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Anthony Riso
Anthony Riso
Participant
January 10, 2020
Question

Idea: Preset Stacking

  • January 10, 2020
  • 1 reply
  • 736 views

Hey all,

 

I had a passing idea, and I'm wondering if anyone else would find it useful. 

 

In Lightroom, we all know presets can be super helpful with truncating our editing times, but what if we could create one preset with just a certain split toning look, another preset with basic exposure adjustments, an additional preset, say, with Hue Saturation Luminance adjustments, and then layer them all together to get the exact look we want.

 

In Adobe Premiere, for example, you can add any number of Lumetri Color adjustments to a video clip, all with different values, and maybe this can be done in an update to Lightroom Classic CC where a user could layer presets.

 

It would be useful to be able to remove any preset layer at any given time, and have a way of knowing which presets are stacked on a given photo, sort of like the way Adobe Premiere gives the user the effects panel so you can go in and view the different Lumetri Color layers there are with the featured utility of being able to remove one or more at any given time.

 

I shoot and edit a lot of weddings, and a lot of the time I go with the same split tones, but the basic exposure adjustments, HSL values, and tone curve don't match up from setting to setting. It would be easier to have a way to first add my subtle split toning preset to all photos in a collection, then add presets onto it based on exposure of a scene, indoor/outdoor, etc. 

 

Would anyone else find this useful, or is it just me? 

 

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

R
Community Expert
richardplondonCommunity Expert
Community Expert
January 10, 2020

You already can apply a certain split-tone preset to all photos in a collection, AND distinct, either subsequently or previously, use different presets or manual editing, targeted on other kinds of processing such as HSL etc. Provided each preset is selective about what kind of processing settings it is or is not imposing (such as, only affecting split-tone or only affecting HSL) these will not get in each others' way or conflict in any way.

 

To remove the action of a given "look" preset, it is sufficient to have another preset which re-imposes zero values for just those settings which first implemented this particular "look". But basic processing such as Exposure is much more individual to different photos. This too happens independently provided the presets cooncerned are suitably selective, and can IMO be left completely out of "look" presets. For example, say you intended a preset to achieve a darkened "look", and did this by setting Exposure to -1. This preset would heavily darken any image which happened to have had its Exposure already at +2 - but would lighten any image which happened to have had its Exposure already at -2. OTOH a Tone Curve based preset could overlay a perceptually constant amount of relative darkening onto either of these two, differently Basic-processed, images. 

Anthony Riso
Anthony RisoAuthor
Participant
January 10, 2020

Is there already a way to know which presets you have added already to an image? For example, a separate "effects" tab featuring all presets added to the image, with the option of removing one or more set presets separately?

 

The idea is to have more selective control over which presets have been added, need to be added, or need to be removed based on what a certain photo calls for. 

R
Community Expert
richardplondonCommunity Expert
Community Expert
January 10, 2020

A preset isn't a "thing". It isn't an "effect". It is just a convenient way to apply changes to the normal Develop settings, changes which could equally well have been made manually. It makes no practical difference how a given Develop setting has come to be set as it is now. If the application of presets has in the past changed this setting one way or another, there is nothing persisting of their effect except potentially in whatever current value this setting may exhibit, which depends on subsequent events.

 

Example: say I first manually set the Exposure slider to +1. Then I apply preset A which overrides Exposure to -1. Then I apply preset B which overrides Exposure to +0.5 (though I could equally well have done so manually). Then I manually return Exposure to +1.

 

How is it practically useful to me now, to know that this image has had presets A and B applied to it in the past (something I could anyway see in History if I was curious)? HOW should the prior action of preset A (or B) and only that, be best extricated from the image now - and what value should Exposure then show as a result, given the other operations I've also carried out since?

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