Hi all. Having moved up to the mu43 format from P&S in recent months I've also in the last week begun shooting RAW, and having received LR3, I'm starting to post process some of my images. A fairly typical natural progression that I'm sure many if not all of you have been through. To help me along my way I have purchased the Scott Kelby LR3 book...quirks aside it seems a solid first choice. Before I get the book though, I have a question I hope someone might be able to answer. Is there a way to 'dilute' an effect ? For example, I really like some of the presets available but have found that although the preset may be really cool I would in some cases like to apply the preset (or any other change/effect) and then dilute it's net effect on the image so as to find a sweet spot or middle ground between it and the initial image. Photoshop has 'opacity' functions or even the 'fade' edit that achieves that....does LR have something similar ? Many thanks.
No it doesn't at present. You will need to adjust the individual sliders until you get the result you're looking for.
.... yeah, this is the reason I won't use Nik plugins for LR - can't adjust the effect/opacity as in Photoshop or brush them in....
Cheers thanks. Now I can stop looking for a button/slider that doesn't exist. A shame really, the opacity/fade slider is incredibly useful. So i guess it'll be a case of tweaking and adjusting individual elements until I find the desired outcome. I have the Nik complete collection on it's way in the mail....by the sounds it too does not offer opacity sliders for it's presets....are Nik presets exportable to Photoshop where opacity of preset can be adjusted ?
I also use LR3 and I have found that like you many times I like a preset but not the whole effect, so I play with the sliders to soften the effect, for example move the clarity to make it more or less sharp, increase or decrease exposure, lower the blacks to make it less dark etc. So in my words that will be my version of diluting the preset.
I'd be curious to experiment and see if it is possible to overlay in photoshop the original image with the altered image that has had a preset effect applied, then use the Photoshop opacity controls to find a suitable balance between the two. I imagine that approach may work in some but not all situations depending upon how different the 2 are. Ultimately though, it will take time and a lot of tinkering to find the subtlety I hope to achieve, as I said, I really like some of the lightroom presets...I'd just like to take the 'edge' off them a little.
