Since the introduction 5 years ago, the Lightroom Rapid Editing for Landscapes was the most popular preset collection on PhotoTraces.com. And I knew that it was the main priority to update the Landscape Collection with the new structure and latest functional advancements.
If you are new to Lightroom Rapid Editing, I encourage you to watch tutorial below:
If you are familiar with Lightroom Rapid Editing, let me show you 5 main components of the new LANDSCAPES Preset Collection.
1. Style Presets Collection
The Style presets are the cornerstone of the Lightroom Rapid Editing workflow.
The Style Presets define the “look” and the style of the photographs. For example: cool or warm, cross-processed or natural, contrasted, or soft.
New Structure and Functionality
In the new Landscapes Preset Collection, I drastically changed the structure and the functionality of the Style presets.
Now, the collection includes 4 generic presets.
/// RESET ALL///
The preset allows you to revert the image to the original, unedited state without impacting the Crop Overlay tool edits and Exposure.
Auto Adjust AI
The Auto Adjust AI preset takes advantage of Lightroom’s artificial intelligence and machine learning, which becomes more effective with every update.
When you apply the preset, the program evaluates the selected image and applies a series of edits from the Basic Panel.
I often use Auto Adjust AI preset to adjust the image’s exposure before starting the editing process. It gets it right in 90% of cases.
First, I apply Auto Adjust AI and next, I click RESET ALL preset.
Another use of Auto Adjust AI is to apply it to images during the import process.
White Balance ON and OFF Switch
It is another automated tool that tries to evaluate the image and set the appropriate White Balance.
It is less effective than Auto Adjust AI.
Style Presets Structure
The significant change in the Travel Pro Kit is that now every Style Preset has its structure. On top, you can see the Style preset that has a standard functionality.
Next, you can find 4 presets variations with the enhanced functionality.
When you apply any of the enhanced presets to an image, you have an additional adjustment found under the Basic Panel.
You can move the slider to increase or reduce the effect of the Creative Profile that is associated with the selected preset.
2. PLUS Preset Collections
One of the biggest limitations in Lightroom is the lack of an Opacity functionality, which is a function found in most editing programs including Photoshop.
For example, if you apply one of my presets to a photo and see that the effect it produces is too strong, you cannot simply dial it down using one slider. Instead, you have to dig deep into Lightroom’s editing tools and change a gazillion different sliders.
To overcome this unnecessary complexity, I came up with a hack.
The hack is very simple. For each preset, I created six additional versions that reduced the strength of editing effects by 10% for each variation.
I call this addition—Lightroom Rapid Editing PLUS.
With the combination of Lightroom Rapid Editing and Lightroom Rapid Editing PLUS, you can create hundreds of variations of the same photo without using any of Lightroom’s editing tools.
New Functionality
Photographers who are familiar with my Lightroom Rapid Editing PLUS workflow will notice the addition of 125% and 150% versions of the presets. The idea here is to make presets to behave more like filters. Now each preset in PLUS collectins has the functionality not only to reduce the editing effects but to amplify them as well.
3. TOOLKIT – Adjustment Presets
The TOOLKIT is the collection of adjustment presets that allow fine-tuning of a photo without altering the style or creating any specific look. The adjustment presets help you to customize the look produced by STYLE presets.
New Functionality
The structure of the TOOLKIT was not changed, but I added new adjustments:
- presets 41-47 (Midtone Contrast) allows you to increase contrast in the photo without affecting the highlights and the shadows. I find that the Midtone Contrasts presets are more effective than traditional Contrast and Clarity.
- presets 48-55 let you change the White Balance.
For example, when editing photos I took during Golden Hour, I often apply the Cloudy or Shade adjustments. The goal is not to fix the White Balance but to make the scene even warmer.
Plus, you have ON and OFF switch to control the Lens Correction.
4. TOOLKIT for Landscapes (New)
The TOOLKIT for Landscapes is the latest addition to the Lightroom Rapid Editing workflow.
The goal of the toolkit is to provide additional selective editing controls when processing landscape photos.
The standard TOOLKIT allows you to apply a series of adjustments (Exposure, Saturation, Clarity, Contrast…) to an entire image. But in the case of TOOLKIT for Landscapes, it gives you the ability to target different areas of Landscape separately.
Sky
Adjustment presets 01-21 are designed to target areas of the sky (blue and aqua tones). You can adjust Brightness, Saturation, and Color Shift.
Vegetation / Plants
Adjustment presets 26-44 will help you to target vegetation in your landscapes (green and yellow tones). You can change Brightness, Saturation, and Color Shift.
Ground
And if your landscape photo has areas not covered by vegetation (deserts, mountains, canyons) you can use adjustment presets 45-58 to change their properties (Brightness, Saturation, and Color Shift).
Please check my dedicated case study, where I demonstrate how to use the TOOLKIT for Landscapes: TOOLKIT for Landscapes Workflow
5. Enhanced Demo RAW Images
The Landscapes Preset Collection comes with Enhanced Demo Images in RAW format with prerecorded editing steps.
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When you import them into Lightroom, you can access the editing steps I used in the case studies through the Snapshots Panel of Lightroom’s Develop Module.
You can click through each entry to reverse engineer every step to see which editing sliders and tools were used at each point in the process.