Love the look of presets but find you’re wanting to tweak them to your taste? CMpro and CMmentor, Lisa Tichané has a wonderful tutorial explaining how to lower the opacity of those beloved Lightroom presets to suit the look you’re after. Thanks, Lisa!
How to Lower the Opacity of a Lightroom Preset
by Lisa Tichané
When I get to the point in editing where I am choosing an editing style for a session, I mainly lean towards clean post processing. I don’t use a lot of actions in Photoshop, but when I do, I find myself lowering the opacity in order to soften the effect. I like a bit of “pop” as a finishing touch, but not something overly strong or creative.
The day I discovered Lightroom, I instantly fell in love with this powerful yet easy-to-use tool. But I was very frustrated with the use of presets as their effects were often too strong for my taste and there was no opacity slider for me to tweak to my desire.
But I finally realized that I could simply combine both worlds, by adding a very last step to my workflow. This method is very similar to what Meg Sexton explained last month in her blow-outs recovery tutorial. Let’s see how it works when we apply this concept to presets.
This image is a nice capture, but it obviously could use some “oomph” factor.
I was dying to try the new version of the Paparazzi Presets, so I experimented with a few of them on this picture and fell in love with Tabloid – the warmth, the contrast, the color pop… it was the perfect preset for this image. Except that I found it just a bit too strong for me, especially on the skin.
Here is the before/after:
I could have played with my LR control panel sliders in order to tone down the effect and achieve the result I wanted, but I decided to use the lower opacity method since I knew it would be quick and effective.
Here are the steps followed:
1. Starting with the original image in the Develop module (with no preset applied), I right clicked on the thumbnail and chose “duplicate image”.
This resulted in two identical images, side by side.
2. I then selected the new copy and clicked on the preset in the left menu to apply it.
3. Then I selected both images (the original, and the new one with the preset applied) by holding my shift button, and right-clicked on the thumbnails. Then I chose Edit in > Open as Layers in Photoshop.
Here is the result in Photoshop : one document with two layers (the original image on top and the one with the preset applied below):
I then changed the order of the layers by placing the edited version on top of the original in my layers palette, and played with the opacity of the top layer until I was satisfied (here, I ended up using a 70% opacity).
Voilà ! Here is the final result.
I could have added a mask to my top layer in order to selectively play with opacity (like reducing the effect of the top layer on the skin only, and not on the rest of the image), but in this specific case the global change was perfect for my taste.
Happy editing!
Lisa Tichane
CM Mentor
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Maybe it’s because she’s “a bit silly” or maybe it has to do with her being “a child at heart” but Lisa has an incredible talent for photographing babies and children in her fun, clean and playful style with her Canon 5d mark II, 50 f/1.4, 24-70L and 135L. Marseille, France is the place she calls home along with her two boys where they love to play in the countryside treasure hunting and inventing goofy games. She does enjoy some quiet once in a while where she can browse the web with her coffee and chocolate. Laughter is a must have, though, as she states, “a day without a good laugh is definitely a lost one for me.” Have a question for Lisa? Check out her “Ask the Pros” thread on the CMforum!
OmGosh!! So freakin smart:) I have CM Film Presets but rarely use them for that purpose!! Now I am so excited! Thank you for sharing!!!
I love this! I don’t use LR, but just realized the same thing could be done in Bridge/ACR. Simply duplicate the photo, apply the preset to one of them. Go back to bridge, select both files (preset applied and the duplicate with no preset applied) Go up to the Tools menu in the Menu Bar along the top of the screen in Bridge, choose Photoshop for a list of Photoshop-specific options, then choose Load Files into Photoshop Layers. Adjust layers in Photoshop.
This is going to change my world! My CM presets are usually awesome without tweaking, but I have some from One Willow that are always too strong… I was starting to regret buying them but this will be perfect. Thanks so much Lisa!
So glad it helped! :) Thanks for sharing the ACR tip Lauren!
Thanks for this Lisa!! And thanks so much for the ACR version Lauren – i was just going to ask how this could be done in ACR!
This is great, Lisa! I’ve never thought to do this! SO smart. :)
why have I never thought to do this?!! Brilliant! Beautiful photo :)
Love LR and love these tips! Thanks. Went to your website and sent it on to my friend who lives close to Marseille! Beautiful pictures.
Lisa THANK YOU so much for this! I have so often wanted to tone down a preset… but wasn’t happy with adjusting the individual sliders in LR. Your method makes so much sense and since I often pull the images into PS anyway it isn’t even an extra step. Fabulous :-)
genius!
Wow!! What a great idea! I can’t wait to try this, thanks!
Awesome !!! Thank you Lisa !!
Genius! Thx so much!
Is this something you do in PS? I am not finding this in LR and your sample pics look like PS. Can you work in layers in LR? I currently have Lighroom 2 and would love to learn something new. thanks for your time!!
WoW! Love this!!
Great tip – never thought of doing that. Thanks for the tutorial :)
I recently bought the Paparazzi Presets and I don’t have one called Gossip Magazine – should I? I don’t have a lot of the ones you have shown in your presets panel or are they mixed with the CM Film ones?
Aubry: this method mixes LR and PS! As from step #3, you export your images from LR to work on PS ;)
Marnie: yes, my preset panel shows a mix of the film presets and the paparazzi presets.
Gossip magazine is part of the 2nd edition of the Paparazzi presets (released very recently). If you don’t have this one, it looks like you’ve bought the 1st edition ;)
Here is the link to the 2nd edition:
https://www.clickinmoms.com/store/shop/paparazzi-presets/
this is so awesome! thanks so much for the tut :)