My New Photography Portfolio

A few weeks ago I made the leap from maintaining a local photography workflow to a fully cloud-based workflow using Adobe Creative Cloud. As part of this, I uploaded all my 26k archived photos to Creative Cloud and migrated my Lightroom catalog to Adobe’s cloud-based organization system. I was a bit worried the new system might not work well with my shoot-edit-publish workflow, but everything went smoothly, and so far the cloud platform appears to be faster and more intuitive. The AI-based search functionality is amazing, and it also seamlessly integrates all of my iPhone photos with my DSLR shoots, which was a major pain point previously. There are still a few features from Lightroom Classic that have not made

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Lightroom 5 Preset: Highland

It’s been over a year since I’ve added a new Lightroom 5 Preset. I’ve actually got quite a few new ones in the works, and over the next few months will plan to post them. Here’s my thirteenth preset: Highland. It’s a vintage looking filter, with nice oranges, reds, and browns. I’ve found that it’s often helpful to adjust highlights and exposure after using it. Below are some examples. Hope you enjoy, and thanks for all the support. A highland cow, which inspired the preset: An old Porsche that was parked outside my brother’s Vancouver apartment when I visited: A couple Mariachi’s waiting for the bus in Meixco City: And a few produce traders in New Delhi: Here’s the download: Lightroom 5 Preset: Highland

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Happy New Year — Some Year End Website Stats

Happy near year! Thanks to all my followers for continuing to support this site. While my written posts definitely declined in 2013 — in part due to a more intense schedule — I began providing Adobe Lightroom Preset downloads which drove quite a bit of traffic growth last year. I spent a little time today analyzing the data, looking at which presets were downloaded when, and came up with a few visuals to share. In total, there were over 44k free downloads of my presets in just over a year (this doesn’t count the subset of paid downloads). Here’s a high level interactive view across all the presets: Learn About Tableau Speakeasy, Behind the Scenes, and Bright Eyes were clearly

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Lightroom 5 Preset: Iceberg

Here’s my twelfth Lightroom 5 Preset, Iceberg. I created this one when editing shots from Jökulsárlón in Iceland. It looks great on cold icy landscapes, with a low clarity setting making bright objects glow a bit. Here are some examples: Here’s the download: Lightroom 5 Preset: Iceberg To install it in Lightroom, simply right click any preset, select import, and then select the downloaded preset file.

Lightroom 5 Preset: Wild West

Here’s my eleventh free Lightroom 5 preset, Wild West. I’d put it in the vintage photo category — it adds subtle sephia overtones and dulls the saturation. It seems to work best when there’s a subject in the foreground. It’s great for shots of people as well. Here are some examples: Here’s the download: Lightroom 5 Preset: Wild West To install it in Lightroom, simply right click any preset, select import, and then select the downloaded preset file.

Lightroom 5 Preset: Black & Blue

Here’s my tenth free Lightroom 5 preset, Black & Blue. I stumbled into it by accident when playing around with some shots from Iceland. It’s essentially a grainy black and white filter that keeps and enhances blues.  To me, it has a surreal, cold, stark feel. Here are some examples: Here’s the download: Lightroom 5 Preset: Black & Blue To install it in Lightroom, simply right click any preset, select import, and then select the downloaded preset file.

Lightroom 5 Preset: Etched

Here’s my ninth free Lightroom 5 Preset: Etched. It’s a bold black and white filter with strong contrast and high clarity. This one’s fairly self-explanatory: Here’s the download: Lightroom 5 Preset: Etched To install it in Lightroom, simply right click any preset, select import, and then select the downloaded preset file.

Lightroom 5 Preset: China Red

Here’s my eighth free Lightroom 5 preset, China Red. It isolates red in a photo while increasing the contrast to create a somewhat dramatic and focused effect. I’ve actually decided to post two versions — the first isolates red while allowing some orange tones to come through, while the second is identical except that it exclusively isolates red. In situations where there are people in a photo or when you might want to preserve the color in wood, the first is preferable. The second is great when you essentially want a black and white photo with just the red coming through. I originally developed the set after a trip to China with MIT in 2011, and have since used it in many situations. It’s the type

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Lightroom 5 Preset: Behind the Scenes

It’s been a while, but here’s my seventh free Lightroom 5 preset, Behind the Scenes. I’ve gotten lots of positive feedback on the first six, so thanks to everyone who’s given my presets a try. This one is actually quite similar to Speakeasy, but it brings out quite a bit more detail in the shadows, which is great for wildlife shots. Here’s my first example, a bird landing in the water: Some monkeys doing monkey things: And a tree in Boston’s esplanade: Here’s the download: Lightroom 5 Preset: Behind the Scenes To install it in Lightroom, simply right click any preset, select import, and then select the downloaded preset file.

Lightroom 5 Preset: Speakeasy

Here’s my sixth free Lightroom 5 preset, Speakeasy. This one adds some slight enhancement, mostly sharpening, contrast, and vibrance, without changing the overall look and feel of the photo. It’s quite versatile, and I use it on a wide range of photos, usually when I’m not looking to get too creative, but want to remove haze and liven up a shot a bit. One thing I often tweak after using the preset is the exposure, especially if I want to get more contrast in a shot with some sky. Here’s the first example of the preset, a boulder on Mt. Cardigan: A dog on a street: A parrot up close: And a beach landscape taken in Puerto Viejo: Here’s the download:

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