Lightroom Preset: Old 35mm Film

Hamish — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 19:17:54 +0000

Right, apologies for the lack of preset last week folks, was away in Switzerland shooting the wedding of Joy and Tim (see previous posts!). So, without further-a-do here’s another preset for you to have a play with, I’ve tried to mimic an aged 35mm print look with this one – again it works well in some situations and not so well in others. I suggest adjusting the ‘Blacks’ slider first off to be sure it fits with your image. For the example I’ve chosen one from the recent wedding:
Before:

and After:

and now the download: old35mm lightroom preset

Lightroom Preset: Sailing!

Hamish — Thu, 28 May 2009 12:32:10 +0000

Well, given we’re going with the nautical theme at the moment here’s a preset that might be useful for other boaty types out there! Here Hannah White is leaving Plymouth on her yacht PureSolo…next stop Newport,RI, USA. Sa you can see its quite a punchy preset, I find it works best when in conjunction with a polariser filter. I have used it for portraits as well, might need a little tweeking to suit though.

Here is the before:

and the after:

and the download: sailing

Remember to “Save as…” (Mac users – cmd+click/PC users – right click)

The First: Lightroom Preset

Hamish — Fri, 22 May 2009 00:49:08 +0000

Shooting in raw format means you get the best quality from your images but when you shoot in raw you need to process the images later on your computer. So, in what I plan to become a regular event is the first Lightroom Preset post. This week’s is a black and white conversion of quite a contrasty form which I hope you’ll enjoy. But first a little intro… A digital camera has the capacity to shoot in ‘RAW’ format, that is to say the image saved onto the memory card has not been processed beyond the original capture information of of the camera settings: aperture, shutter speed and so on. The adjustments to correct the colours, white balance, fine tune the contrast and ensure a clean image are applied later with the use of computer software. Once happy these can then be ‘processed’ (much the same thinking as processing negatives to prints) instead creating electronic versions: jpegs, tiffs or any other image file you can think of. This ensures ALL the information at the time the image is made is retained, in short this means better quality images and prints.

Using Adobe Lightroom for Raw processing means, amoungst other things, I have at my disposal the ability to apply the settings I need to get the best from an image, furthermore I can save those settings to apply to any images I feel would suit that same kind of treatment, be it a black and white conversion, a crop or a simple touch-up in the saturation and colour vibrancy. I’m always creating presets, some are subtle and some are as subtle as a brick to the forehead but hopefully by providing some you’ll get the chance to use them. Some may work ‘out of the box’ when some may serve as good starting points and need further tweeking…

So, to kick things off is a simple one I use fairly regularly, dubbed ’300 Test’ due to the fact I was going for a look similar to that seen in the film 300…whilst I may be a little off the result works exceptionally well on days with little or no cloud, giving a high contrast and blue to black conversion. This is also quite interesting in some portrait situations though personally works best to tame a mid-summer’s day – not the usual habitat for a landscape photographer who usually gets up before dawn and hangs around waiting for sunsets…See for yourself, the before:

and after:

and now play with it yourself, right-click and choose ‘Save as’:

300-test

Leave a comment if this has been useful and the application you’ve used it in, or indeed if you think the preset could be improved upon…for which I will provide an update!

Light Over Water Photography » Knowledge

Lightroom Preset: Old 35mm Film

Lightroom Preset: Sailing!

The First: Lightroom Preset