How to apply presets RELATIVE to you pictures? (exposure)

[Darian]

How do you apply a preset relative to your pictures?

Some presets for changing your picture's look also change the exposure. That's fine if your pictures are exposed correctly.

But in case you had to adjust the exposure on some of your shots, some presets will fail to give you that special look (as they tweak the exposure as well).

For example:
Your shot is underexposed so you change the exposure to +1,5'. The preset you want to apply has a pre-set exposure value of -',5'. How do you apply the preset to lower the exposure _by_ -',5' instead of _to_ -',5'?

Thanks.

 

[clee01l]

In my book (Which I need to write), your scenario is not a candidate for a preset. LR does not do "relative" just absolute. I use preset to get me close. By running my mouse over the Develop Preset list in the Presets Panel, I choose which one looks best in the Navigator thumbnail. Then I will tweak the filters and adjust things like exposure up or down. If I have a series of photos taken in one session and have the same characteristics, I will fix one to my satisfaction and use the [Copy] button to copy those settings to the rest.

I am unclear as to where your 'example' take place. Are these in camera settings? Or are these prior LR asdjustments? Or are thet development presets made on import? If they are the latter, then you might want to do what I do and Import RAW images with No development presets. That way you begin with a clean slate. If these are in camera adjustments at the time the photo was taken, LR treat these as the 'zero' starting plint and all filters like exposure take their "Zero' point from this and a -'.5 Exposure value would be relative to the +1.5' setting in the camera.

 

[Darian]

Thanks for your reply.

Right, if you are working under rather controlled conditions you won't have any problems. In this case your photos should all be exposed correctly.

Regarding my example:
A photo I've taken is siginficantly underexposed (the RAW file). To correct this, in LR I push the exposure to +1,5'.
The preset I want to apply has some settings for exposure, contrast, saturation, etc. If the preset's exposure value is -',5', this particular preset will change my exposure correction in LR from +1,5' to -',5'.

The only way I know to apply _relative_ adjustments, is to export the photos as TIFF files and apply to preset on these TIFFs after importing them again.

 

[johnbeardy]

Quick Develop adjustments are relative.

 

[Denis Pagé]

While Presets ARE absolute, "develop" adjustments made FROM Library in Quick Develop are relative. In Develop module, you may be interested to first use Menu -> Settings -> Match Total Exposures.

 

[Brad Snyder]

In a simple enough case, you can make those adjustments in the Library Quick Develop panel, where the adjustments are, in fact, *relative*. Multi-select the images you want to change in Grid View, and by clicking the QD +/- buttons, they will be adjusted equally and relatively to their current setting. The main issue is the coarseness of the button operation. I know that Exposure is adjusted +/- 1/3 stop, and 1 full stop for each 'small' (< &gt or 'large' ( << >&gt button click respectively. The other adjustments behave similarly, but I don't know the numeric amounts of the top of head.

Not exactly what you want, but part of the way there.

Relative adjustments via preset, have been oft requested, you can add your vote via Adobe's official feature request, linked at the top of the thread.

For exposure, there's an additional consideration. Consider a number of photos, of a similar subject, in similar lighting, with the same Exposure Value in camera, but with some experimentation with aperture/shutter/ISO, to affect lighting, or perhaps motion blur and DOF. There is a function, under the Develop > Settings pulldown, called 'Match Total Exposure', whose intent is to find the Exposure Value 'sum' of the 3 in camera settings, roll-in the Lr Exposure slider adjustment from the Develop panel from a correctly adjusted source image, and apply an intelligent EV compensated adjustment to multiple target images. It's frequently misused to try to compensate something like a daylight time-lapse series, but the the intent is adjust a series shot under the same light, but with EV changes intended for effect or bracketing.

 

[clee01l]

[quote author=Darian link=topic=8891.msg59717#msg59717 date=1263234688]Regarding my example:
A photo I've taken is siginficantly underexposed (the RAW file). To correct this, in LR I push the exposure to +1,5'.
The preset I want to apply has some settings for exposure, contrast, saturation, etc. If the preset's exposure value is -',5', this particular preset will change my exposure correction in LR from +1,5' to -',5'.[/quote]I think you need to reverse yourt Develop workflow process. I only apply one preset to a photo or only one after applying a "General Zeroed" preset if the image was imported with a develop preset which occured mistakenly in my earlier work. My RAW image begins the development as a flat toneless image. From that toneless image, I select a preset that approximates a finished photo. then I might apply individual filters to tweak exposure noise, HSL etc. Since presets are absolute, you want to apply them first.
I have presets with names like " Rescue overly Dark Photo", "Abby Color Correction", "Tone Curve" and "SOOC" (which is an approximation of the JPEG out of the camera Processing)

 

[Darian]

@johnbeardy
Yes, Quick Develop adjustments are relative. When applying a preset that will change the exposure to a specific value, your relative adjustments will be overwritten.

@Denis Pagé
"Develop" adjustments made from the Develop module are relative as, aren't they? (At least for the eposure when dragging the histrogram to the left/right)

@Brad Snyder
Thank you. I just sent my feature request to Adobe.

@clee'1l
I have pre-configured presets to get a specific look with correctly exposed photos.
If some photo's exposure had to be corrected in LR I need to apply my presets from the current exposure. Otherwise I have to re-adjust all under- and/or overexposed photos



A workaround I used once to retain the photos' full quality was to export them as TIFFs and re-import them afterwards. Now, LR assumed all photos to have an exposure of +/-','' (as well as contrast, saturation, etc.).

Converting every image as a TIFF is not a solution. Basically LR (3?) needs to duplicate a photo's catalog entry as a "smart virtual copy", so LR handles it as an unprocessed picture.

 

[Sean McCormack]

You are missing some concepts here.

Every setting in Develop is absolute. You change from one fixed value to another. If you copy the setting to another file, the numerical values will be identical.

Relative settings from Quick Develop add or subtract from the current value, for all images selected.

My advice? Don't include Exposure in your preset when you save it.
Base exposure and colour correction shouldn't be part of a Preset that creates a look. The look should be based on a file that has correct colour and exposure, giving a known start point.

 

[Darian]

[quote author=Sean McCormack link=topic=8891.msg59767#msg59767 date=1263258474]
My advice? Don't include Exposure in your preset when you save it.
Base exposure and colour correction shouldn't be part of a Preset that creates a look. The look should be based on a file that has correct colour and exposure, giving a known start point.
[/quote]
In order to prevent some presets from deleting my adjusted exposures I will - for now - remove the exposure values from them. Afterwards I will adjust the exposure in Quick Develop the get near the preset's intended exposure.

I see you point of not including exposure in presets. But in order to get a dark or washed out look you have to save exposure values in them.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

[quote author=Darian link=topic=8891.msg59791#msg59791 date=12633''46']
I see you point of not including exposure in presets. But in order to get a dark or washed out look you have to save exposure values in them.
[/quote]

Or you could use a tone curve to apply the dark/washed out look, and decide not to use the tone curve as part of your normal adjustments, keeping the 2 functions separate.