there’s not glowing in Lightroom

Jill Greenberg - Some of the high contrast presets here will achieve the post-processed look there. However, I’m convinced that 90% of what Jill does is in the camera.

Pirates of Caribbean - Great idea! I love it! And yes Lisa Epp, I did get all the way down to your post

Die Hard 4 - I’ll give it a try.

Classic B&W - Great idea.

Valentines Day High Contrast B&W with Red - Sounds good to me.

Soft and Romantic - Nope. No soft and I’m not romantic

Noise Reduction - Lightroom’s noise reduction controls are, well… pretty lame. I don’t use ‘em so I probably won’t be creating presets telling others to use them.

Orton Effect - Nope. No combining images in Lightroom yet. Combining a sharp and blurry photo are the basis of this effect so this one can’t be done.

Cool Shadows / Warm Highlights - I like it.

Neutral Density - No gradients in Lightroom. You’ll have to do it in the camera or stick with Photoshop for this one.

Kevin Kubota Styled Presets - These are more workflow related and special effects. Not something really geared for Lightroom.

More Creative ID Plates - I’ve been toying with this idea so you’ll definitely see more ID plates in the future.

Landscape B&Ws - Great idea!

Splitting Controls at Bottom of Tone Curve - You can split the sliders in the Tone Curve?! Honestly, I never do it and you know my feelings on telling people to use things I don’t use. Maybe I’ll make a video just to let people know what they do though.

Skin Tone Softening - Sorry, no softening here.

Underwater Photos - Perfect candidate for a preset. If anyone has any killer underwater photos I can use as candidates let me know.

High Key - Possibly.

Patrick Hoelck Effect - Same as the Jill Greenberg one above. There is some post processing going on there but I really think the effect you’re after is done in the camera.

Skin Coloring - Cool idea.

Midnight Preset like Nik Color Effects - I’ll give it a try.

Photo Filters (Warming 85, 81, etc.) - Awesome idea.

Tri-X, Portra, Afga film stocks - I’ll take a look at them.

Preset to Organize Presets and/or A Preset for Sharing Presets - No can do. However, a video sounds like it’ll help.

Lomo Effect - Great idea! I’ve been playing around with a good one in Photoshop. Sounds like it’s time to try it in LR.

Compatibility Issues with PC and Mac and Print Presets - I’ll answer this one quickly. Yes there are issues. I have no idea why though. If I find out I’ll let you know.

Infrared - Nope. You gotta shoot it this way or you need Photoshop. (edit: I have to admit that I’ve been experimenting with this today and I may have been premature by saying no. It’s not going to be a really good IR image but there is some potential here. I’ll see what I can come up with.)

HDR Controls (Reprogramming Lightroom) - Not possible in LR. You can’t combine images. Hopefully we’ll see something like this in the future though.

Awesome Sepia Tone - Yep, not just a Sepia Tone preset but an “awesome” sepia preset. I’ll give it a try.

Photo Frames with ID Plates - Another great idea.

Presets to Bring out Detail in Snow - I’ll see what I can whip up.

Mimicking great painter styles (Van Gogh, etc…) - Sorry. No painterly like effects are available in LR.

Exporting Presets - Might make a good video topic.

So it looks like I’ve got my work cut out for me. I’d better get started. Thanks again for all of the ideas.

First off, thanks so much to everyone who took some time out of their day to post a comment to yesterday’s post (suggesting presets). As I’ve said before I know how precious your time is and I’m honestly thankful that you continue to spend some of it here. I’ll be posting a follow up with my findings summarized tomorrow. Anyway, on to the inspiration/website for the week. This one is for all of you wedding photographers out there. Heck, even if you’re not a wedding photographer I think it’s just an interesting website to visit. It’s Jessica Claire Photography and she’s got some really beautiful work. Plus, she really let’s her personality come through in her blog and (to me at least) that ranks up there with one of the top things I look for when I visit blogs. So go pay her site a visit and enjoy your Wednesday.

Does October 15, 2007 ring a bell? That was the day I started releasing my presets out to all of the visitors to this site each week. That was almost 4 months ago and something occurred to me the other day. I’m only giving away the presets I use. What about you guys? I’m sure there’s lots of presets that you wish you had. So let me know what they are? Is there any effect, technique, template, Identity Plate or anything else that you think would make a good candidate for Preset Monday? Maybe it’ll even spawn off into a video. Post your ideas as a comment here. If I end up using them (and I’m sure there’s plenty of good ideas out there) I’ll throw all of the candidates names into a hat and draw a couple names for a free month subscription over at Kelby Training’s online training website. I can’t wait to see your ideas. Thanks!

After the nostalgic-styled preset last week I got a comment that got me thinking. Some one had said it was a shame you couldn’t easily apply cool textures to your photos in Lightroom to really give you that “old” feeling. They were pretty much right. Sure there’s workarounds, and I’ve tried them over the last week but it just became too much of a pain. Especially when I knew I could get exactly what I wanted in Photoshop in about 10 seconds. So this week’s preset is something totally different. It’s not exactly a Lightroom preset but I think you’ll agree it falls into our preset category and is a nice change of pace. So here it is - an old texture file. It’s a JPG file and here’s how to use it.

1. Work on your photo just as you normally would in Lightroom. Then apply any presets to it.
2. Go to Photo > Edit in Photoshop and open the photo in Photoshop.
3. Download the texture I’ve given you (or find/create your own) and open it. Drag the texture on top of your photo and transform it to fit.
4a. Here’s where things get cool. The texture is black with a white background. So if you change the layer blend mode to Multiply you’ll drop out the white and leave only the black parts which gives a nice old look. You can also drop the opacity to fade it.
- or -
4b. Or… if you want a white texture (which works a little better for printing on a white background) then press Ctrl/Cmd + I to invert the colors (black becomes white and white becomes black). Then change the blend mode of the texture layer to Screen. This will drop out the black and keep the white.
5. Either way you go (step 4a or 4b), save the file just like you would any Lightroom based image in Photoshop. Go back into Lightroom and now you can take your textured into any output module just like you normally would.

I know it’s a weird workaround but it’s a way to get a very “Photoshop”-like effect but still keep your photo to output in Lightroom.

Click here to see a sample of the texture.
Click here to download the aged texture image

I was getting ready to write the Friday tip and it just seemed like one of those tips that was meant for video. So you’re getting the Friday tip but in video format this week. It’s about a feature that a lot of people miss in the Develop module called Auto Sync. It comes in really handy when you’re trying to work on multiple photos at the same time.

One more thing to close out the week. Last Friday I gave away a couple of copies of Scott Kelby’s Digital Photography Book Volume 2. Since I know Scott, I may be biased when I say I love his work and this latest book is a must have. However, I came across a third-party review of the book here at Stephen Zeller Photography. If you’re still on the fence then make sure you give it a quick read this weekend.

Well that wraps up another week. Thanks again for all of the interest in the Lightroom Preset Flickr group!

Click here to watch the video. (8Mb)