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LR Import Presets Tutorial
Icebear
Registered Users Posts: 4,015 Major grins
I was asked to do a tutorial on Camera & ISO Specific Lightroom import presets. Please let me apologize in advance for my lack of professorial technique. And I don't know how to do screen shots. :scratch I'm going to assume you have a basic understanding of Lightroom. Lightroom is an incredibly powerful time-saving tool, but only if you let it do its job. As with most really robust tools, Lightroom can be intimidating, but it only works for you if you tell it what you want it to do.
Ground rules:
- I assume you want to spend as little time as possible getting to a "good starting place" with your imported images.
- I assume you are shooting raw.
- I am not going to tell you how to process your raw images. This tutorial is about creating import presets, not processing your images.
- My approach to import presets will probably differ from yours once you start using them.
- This subject becomes more valuable the more camera models you own, and the more you change your ISO settings.
- I'm using LR4, but the fundementals in LR3 are similar if not identical (I can't remember.)
Here we go:
1. Select a fairly generic (representative of this body/ISO combo) image to work with in the Develop Module. Apply the settings you'd expect to have to use to get to a good starting place. I'm talking about global settings, not local adjustments, spot removal, crops, vignettes, etc. Only stuff like noise reduction, sharpening, enabling lens profile corrections . . . whatever you ALWAYS do with THIS CAMERA at THIS ISO. Make certain you haven't messed with the White Balance slider. Leave it at "As Shot."
2. Go to Preferences under the Edit Menu (PC = Control ,) and select the Presets tab. Under the Default Develop Settings you'll want to check the box for "Make defaults specific to camera ISO settings." (If you have two identical bodies that for some weird reason perform differently, you can even check the box to make the defaults serial-number-specific, but I've had that one bite me in the butt when I borrowed a body.)
3. Now's when the cool stuff starts. Go back to the image you've just worked on and from the Develop menu select Set Default Settings. This will open a dialog box and you will want to click on the Update to Current Settings button.* Woo-hoo! You have just created a camera/ISO-specific default import setting. From now on, whenever Lightroom sees a file being imported from (for example) a D300s (serial # 9999999 if you're so inclined) at ISO 1600, it will apply the settings you just applied to your test image.
4. You're not done yet. You need to do this for every camera/ISO combination you use. This is a small investment of time that will save you tons. Here's a bonus. You do not have to do step 2 any more!! I only put it as step two to make damned sure that the "Make defaults specific to camera ISO setting" box was checked.
5. These are just default settings. You can, of course, mess with your images to your heart's content after import. For that matter, if you later decide you want to tweak the default settings for future images, just repeat Step 3.
* Don't worry about the stupid "Please note that these changes are not undoable" warning. Of course they're undoable. You just "Update to current settings" again. There's just no "undo" button. Why do they want to scare us like that?
Ground rules:
- I assume you want to spend as little time as possible getting to a "good starting place" with your imported images.
- I assume you are shooting raw.
- I am not going to tell you how to process your raw images. This tutorial is about creating import presets, not processing your images.
- My approach to import presets will probably differ from yours once you start using them.
- This subject becomes more valuable the more camera models you own, and the more you change your ISO settings.
- I'm using LR4, but the fundementals in LR3 are similar if not identical (I can't remember.)
Here we go:
1. Select a fairly generic (representative of this body/ISO combo) image to work with in the Develop Module. Apply the settings you'd expect to have to use to get to a good starting place. I'm talking about global settings, not local adjustments, spot removal, crops, vignettes, etc. Only stuff like noise reduction, sharpening, enabling lens profile corrections . . . whatever you ALWAYS do with THIS CAMERA at THIS ISO. Make certain you haven't messed with the White Balance slider. Leave it at "As Shot."
2. Go to Preferences under the Edit Menu (PC = Control ,) and select the Presets tab. Under the Default Develop Settings you'll want to check the box for "Make defaults specific to camera ISO settings." (If you have two identical bodies that for some weird reason perform differently, you can even check the box to make the defaults serial-number-specific, but I've had that one bite me in the butt when I borrowed a body.)
3. Now's when the cool stuff starts. Go back to the image you've just worked on and from the Develop menu select Set Default Settings. This will open a dialog box and you will want to click on the Update to Current Settings button.* Woo-hoo! You have just created a camera/ISO-specific default import setting. From now on, whenever Lightroom sees a file being imported from (for example) a D300s (serial # 9999999 if you're so inclined) at ISO 1600, it will apply the settings you just applied to your test image.
4. You're not done yet. You need to do this for every camera/ISO combination you use. This is a small investment of time that will save you tons. Here's a bonus. You do not have to do step 2 any more!! I only put it as step two to make damned sure that the "Make defaults specific to camera ISO setting" box was checked.
5. These are just default settings. You can, of course, mess with your images to your heart's content after import. For that matter, if you later decide you want to tweak the default settings for future images, just repeat Step 3.
* Don't worry about the stupid "Please note that these changes are not undoable" warning. Of course they're undoable. You just "Update to current settings" again. There's just no "undo" button. Why do they want to scare us like that?
John :
Natural selection is responsible for every living thing that exists.
D3s, D500, D5300, and way more glass than the wife knows about.
Natural selection is responsible for every living thing that exists.
D3s, D500, D5300, and way more glass than the wife knows about.
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Natural selection is responsible for every living thing that exists.
D3s, D500, D5300, and way more glass than the wife knows about.
Went ahead and tried this out. Talk about sitting on the edge! Here's what I did. I chose to to do as you instructed. But since I couldn't really easily see the transformation, I decided to add a horrible vignette. I chose photos from a Green Screen Shoot I had done well over a year ago on a body I no longer owned. Once I did the vignette and made changes to the preset. I closed LR3. I then went to bridge to find other photos of that night (since that particular one was a special photo and kept via copy in a special folder). And lo....in bridge, all of the photos from that night shot with that body and at that ISO had this horrible Vignette already applied.....so sitting on the edge...I went back into LR3, that same original photo used to make the preset was still there, in the library module selected reset all settings, which worked. Then went into the develop module and chose the dialogue to update to current settings while having bridge opened next to LR3, and behold, every thing changed (in LR3 & Bridge) right back as before. Great day-after Halloween trick AND treat! Thanks John!
Not working. I'm trying to show what the Set Default Develop Setting dialog box looks like. I can't get it to paste into this window.
p.s. I also don't speak "Bridge."
Natural selection is responsible for every living thing that exists.
D3s, D500, D5300, and way more glass than the wife knows about.
Natural selection is responsible for every living thing that exists.
D3s, D500, D5300, and way more glass than the wife knows about.
Thanks for the tutorial!
D800
16/2.8, f1.4G primes, f2.8 trio, 105/200 macro, SB900.
It never gets easier, you just get better.