Presets and batch editing

Learning goal

You will be able to carry an edit you built carefully on one frame quickly and safely to the other frames shot in the same conditions. You will create your own preset from a well-edited frame, decide which settings groups to include in the preset and which to leave out, apply the settings on one frame to the other frames you choose by syncing settings, keep different edits of the same file with virtual copies, and after batch editing finish each frame with fine-tuning one by one, to the degree its light and subject have changed. You will also know why bought or downloaded presets don't suit every photo, and why trying a preset on different skin tones before saving it is necessary.

The question

You edited three of the twenty frames in the selection one by one, and each one took you half an hour. They were all shot on the same morning, on the same highland, with the same lens; on all three you used a similar white balance, the same profile correction, the same color mixer settings and the same sharpening. Doing these jobs from scratch for the remaining seventeen frames will take hours. A friend suggests a preset pack they downloaded from the internet, saying "everything's ready in one click"; when you try it, the highland frames are wrapped in a purple mist, and your friends' faces shift toward orange.

How do I make my own preset? How do I carry the edit on one frame to the others, and what do I watch for after carrying it? In this lesson we will talk about presets, syncing settings and batch editing.

Context

A cook who makes the same soup every day doesn't reinvent the recipe every morning; they find the measures once, write them in a notebook and start from that notebook every day. But the taste of the vegetables that arrive every day is a little different; that is why at the end of the recipe they taste the salt and spices and adjust one last time. The same holds in editing: settings found once for a series of photos shot in the same light can be saved and used again, but every frame asks for a final touch.

Another benefit of this approach is consistency. When the colors, tones and mood of frames that come from the same shoot or the same project are close to each other, a selection or an exhibition looks like a whole. That is why batch editing doesn't only save time; it also helps a photographer build their own editing language. This lesson tells the ways to get this gain without falling into its traps.

Simple explanation

What is a preset and how is it created?

A preset is a sequence of editing settings applied to a photo, saved under a name so it can be applied to other photos with one click. The best preset is the one born from your own photos and your own light: you carefully edit the most representative frame of a series, then create a preset from that edit. In many programs, while you do this a window opens and asks which settings will be included in the preset.

A settings group is one of the sections where editing settings are gathered under headings like white balance, exposure, color, sharpening, lens correction or crop. When creating a preset, which groups are included matters. Groups that hardly change from photo to photo, like the color mixer, sharpening and lens correction, suit a preset well. Exposure and white balance, on the other hand, depend on the light; when carried to a frame shot in different light, they can spoil it. Crop, spot removal and local adjustments made to only one face should almost never be included in a preset.

Presets downloaded from the internet or bought work with the same logic; but they were made for frames another photographer shot with another camera in another light. That is why when they are applied to your photo, the result is most often not like the promotional images. They can be useful as a starting point or a source of ideas, but no preset takes the place of looking at a photo.

How are settings carried over?

To sync settings is to apply the edit on one frame to the other frames you choose. Most programs have a few ways of doing this: after editing a frame, selecting it and the other frames and syncing the settings; copying the settings and pasting them onto other frames; or turning on a mode where every change you make while editing a frame is reflected at once on the other selected frames too. In all of them, as when creating a preset, it is possible to choose which settings groups will be carried over.

Syncing settings works best on frames shot in the same light and with the same settings. In a series where a cloud passed in front of the sun, where one frame was shot in shade and another in sun, the same exposure and white balance don't suit every frame. That is why after syncing you need to scan the frames at a glance in a side-by-side view, find the ones that stand out as too light, too dark or a different color from the others, and touch only those. Batch editing does most of the job; the final touch belongs to each frame.

How are virtual copies and skin managed?

A virtual copy is a second edit of the same photo file kept in the catalog without creating a new file on the disk. When you want to try a frame in both a color and a black-and-white interpretation, both warm and cool, or keep it with one crop for an exhibition and another for the internet, a virtual copy holds these options side by side without duplicating the original. The catalog records each copy's separate edit; the file is still one.

Before saving a preset, trying it on a few frames with light- and dark-skinned faces is required both by respect and by a good preset. Color and tone settings fine-tuned to a single face can produce, on another skin, a color that doesn't belong to that person. That is why you need to keep corrections made specifically for one face's skin out of the preset, and after batch editing enlarge and check the face in every portrait. The preset builds the shared language; each person's own color is protected one by one.

Visual evidence

You open the most representative frame of the selection, the highland road where the mist is clearing; you have edited it from start to finish as in the earlier lessons. In the preset creation window you tick the color mixer, sharpening, noise reduction and lens correction; you leave out exposure, white balance, crop and local adjustments. You name the preset "Highland Morning." Before saving, you try it on the portrait of your dark-skinned friend at the fountain and on the frame of your freckled friend climbing the hill: both skins are in place, only the meadow and the sky have changed.

Then you select the remaining seventeen frames and apply the preset to all of them at once. For exposure and white balance, you sync the highland road's settings to eleven frames shot in the same light. While scanning in the side-by-side view, you notice that three frames shot at the moment the cloud passed stand darker and bluer, and you correct the exposure and temperature only on them. In one portrait, your dark-skinned friend's face has stayed a little dark with the synced exposure; you give it a small touch. You also create a black-and-white virtual copy of the road frame. In forty minutes, seventeen frames are ready, with a color and tone that lean on one another.

Common mistakes

Summary

A preset is an edit saved under a name so it can be applied to other photos with one click; the best one is born from your own photos and your own light, and when creating it, only settings groups that hardly change from photo to photo, like color, sharpening and lens correction, are included. Syncing settings gives the best result on frames shot in the same light, while a virtual copy keeps different interpretations of the same file without duplicating the original; batch editing does most of the job, but frames with different light are corrected one by one. Trying a preset on different skin tones before saving it, keeping corrections specific to one face out, and checking the face in every portrait separately build a shared editing language while protecting each person's own color.

Mini assignment

In this assignment you will create your own preset and apply it to a series.

1. Choose a series of at least ten frames shot in the same light and edit its most representative frame from start to finish.
2. Create a preset from this edit; leave out exposure, white balance, crop and local adjustments.
3. Before saving the preset, try it on at least two portraits, one light-skinned and one dark-skinned, and enlarge and check the faces.
4. Apply the preset to the whole series, sync exposure and white balance to the frames in the same light; then scan the frames side by side and give the final touch to the ones that stand out.

Check yourself

• Did your own preset suit your own photos better than a downloaded preset?
• Which frames asked for a separate touch after batch editing, and why?
• In the portraits where you applied the preset, did the faces stay natural, unaffected by the landscape settings?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. When creating your own preset, which settings group is generally safer to leave out?

• A) Lens correction
• B) Sharpening
• C) Color mixer
• D) Crop and local adjustments

2. Why might a downloaded preset not look like the promotional images on your photo?

• A) Because it was made for frames another photographer shot in another light
• B) Because presets only work on JPEG
• C) Because of a program error
• D) Because the photo is too big

3. What is the way to keep both a color and a black-and-white edit of the same file without creating a new file on the disk?

• A) Copying the file and renaming it
• B) Creating a virtual copy
• C) Importing the frame twice
• D) Exporting the frame and importing it again

4. After batch editing, in a portrait, a dark-skinned person's face has stayed dark with the synced exposure. What should you do?

• A) Delete the preset
• B) Raise the exposure of all the frames
• C) Only in that frame, enlarge the face and give it a small final touch
• D) You have to take the frame out of the selection

Answers

1. D — Crop and local adjustments are specific to one frame; on other frames they land in the wrong place.
2. A — A preset is tuned to the light and photo it was made for.
3. B — A virtual copy keeps a separate edit of the same file in the catalog.
4. C — Batch editing builds the shared ground; faces are protected one by one.

Summary card

• Preset: create it from your own photo and your own light.
• Include: color, sharpening, lens; leave out: exposure, white balance, crop, local adjustment.
• Syncing settings works best on frames in the same light.
• Virtual copy: same file, different interpretation.
• Try it on different skin tones before saving; check every face after batch editing.

Bridge to the next lesson

The twenty-frame selection now speaks the same language and is ready to be shared. But you will use these frames on a social media account, in an exhibition print and in an email to be sent to your aunt; each one asks for a different size, a different compression and perhaps a different color setting. How should you prepare the same frame for which medium? For Instagram or for print? The last lesson of the module and the level talks about exporting, and preparing a photo by its medium with size, compression and color profile.