Free Lightroom Preset: Waves Preset



Waves Before



This image is fairly flat and lacks that needed punch to make it something worth looking at. So while on vacation, at the coast of all places, I worked on a preset that generated the look that I was going for to make those waves pop. Take a look at the larger version (click on the image on the left) to see what I mean by this photo not having any pop.



Waves After Preset

The image above is the result after the preset is applied. I accomplished this look by making changes to the following setting in Lightroom; grain frequency 50, grain size 25, Recovery 66, Green Luminance 100, Noise Reduction Detail 50, Luminance Smoothing 18, Tone Curve settings (darks -12, Highlights Split 75, Lights 22, Shadows Split 25) and Vibrance 33. Because of the grain settings of this preset, it is specifically for Lightroom 3. 

Download Here

To install the preset, copy the file in the zip (xxx.lrtemplate) to your Develop Presets folder on your computer. If you don't know where to find this folder, open Lightroom. Click on Edit menu and select Preferences. Click on the Presets tab and click the Show Lightroom Presets Folder... button.

Different Worlds

This shot is about detail. The type of detail you can only get with HDR. I shot two HDR series using this scene and processed each seperately because I wanted two different photos from this beautiful scene. See if you can tell the difference between the two. I promise... it is exactly the beach and view shoit with the same camera, lens and focal length; just a few minutes apart at a slightly different angles. I also neither added or removed elements from either of the shots, in case you were wondering.