Saving a development preset in Lightroom

In Lightroom you can work with presets. A preset can be a good starting point for your post processing. You can ofcourse buy them, but why not make them yourself? I'll show you how: 

I'll start with this picture and my aim is to turn the picture B/W. 

I started out with: My actions:

1. Adding some contrast
2. Bringing back the highlights
3. Opening the shadows

Then I found a good B/W point

Next is the profile correction and removing the chromatic aberration:

And then what's left is to change the image to B/W by clicking on B&W in the panel showed underneath

By dragging the sliders you can change the colors in your B/W image.

The most important global adjustments have been made now. If so desired, local adjustments can be made at this point. I used the radial and graduated filter. I didn't opt for the brush as a brush can't be saved in the preset. The image below is the result of the actions I described: 

As I'm aiming to create more pictures like this, I'm saving all my editing actions using a preset. To do so, all you need to do is opening the preset panel at the left site of the screen.

 

Now click on the + sign in the header of the panel. A new screen appears. Give your preset a name and check all the options that you want to have in your preset.

 

Click on Create to save your preset. In this case I saved it in the User Presets folder. Go to the folder and voila! There's your very own preset. 

To use your new preset, all you need to do is open another picture and use the preset to make it B/W.

Just go the preset folder and click on the preset you just created. The image is now B/W. If you want to edit some more on top of the preset, use local adjustments. Don't forget to check you radial and graduated filters and move them to correct spot in your image.

Have fun creating your own development presets! 

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