Sin City

I purchased Lightroom 4 at the beginning of the month as an upgrade to the free photo editing program I had been using. I am still trying to learn how to us it effectively. I did, however, find a lot of free downloadable presets that I can use with it. The different presets look different on different pictures. And some days, I like one preset a lot, and don't like it at all on others.

Today, I was really liking the Sin City preset I downloaded, and used it on a whole grouping of photos from our play day out at the park earlier. We have sun today instead of rain, which is pretty awesome.

The dogs were enjoying a chance to run around in the sun, no coats on and no icky wet rain falling from the sky. And there were a ton of other people out, both with and without dogs, so that park was a busy place in the afternoon.

I actually ended up skipping going to the DMV (I shouldn't have, because now I need to go on Monday before end of day). But the sun was out and the dogs were having such a good time.

So, if you do a lot of photos (for your blog or otherwise), what editing program do you use? If you use Lightroom, have you tried presets? Do you pay for them, or just find free ones? What do you think of this preset that I used to edit all these pictures?

For those who aren't familiar with Lightroom, presets are basically the same as Actions are in Photoshop. Basically, it takes a series of settings or editing moves that you make to a picture and saves them all in one place. All you have to do to apply it to a new photo is click on the action. So, these are all very literally one step edits. Sometimes I need to adjust the exposure or tint or something a little bit after applying the preset, but still, it takes only a few seconds to edit each photo.

This particular preset basically mimics the style of the movie Sin City. Overall, it makes the picture mostly black and white, but leaves in the reds. But, it isn't like color selection, because red tones are left in the entire photo, and are muted depending on what shade of red they were to begin with.

This picture below shows what the preset does really well. The dog is naturally white with a few tan spots on him. He was wearing a bright red bandanna  The edited photo is mostly black and white, but keeps the red tones in the human's hand, the red bandanna, and a tiny hint of red in the tan ears of the dog.

And, I promise, no matter what it looks like in the photos, my dogs were having a ton of fun, and were playing the entire time. Pallo may sometimes look like he is being beat up on, but in reality, he goads other dogs into playing with him by doing his bouncy ferret dance in their face and then taking off running to be chased. It is adorable.

So, that is the series of photos from the park today. What do you think? Like the edits? Prefer them in full color?

Oh, and don't forget to answer my poll of what to name my new adorable kitten!

Which Name Should I Give My Cat?

Brian ("Life of Brian")

Theo (Theodore)

Shorty

Tiny Tim

Harley

Sammi (Sam/Samuel)

Danny DeVito

Malachi

Oz (Wizard of Oz)

Franko

Stretch

Kibble

Cheeto

Froto

Warwick Davis

Bartleby

Shaquille O'Neal

Zacchaeus

Bao Xishun (Or perhaps Meow Xishun)

Trex

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Brian ("Life of Brian")0%

Theo (Theodore)0%

Shorty0%

Tiny Tim0%

Harley0%

Sammi (Sam/Samuel)0%

Danny DeVito0%

Malachi0%

Oz (Wizard of Oz)0%

Franko0%

Stretch0%

Kibble0%

Cheeto0%

Froto0%

Warwick Davis0%

Bartleby0%

Shaquille O'Neal0%

Zacchaeus0%

Bao Xishun (Or perhaps Meow Xishun)0%

Trex0%

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