To Preset or not to Preset…

Earlier this morning I was reading a thread on popular photo forum and noted that the OP stated the images were “VSCO-less”. A search of the forum did not return any further info on “VSCO”, so off to Google I went.

I located a site, http://visualsupply.co/, that has Film presets for both Lightroom and ACR. The interesting thing about these presets is that they start by modifying the camera raw file at the camera calibration level.

My normal process is to shoot raw using a custom white balance and then to apply a custom camera calibration utilizing the X-Rite passport color checker. This ensures that all the colors I have captured are rendered exactly as they should be and not just as close as the camera sensor/software can render.

Camera calibration is what intrigues me the most in the offerings from VSCO. One of the reasons we used to utilize different types of B&W and color films was to get a specific look. Starting the process of recreating a film look by having the sensor data mapped to output the desired look in a custom camera calibration profile , before finalizing it with the ACR settings, should make this a fantastic product.

There is more information regarding the supported bodies and film types here, Studio-01. There are two less complete versions of this product that cost less, but this one will support both Canon and Nikon bodies (listed on the site).

This page shows the other products, http://visualsupply.co/film/, but you can see the differences on the previous link.

If you have a client that wants a particular look, this may offer a way to do so quickly, with repeatability, particularly with files from a studio shoot where you know what you are starting off with. Apply a preset to all the files at once, either in ACR or Lightroom during import, and just review, crop and polish... perhaps saving lots of time off your current workflow.

A similar product, MCP Actions, is also available but I’m not sure of how similar or different it really is.  MCP Actions has a "free" preset available if you are interested in checking them out.

Ken

i7-920 now lives here!

The release of Lightroom 3 turned out to be  good timing.  I was assembling an i-7 920 processor based system to provide support for CS5 and now I get to migrate Lightroom 2.7 to  Lightroom 3 at the same time.  I have already installed the trial versions for both programs and will license them both before the 30 day trial period ends. Already loaded EDD Pro, thanks to Sergio and Jerry previously learning that a 64-bit Sentinel driver is available for the usb dongle (anti-piracy).

I still need to load Lumapix Fotofusion, Photomatix, neat image, Qimage, Epson 7900 drivers, Intuous 3 Wacom tablet drivers and take a look at the mogrify plug-in (for Lightroom) by Timothy Armes, but with the changes and additions that have been made to Lightroom  3, it’s highly unlikely that I will need to “mogrify” my files when converting to jpeg.

I'm having to reconfigure my KVM a bit. I need another DVI to VGA adaptor for the old system so I can run both the old and the new as switch between them as necessary.  I also discovered that either I have a faulty ps/2 to usb adaptor or the motherboard is sensitive to such things.

One item I overlooked is whether or not there is a 64-bit driver available for my color calibration equipment.  I’m hoping it is, as I’d prefer not to be in the market for  new color calibration software and equipment.
I’ll share more, including pics as I have the time to direct my attention along those lines.