Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips

I'm bringing back the summer haze preset from last year with a few changes. I know it's not technically summer yet but Memorial Day is here in the US and, ever since I was a kid, that signifies "summer is here" (and if you live in Florida like I do, the torrential rain we've had every day for the last few days should already have you in that summery mood).

This was one of my favorite presets from last year. Its just a really cool effect to get that summery, warm, hazy feeling in a photo. The preset adjusts the white balance, Vibrance, Saturation, and Split Toning sliders. I even tossed in a bit of a Tone Curve adjustment on it in the Shadows since the other settings seemed to muddy the photo up a bit, and I thought it needed some more blacks to bring back the contrast. It works great on fun-styled outdoor portraits and even makes a pretty nifty wedding effect. Enjoy!

Click here to see a sample of the preset.
Click here to download Matt's Summer Haze Preset
Click here to see a video on how to install presets.

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Hey there. I'm back for another preset day. I wanted to share some new black and white ideas I've been working on in Lightroom. As you can imagine, there's a few different ways to do black and whites (remember, they're NOT called grayscale photos) in Lightroom. But, I've been honing in on what I think is the best since some methods tend to deteriorate the photo too much (or produce too much noise). This week, I'm releasing some that I've created recently that are specifically for landscape photos. They've been very dramatic for the photos I've run them on and I think they really give that high-contrast Black and white look to a photo. There's a preset for some general landscape scenes but, of course, feel free to try them on anything, as each photo is different and may respond to my settings in a different way then I intended. I hope you enjoy and please let me know what you think of them in the comments. Have a great day!

• See the Before/After view of the presets here
• Download the presets here.
• Click here to see a video on how to install presets .

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Happy Monday! I'm heading up to Boston this week to teach at Photoshop World (and the first ever Lightroom Conference at Photoshop World) but I wanted to add a preset here that I've been updating. A while back, I released a Vintage New York styled preset. Well, I was working on another effect this week and I realized that it looked very similar to the one I just mentioned. However, after a couple of tweaks I liked this one better so I've updated it. You can keep both or delete the old one and just use this one. Either way, I think it's a cool effect. It's primarily geared toward portraits. One thing you'll notice if you look at the settings after you apply it, is that I bumped up the Orange and Yellows in the HSL panel to bring back some life to the skin. As I mentioned earlier, this is mainly geared towards portraits but give it a try on other types of photos as I've gotten some really fantastic results.

• See the Before/After view of the presets here
• Download the presets here.
• Click here to see a video on how to install presets .

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Hey there! I got some inspiration for this preset while looking through a magazine this past weekend. I saw a Ralph Lauren/Polo ad and I noticed their photos have a very distinct look to them. As always, I made it my mission to recreate the effect and I think I got pretty darn close. As you'll see, it's got a hint of green to it with a slightly desaturated look. I tried it out on some actual polo sport photos but I also tried it on some wedding photos and it had a very neat look to it. It's worth mentioning that it seems to work best on brighter photos, so darker sunset photos or photos taken indoors probably won't look as good. But give it a try and let me know what you think. Thanks!

Click here to see a sample of the Polo/Ralph Lauren Preset preset.
Click here to download Matt's Polo Preset
Click here to see a video on how to install presets .

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Hey there! I'm pretty excited about this week's presets. I had an idea a while back about using the adjustment brush to create a focal point in certain parts of the photo (by darkening the rest of the photo). The vignetting controls are great for doing this but if your subject isn't in the middle of the photo then it doesn't work as well. So I figured I could use the adjustment brush to darken parts of the photo and save it as a preset. Wrong! I quickly found out you couldn't save adjustment brush controls as a preset so I went back to the drawing board and came up with this idea instead. I've created 4 different presets that each use the Graduated Filter to do something similar. This week's batch is for Landscapes only (top left, top right, bottom left, and bottom right). However, I'm working on an update that I'll get out next week for portraits as well. Enjoy 'em and let me know what you think!

Click here to see a sample of the "Focal Point Top Right" preset.
Click here to download Matt's Focal Point Presets
Click here to see a video on how to install presets .

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