Are presets in the Develop Module Cumulative?

[allergyking]

I mean when I click on one, and then change my mind and click on another one, is the preset at the top of the list in history affected by the one(s) below it?

 

[Brad Snyder]

Yes and no.

A develop preset is just a mechanized way of setting the sliders, etc. in the Develop Module. As you've no doubt noticed, you can set many sliders, or just a few, or only one.
Each slider setting is recorded as an absolute setting, that is, it's an actual slider position, as opposed to a relative adjustment, which would be a positive or negative change in the existing setting. When creating/saving a preset, you can choose the settings you want included in the preset, and conversely, those you'd like ignored.

So, when presets are applied in sequence, all of the sliders which are addressed by the first preset are adjusted, the remainder are left as-is. The second preset likewise addresses some of the sliders, and leaves the others alone, and so on.

So is it cumulative? Not exactly, they aren't 'additive', but each succeeding preset can affect settings made by earlier presets.

You may want to look at the structure of a develop preset file; you can snoop that with any text file editor. It's really just a formatted text recipe of slider settings. That should give you a pretty good understanding of what's happening.

 

[allergyking]

Very well written answer, thank you very much, I understand now.