ON LIGHTROOM RECENT UPDATE: NEW CAMERA PROFILES AND HOW IT CHANGES OUR PRESETS

NEW CAMERA PROFILES AND HOW IT CHANGES PRESETS // As I'm sitting in a perfectly lit coffee shop and hoping to do some emails (my latest ritual that keeps me out of the house in the offseason) I saw the news that Adobe is updating their camera profiles in Lightroom (here's the news and some details) and I had to do some testing right away.

As a preset creator and well known editing freak I was excited to try what's this update all about and how it affects my workflow and presets. Se here's some quick testing.

The biggest change is that now we have more camera profiles to choose from instead of just one default one (Adobe Standard). It's also important to mention that profile is not a preset! All presets are built on some sort of profile, most of them use Adobe Standard, some have their own (like VSCO).

Here are some visual differences between old Adobe Standard and new Adobe Color (new default). Even though it's pretty subtle, I can see some increased contrast and better warm tones. All photos edited with same preset (LKO Signature).

All the other profiles are interesting. Adobe Vivid adds a nice punch and again, it works well with warm tones. I also tested some of the "creative" profiles and I see an amazing opportunity there. Modern 02 is my favorite so far.

Here's another look on a different photo. Left is Adobe Standard (old default), middle is Adobe Color (new default), on the right there's Adobe Vivid. Same preset, same settings, just a different base profile. You can see a nice differences in the right bottom part of each frame. This is big deal for me as it will for sure affect skin tones and overall strength of the preset.

I definitely welcome the update and can't wait to play with these more to use full advantage of my presets. I've been pretty frustrated with how Adobe Standard worked with my Canon 5D mark IV files when I added temperature. Skin tones were always too yellow or too red for my taste and I always felt I have to tweak my settings much more than with my Fuji files of even Canon 5D mark III. Hopefully now I have a quick solution.

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