Develop presets are Lightroom’s cookbooks, and can often send your images in directions you might not have otherwise considered. Presets can introduce new possibilities, or can help you to achieve your desired results more quickly. As with any recipe, some finessing and/or embellishment may be necessary to enhance your images’ palatability. And as with culinary cookbooks, preset collections can vary in quality.

Some of the best collections I’ve yet found are those created by Brandon Oelling and Michael Gray at X-Equals.com, Creative Production Presets Vol. 1 and Cold Storage Film Presets Vol. 1. Eschewing cheeseball digital effects, these sets strive to emulate darkroom processes and film types within Lightroom’s Develop module. For photographers hailing from the days of film, these collections enable Lightroom with digital renditions of familiar processes. For photographers without such nostalgic inclinations, the presets simply provide new creative possibilities. In either case, the X-Equals presets are well worth checking out.

Creative Production Presets Vol. 1

Creative Production Presets Vol. 1 includes four groups of presets: Film Emulations, Creative Holga Emulations, Creative Presets and the Monochrome Toolkit.

The collection’s extensive list of standard Film Emulations include a variety of color and black and white film types from Agfa, Fuji and Kodak. Three presets are included for each of thirteen film stocks, allowing you to choose the preset that best suits your image. Emulating the way that different film stocks interpret light intensity and color saturation, the presets make it an easy task to increase the impact of your RAW images.

X-equals + LIDF - Fuji 160S Curve

Using the Fuji 160S Curve preset with a few extra adjustments, I was able to process the above image in only three steps, breathing life into a relatively flat RAW image.

Another subset of film emulations, the Creative Holga Emulations, strive to imitate the look of the Holga, an inexpensive, medium format 120 film toy camera with a large cult following. The camera is known for its low-fidelity aesthetic. These presets allow you to quickly and easily achieve the Holga’s stylized look for your images.

X-equals + LIDF - Holga Base

As you can see in the example above, I was able to go from RAW to a finished, processed image in very few steps using the Holga Base preset. In all, there are seven Holga presets emulating a Holga loaded with various 120 film types, both color and black & white.

The Creative Presets are intended to be used as a launchpad for your own ideas, and allow you to quickly and easily try different looks on your images. The fourteen creative presets here seem to be a natural extension of the creative presets already included with Lightroom (Direct Positive, Aged Photo, Cyanotype, etc.) and add a lot of variety to your toolkit. Depending on your target image, many of the presets may seem hit or miss, and the Creative Presets will probably not be as widely applicable as the Film Emulations. But as the first step in your creative process, the presets can often be used to push you in new directions you might not have otherwise considered.

Various Creative Presets

The Monochrome Toolkit takes a unique tool-based, darkroom-inspired approach to the creation of black and white conversion. The toolkit includes 27 presets categorically divided into groups of tools, including films, filters, papers, a printing technique and toners. Each preset makes a relatively small adjustment to the image, the intent being that multiple presets from the toolkit should be used in unison to produce the final image.

Creator Michael Gray has written an in-depth tutorial on how to use the Monochrome Toolkit. The basic workflow goes like this:

1. Select a film stock or filter preset for film simulation. These presets dictate the response of the initial black & white conversion.
2. Select a paper or print simulation. Paper selection affects both Contrast and Clarity (sharpness) of the image.
3. Select a toning preset. Using Lightroom’s Split Toning controls, adds a splash of traditional color to your monochrome images.

In the below image of singer/songwriter Glen Phillips, my conversion is probably more subtle one step to the next than can be discerned on the web, but each of the four panels stacks an additional preset onto the processing.

Original Color + Ortho Pan Film + Paper VC-4 + Toning Palladium

The resulting image was easy to make, and made with much finer control than is afforded by Lightroom’s creative B&W presets.

Overall, Creative Production Presets Vol. 1 brings a flexible and powerful set of tools to Lightroom’s Develop module, opening a number of creative possibilities and directions in the process. Full product details and purchase options are available on X-Equals; the presets sell for $14.99 on their own, or can be purchased for $19.99 bundled with the Cold Storage Film Presets Vol. 1 collection, discussed below.

Cold Storage Film Presets Vol. 1

Cold Storage Film Presets Vol. 1 is an expansive collection of film emulations created by Michael W. Gray from LifeInDigitalFilm, and distributed via X-Equals. The collection includes 46 presets for both Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw, emulating various film stocks from Adox, Agfa, Fuji, Ilford, Kodak, Konica and Polaroid. Again, each film stock is represented by three presets, ensuring a good fit for almost any image.

The collection includes an almost overwhelming array of options, including both color and B&W film stocks, some subtle and others profound. And because these are film emulations, and not left-field color conversions, the presets are entirely viable for nearly any image you might pitch them at. With a good film stock base, acceptable images can be realized in only a few steps, while those wishing to take things further may certainly go to town with their adjustments. The best way to show off the presets, is to apply them. Here’s the RAW starting image:

RAW Image

And here are some variations developed using the Cold Storage Film Presets as a starting point:

Kodak Portra 160 NC Curve

Polaroid 669 Warm Curve

Kodak Gold 100

Konica IR Curve

And here is another set of images, so that the effects of the presets can be seen on a studio lit portrait; in this case, a self portrait. The first image is the adjusted, retouched TIF having completed a round-trip from Lightroom to Photoshop and back to Lightroom; essentially a finished image.

Adjusted, retouched TIF from Photoshop

And with the image already “finished” with processing, I’m now applying the Cold Storage Film Presets as a final effect, with no further adjustments made.

Kodak Kodachrome 64 Curve

Kodak Kodachrome 25 Curve

Fuji Velvia 100F Curve

Fuji Provia 100F-X-Pro Curve

Agfa APX Curve

Adox CHS 100 Curve

Cold Storage Film Presets Vol. 1 is an excellent and useful collection of film simulations comprising a variety of effects that don’t overpower your image, but help to open new avenues for processing. Whether being used creatively, or simply to save time, the Cold Storage Film simulations are an excellent place to begin your creative process; in other cases, they can also become the penultimate twist on a finished image, casting an image in a somewhat different light.

The standalone collection sells for $9.99, or can be purchased bundled with the Creative Production Presets Vol. 1 collection for $19.99.

Coda

Oelling and Gray describe their presets as being part of a “Preset Platform“, a family of preset products to be used as a part of your photographic workflow to provide creative inspiration, enhanced productivity and a superior end result. In my time experimenting with Creative Production and Cold Storage Film preset collections, I’ve found those expectations to be accurate. Much more than one-trick presets, these collections are brimming with possibility and comprise the largest collection of widely applicable presets I’ve yet encountered.

For old-school photographers looking to preserve the look of their favorite films and processes in the digital age, these presets may be just the ticket. For new-school photographers wanting nothing more than creative inspiration, these presets do that too. The highest compliment I can pay is to keep on using them, and I intend to do just that.