Featured image is screencapture from video. All credit to PrettyPresets.
In the world we currently live in, everyone is using presets. But many of you out there have skipped over the essential piece of using any preset, or preset system, and that is modifying the looks to better fit your style. Just because presets can be one click doesn’t mean you should use them that way. Matte effects are popular in a lot of film’s looks these days and they may or may not be something you like. How can you adjust them on your own in Lightroom?
Well, the process is simple enough, and in this video, by Tina at Pretty Presets, she goes over how simple it is to adjust a matte look to fit what you are looking for. She is talking about this in reference to her own presets, but this still applies to any image you are hand-editing without a preset, or any other presets you may have bought.
As you can see, the process is about as simple as any other process in Lightroom. You simply grab the point in the bottom left corner of your curves panel and drag it up to intensify a matte or drag it bag down into the corner to eliminate a matte. There is no right way or wrong way to add a matte look to your image, it is all a matter of personal taste, so just grab your image and play with it until you find a spot with the matte look you like.
This is key for discovering your post-processing style preferences: play around with things until you find common themes in what you like. So don’t be a one click preset person (unless you have already perfected your look and modified you’re presets to work for you), tweak and experiment with your presets and make them your own.
You can learn more about Pretty Presets over on their website.
