How to install a preset in Lightroom. Lightroom's Secret Weapon: The Radial Filter and How to Use It
If you haven't read it yet, I advise you to check it out. In this article we will look at the topic “Presets”; after reading it, you will learn what a preset is and what it is needed for.
Lightroom Presets
A preset can be described as a set certain actions related to processing, which, when activated, can significantly transform photographs.
More in simple language, let’s say you have a photo and you haven’t performed any actions with it yet, load it into the Lightroom editor, select the preset you need, click on it and your photo is transformed.
For example, the following settings are specified in the preset (Sky color is more saturated, sharper and darker, darkening at the edges, green color more saturated) Look at the photo below, using the slider you can change the photo. On the left is a photo without processing on the right with the preset used.
Initially, Lightroom already comes with free presets, but they don’t always meet your needs, and you want something more interesting.
I want to say right away that there are no universal presets. It all depends on the photo shooting conditions, exposure, light, shadows, etc.
In the following articles, I will analyze presets designed for certain photographs (children's, animals, winter, etc.) You can also download presets for Lightroom completely free of charge.
How to install presets
This article will answer the question of how to download presets. First, you need to download ready-made presets. After that open Adobe program Photoshop Lightroom, import the photo and go to the Corrections tab.
In the left window, in Preset parameters, press right click mouse on " User Presets“, then click Import.
In the file selection window, find the downloaded preset and click Open. Now in this folder, the file should be displayed. When you click on it, the photo will change, depending on what settings are included in it.
If after automatic processing, you are not satisfied with something, you can correct the photo by selecting the “Correction Brush”, but more on that in the following articles.
Example of using a preset site_101
How to save a preset
To create your own preset, you need to go to the “ Preset options» press +, create a new preset.
A window will appear in which you need to set a name and perform necessary settings, then click Create.
The created preset will appear in the list.
After that, click on it and start processing the photo, when finished, right-click on the created preset again and select “ Update current settings ". To save a preset to your computer, right-click on it, select Export, and select the folder where you want to save it.
If you have any questions, you can write in the comments.
You can also read the article about, which you can download absolutely free.
In this article, I will not tell you which buttons to click to enable a filter in Lightroom or create an auto-collection. Instead, I'll talk about the most interesting things: the fields you can search through and the secrets that few people know about.
There are two ways to filter photos based on criteria in Lightroom: the filter panel and auto-collections.
The fundamental difference between them is that the filter acts locally, that is, it selects photos within current folder, collections or even auto-collections, and auto-collection selects photos from the entire catalog.
Filter settings and their status (on and off) are saved in Lightroom for each view, so be careful and don't be surprised when you come back to a folder and you don't see all the photos because you just forgot to turn the filter off.
Filter settings can be saved into a preset, but more on that in another series of articles about presets.
Using auto-collection, you can set a condition on large quantity fields and with more complex rules than using a filter, otherwise the operation of the auto-collection is similar to the filter in the “All photographs” display.
Properties that can be used to filter
Let's look at the most interesting fields by which you can filter photos (some of them are only available in auto collections).
Filter panel
Let's start with the filter panel. Everyone knows that it appears above photos in grid mode when the filter is turned on. But not everyone knows that even with the filter turned on, this panel can be hidden!
Chip! To hide the filter panel, press \ on your keyboard. But be careful, if you also hide the photo strip at the very bottom, then you will no longer have a single indicator that the filter is working!
The filter panel consists of three parts: a text search area, an attribute search area, and a metadata search area. If the first two are fixed in content, then the last one can be changed and everyone knows about it.
Chip! In the metadata filtering area, you can not only change which field a column is filtered by, but also add and remove columns!
Auto collections
I left the best part for the end. To be honest, I recently learned about this opportunity myself.
Imagine that you need to create a selection of photos that have not been uploaded to the Internet, but they either have a 3 star rating or a red color tag. The example is quite real, I have such a collection.
Since in one auto-collection you can specify that either all conditions are met simultaneously, or any of all, then before (I don’t even know until which version), I had to create two auto-collections, one with the condition for stars and “load” , another for marks and “load”. Both collections were put together in one set and it was the set that reflected the desired result.
But this is inconvenient, the set does not show the number of photos inside. It turns out Adobe heard our prayers and added the ability to create conditions like the one in the picture below.
A preset in Lightroom is a saved set of settings. They are used to speed up the photo processing process.
It is worth mentioning that presets can be created for other actions not related to processing. For example, to add copyright to your photographs.
You can make presets yourself or download them from many sites. We will talk about this in another article.
How to install presets in Lightroom
There are several ways:
1. Drag the preset file into the program.
The easiest way is to drag one or more preset files directly onto working window Lightroom. After this, they can be used immediately.
2. Import
Right-click in the Presets window of the Develop module and select Import. Select the preset file and it will be added.
3. Working with folders
This is the most convenient, but time-consuming way to organize your presets.
From the Edit (Win) or Lightroom (Mac) menu, choose Preferences.
Go to the Presets tab and click the Show Lightroom Presets Folder… button.
A folder with presets will open. Select Develop Presets, inside you will find User folder Presets, which contains the presets you added.
You can add new presets to this folder, as well as sort them into folders. In order for Lightroom to see new presets and folders, it needs to be restarted.
How to Remove a Preset from Lightroom
Here again there are 2 options.
- Right-click on the unwanted preset and select Delete. If you accidentally deleted the wrong preset, press Ctrl+Z (Win) or Cmd+Z (Mac), and the action will be cancelled.
- Go into the folders and delete everything through the file system.
Instructions
Download and save the file somewhere on your computer. the necessary filter. If it is packaged in an archive, extract all the files and find out their format. The extension by which Photoshop recognizes plugins is 8bf. If the saved file is in this particular format, you need to place it in a folder where graphics editor stores its plugins.
The easiest way to get to desired folder using the shortcut or menu item that you use to launch Photoshop. To do this, right-click an icon on your desktop or an item in the menu and select the bottom line in the context menu - “Properties”. The properties window will open on the “Shortcut” tab, where in the lower left corner you will find the “File Location” button - click it. As a result, a separate instance of Explorer will launch and open root folder, in which the graphic editor is installed.
Scroll the list of objects in this directory to the very beginning and expand the Plug-Ins folder - this is where additional filters are stored. Copy yours here too new plugin with extension 8bf. Photoshop scans this directory when it starts, so if currently the application is running, restart it and the new plugin will appear in the “Filter” section of the application menu.
If the filter was created not by an amateur, but by some company, it is likely that it will not be distributed in the 8bf format, but along with the installer. In this case, the file you save will have exe extension, and to install the plugin it will be enough to run it like any other executable file. Double-click the object and the installation wizard will begin. Installers can be different - some will determine the location of the desired folder without asking any questions and place the plugin file in it, others will work in dialog mode, requiring confirmation of their actions. In any case, when the process is complete, do not forget to restart the graphic editor before searching in it new filter.
Sources:
- Filters for Photoshop: let's make the life of a Photoshopper easier!
Except standard tools(styles, textures, vector shapes, brushes, filters) in Photoshop there are also non-standard ones made third party developers or Adobe itself. Despite the lack of official status, these tools allow you to significantly expand your creative possibilities. Finding them is not particularly difficult. Another question is how to install.
Instructions
Take it required file and place it in a folder in the following path: C:Program FilesAdobeAdobe PhotoshopPlug-InsFilters. However, this path will be if you used the default settings during the installation process. Otherwise, you need to remember where you installed the program. The next time you launch Photoshop, the filter (brush, texture) should appear in the list of filters (tools, textures). Please note that if the filter was open during installation, the filter will not appear, so you need Photoshop.
Or find the Adobe Photoshop folder, right-click on it, and click Find. In the search bar, enter the desired one - *8bf (extension of the filter you are going to
The Lightroom program includes two filters in its functionality - gradient and radial, which will be useful for changing the distribution of tone, light, shadows across image fragments. Let's look at an example of using filters in Lightroom.
Gradient filter in Lightroom
Our source code looks like this original appearance(saved in jpeg format for clarity, we will work with an image in raw format).
On the toolbar, as shown by the arrow, select “Gradient Filter” or by pressing the M key.
We will have guides that can be stretched, rotated, etc. with the mouse (instead of the cursor there will be a pen).
The upper left corner, as shown by the arrow, will be subject to correction. On the right, the green outline shows the parameters that have changed. In particular: they made the temperature more greenish; we shifted the exposure, which added brightness to the image; eliminated the lights.
When increasing the “Light” parameter, the following happens:
If you reduce the Exposure parameter as much as possible, you get the following:
When you increase the “Shadows” parameter and other parameters, as indicated in the figure, the image takes on the following appearance:
When the hue changes, the tonality of the image fragment changes. Why a fragment and not the whole image? Because we are working in the “Gradient Filter” mode.
We apply the changes made in the filter by clicking on the “Done” button under the work area.
Radial filter in Lightroom
We resort to the “Radial filter”. We set some changes in the area highlighted with a green stroke.
Click “Finish” again. If you don’t like any changes, you can cancel each action taken in the “Edit” - “Undo” tab.
Apply the “Gradient Filter” again and complement the changes with a small correction of tonality, highlights, and shadows.
Apply the filter by clicking “Finish”.
Let's use the Adjustment Brush tool.
Using the left mouse button, we place a mark on the image that will assign changes to a specific area of the image. We increase the “Exposure”, which will give a brightness effect and thanks to the brush it will be applied in the selected place.
We perform these manipulations with other flowers.
Using the parameters in the “Camera Calibration” section, you can adjust the individual image tone, in in this case it was green.
To give clarity and sharpness to the image, you need to use the “Clarity” parameter.
You can add sharpness, while eliminating noise or, on the contrary, enhancing it, if the task requires it. You can make the details of the image more expressive.
After processing, the image began to look like this:
P.S. for those who want to try processing in Lightroom program attached image
