Sleeklens Presets Review

I was recently given the opportunity to test & review some handy Lightroom presets from the nice folks over at Sleeklens. If you use Lightroom much you are probably familiar with the usefulness of presets. Though it's nice to have handy one-click editing at your fingertips, I always consider presets to be a starting point and not a finishing point. This is where presets such as those offered by Sleeklens can come in handy.

How I Create & Edit Images

Before we delve into the before & afters, a quick primer on how I shoot & edit might be handy. I'm of the school of thought that getting the image right in the first place is the best starting point in making good images. Though the camera's sensor and human eye never see the same scene as it was. Digital images often need updated [edited] to do the scene justice as your eye saw it.

So when I do use presets they are 'primers' or 'starters' then I fine tune the image with Lightroom's individual controls as I go along. The nice thing about Sleeklens' offering is that it is built as a 'layered' system to editing in Lightroom that others don't accomplish. So there can be less 'right panel' editing and quicker 'left panel' edits to achieve a similar result. 

Not Just Another Preset

As I mentioned above, Sleeklens presets use a sort of building block or layering method. While their presets also come with 'all-in-one' clicks that you might be used to the stackable options are a different approach. I won't explain how that works in detail as they have put together a short video on exactly how it works, but you can see some examples I used below.

The other handy thing I really enjoyed using are the brush presets, which handily also function in the gradient tool. While you can always customize your brush settings to your heart's content having quick presets in the brush & gradient menu can speed up your workflow. 

Alright, enough chatter - let's get into some before & after images to see what these presets are all about.

Before/After #1 - This was an image from McWay Falls in Big Sur, California. The image on the left was SOOC from my Fuji X-T1 as a JPEG with a 10 second exposure. For this edit I decided to show what the all-in-one preset can do with no further touches. This was the Calm Sunset preset from the Through the Woods landscape collection. I really like the warm tones and clarity the preset gave the image.

Before/After #2 - This image is from Glacier National Park in Montana. Taken with my old Nikon D300 the original file was a RAW file (NEF) with good exposure. Though I thought it might look better as a black & white image with a few adjustments. So I used the layering/stacking method with the following presets in this order:  (1) Base - Monochrome Fantasy (2) Exposure - Less Highlights (5) Polish - Less Contrast (6) Vignette - Subtle Black.

Before/After #3 - The final image was taken from our balcony in Innsbruck, Austria while on holiday. Once again, the first image was well exposed from my Fuji X-T1 and another SOOC JPEG. I utilized the entire suite of options from the 'Through the Woods' landscape preset offering to include local brush adjustment presets. (1) Base - Cinematic (2) Exposure - Less Highlights (3) Color Correct - Reduce Yellows (4) Tone/Tint - Warm (5) Polish - Sharpen (6) Vignette - Subtle Black + Bright Shadows Adjustment Brush on the ballon and Darken Shadows Brush on the mountains. 

Conclusion - Presets Worth the Investment?

So in the end are presets like what Sleeklens offer worth your hard earned money? Absolutely, but with a few caveats you should consider.

Preset packages tend to come with lots of looks/options some of which are superfluous or overkill for some photographer's editing needs, this package included. With so much at your fingertips it is easy to over-edit your images or just get lost in the editing process. If you know your way around Lightroom and have your own style chances are flooding your presets menu with more options isn't for you.

That said, presets tend to help photographers develop their style, help work through editing mental blocks and can be useful in learning how to edit as you can see the changes that happen.

While presets can be a dime a dozen the Sleeklens offering is different enough in the building block/layering methodology to offer something unique. While I'll remove certain presets & brush/gradient options I'll definitely keep a lot of it around for future use. If you are in the market for presets I'd definitely give them a solid look. 

https://sleeklens.com/product-category/lightroom-presets/

https://sleeklens.com/lightroom-tutorials/

*disclaimer - I did receive the presets free in exchange for an honest review.

 

Azure Window

I was bummed to learn the Azure Window rock formation in Malta collapsed. We were lucky enough to visit the island of Gozo in 2007 to see it. The collapse was inevitable but thought it might stick around a little longer.

Reinforces the belief to not wait until tomorrow to experience new things and go see the world!

Store. Re-imagined.

I've been wanting a to create a better shopping experience for my valued customers for quite some time and I'm happy to announce that it is finally here. The primary purchasing experience is moving from Etsy to my own site to better reflect my work and give you the options you desire.

The streamlined store accepts Apple Pay, PayPal and of course credit cards to ease the purchasing experience. A secure and convenient checkout experience will ensure your prints will be on it's way in an efficient manner.

 

So here it is, the store re-imagined. Please click the 'prints' option on the main menu for more information on purchasing prints. I hope you enjoy my store and current offerings. 

The Passenger from Sudan

As an airline pilot I’ve had the opportunity to carry countless passengers to their work, vacations, families & homes. The makeup and sheer diversity of those passengers has always helped remind me of the larger world we all share. One morning several years ago one passenger in particular got my attention and her story suddenly has a bigger meaning that I felt I needed to share. 

The morning started out fairly routine, I stopped by my usual place in Chicago’s O’hare airport for a coffee then headed toward the gate to get ready to fly to Omaha, Nebraska to start a day of flying. Upon arriving at the gate I noticed a passenger that I would not have necessarily expected on a flight to Omaha. Sitting in a wheelchair was a woman that seemed anxious, exhausted, and frightened. She wore a very colorful but ragged dress & head scarf, had but a single shoe and quite literally looked as if she had been pulled straight from a remote village somewhere in Africa. In fact she actually had been as I would shortly learn.

She appeared to have no one else traveling with her and attending to her were two young volunteers from the O’hare Traveler’s Assistance program. One of which waved me over and asked me to step aside as I was the Captain on the flight and he wanted to ensure our crew was aware of her story. Or as much as they knew anyway.

Turns out this poor woman had just spent the night huddled in a staircase at O’hare’s airport. Alone & frightened an airport worker found her around 6am sobbing to the cold concrete. She didn’t speak a word of English and as best as the volunteers could tell, she had somehow missed her flight to Omaha the previous night and didn’t know what else to do. All she had with her was a plastic bag that contained her documents, contact info for her family and a letter in broken english stating where she was going along. Her boarding passes indicated she had connected through Frankfurt, Germany with a continuing ticket to Omaha. 

So all we knew is that this anxious and scared woman was trying to get to her family in Omaha and escaping the civil war that was happening in Sudan at the time. She was a refugee. 

Suddenly, I knew that I had to see her through all the way to her family in Omaha. The volunteers made certain her concerned family was notified of her being safe and was now on her way to Omaha. I thanked the volunteers for sticking to her side all morning and assured them we’d see her through to her family.

I head down the jet bridge to the aircraft and briefed my crew who were already preparing for the flight. My crew was blown away by the story and was instantly ready to assist. We boarded our new friend ahead of the other passengers and helped her get settled and comfortable. Finally a faint smile broke out on her face as she realized our caring crew was going to go her to her family. This was the final leg in what I can only imagine had been a long and arduous journey.

Once we landed in Omaha we didn’t have a lot of time on the ground before our return flight to Chicago as per standard operations but I was going to ensure she got to her family before we left. I left my crew to prep the plane for the return flight and walked along side our new friend who was beginning to realize her journey was complete. We shared a smile and then as we rounded the last corner toward the terminal exit her face finally lit up. Her family was there waiting, happy, excited, relieved. I stopped, watched for a moment as they embraced, wiped a growing tear from my eye and then headed back to my plane to continue our day.