Essentials, Part 2

“This then: to photograph a rock, have it look like a rock, but be more than a rock.” – Edward Weston

No false humility here. I’m a photographic dilettante, just a dabbler in my opinion. I take the easy superficial way more than I care to admit. These Blogs are evidence. “A little dabble do ya” is my play of words originated by an old hair product, Brylcreem, their commercial, and it fits. It also reveals the ancient culture that informs my skewed point of view. Brylcreem is making a comeback.

Anyway, are you ready to ramble? I have a goal, and this will circle around it like a whirlpool.

I left Essentials, Part 1 with this image:

I promised to let you know how I arrived at the image at the top of the post.

It is very simple, and lazy. I use Adobe Lightroom for most of my photographic editing now. I used the adult version of Photoshop 3 years ago. It was expensive and wasted capability on mr. So I settled on Photoshop Elements. It is all I need, but I love Lightroom.

To be quick, so I can move on, I made the photo at the top within Lightroom using a free “vintage” preset that was offered online. I have downloaded several from Viewbug, Sleeklens, Presetpro, and others.

They are easy to install. Most come in zip files and other Lr compatible formats. Just click on their download links. The open Lightroom. Go to the File menu and click on Import Profiles and Presets. Select the downloaded file and open. You’ll see a Presets ribbon under your Edit menu.

The other great thing about presets, if you cannot find one already built and online, you can build your own in Lightroom. This comes in very handy if you find yourself performing the same actions repeatedly. In fact, if you are a seasoned Photoshop user, you are probably familiar with Actions, which are merely a collection of recorded editing steps. You load an image and run your action to get repeatable results.

Organizing presets in Lightroom is a pain in the rear and backwards in thinking, in my opinion. There are plenty of links out there and you can Google them.

Why did I do it? Why did I make it look antique? I think it returns to the quote from Edward Weston; that is to have it look like a bouquet, but be more than a bouquet. To emote. To bring back a memory, or to guide a thought.

I did not branch off into another topic under Essentials, about composition and simplicity, and that is for next time.

Selah