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ACR Presets – Sky Set

Posted in Featured, The Digital Darkroom on Tuesday July 27, 2010 | 22 comments

I’ve been tinkering around with the idea of learning how to create ACR presets. (ACR is Adobe Camera Raw, the program I use to tweak my Raw files before pulling them into Photoshop.) I’ve never really used them before and have always manually tweaked my photos in the program. Lately, if I do a tweak that seems to apply an effect, I’ve been saving it as a preset to test on other photos I want to have that effect. So far, it’s rather trial and error as to whether or not something’s going to work on another photograph.

I think I may have lucked out with a set of Sky presets, called that because it seems to work best on photographs of clouds in the sky. I’m offering them for download because I’d love others’ feedback on whether or not it works.

Download the Sky ACR Preset Pack.
To install the presets, all you have to do is copy the .xmp file into your CameraRaw\Settings folder

There are three presets included in this set. They’re all basically designed to up the exposure and pump up the blacks, to help enrich the color of the sky and create contrast in the clouds.


1. Sky

This is the subtlest of the effects. Here’s an example shot straight out of the camera:

07-18-10 - Sky - SOOC

With the Sky preset applied, no other edits in Photoshop:

07-18-10 - Sky - Sky ACR preset

2. Dramatic Skies

This example is one of my favorites for this preset. It took what appeared to be a completely blurry night cloud shot and made the clouds look like they were moving instead of just being blurry. Straight out of the camera:

Night Clouds Blowing By - SOOC

With only the preset applied:

Night Clouds Blowing By - Dramatic Skies ACR Preset

3. Extra Dramatic Skies

As the name implies, this is the most dramatic of the presets. I will usually try out all three to see which, if any, look good on my sky shots. Here’s an example SOOC:

Clouds SOOC

And again, with just the preset applied:

Clouds - Extra Dramatic Skies ACR Preset

If you’re interested in using these presets for ACR, please feel free to download it! I would love to see the results, too! If you have a Flickr account and you use one of my presets, please tag your shot: dwc-acr-sky and it will appear in the thumbnail gallery below! I’d also love it if you left a comment letting me know how the results turned out, even if they weren’t very good.

More Sky Set Examples

This post was submitted to the bloghop, Touch Up Tuesday @ The Bonnie 5. Click on the icon to the left to view all the great entries this week!

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22 Responses to “ACR Presets – Sky Set”

  1. Karli Karli says:
    Tuesday July 27, 2010 at 4:16 pm

    WOW, these are cool! That 2nd one blew me away – the one where it looks like the clouds are moving. OK, I’m not at all familiar with ACR, and Ashley uses it too. Maybe something to look into, because I’m loving these! Thanks so much for taking the time to write all this out. Very helpful and interesting!! THANKS! :-)
    Karli´s last blog ..urbanMy ComLuv Profile

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  2. Chelsey Chelsey says:
    Tuesday July 27, 2010 at 4:32 pm

    Wow, that starry sky is AWESOME!
    Chelsey´s last blog ..Touch-up TuesdayMy ComLuv Profile

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  3. The Daily Wyatt The Daily Wyatt says:
    Tuesday July 27, 2010 at 4:55 pm

    I really REALLY love the night sky one!
    The Daily Wyatt´s last blog ..Sweet Shot TuesdayMy ComLuv Profile

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  4. starrymom starrymom says:
    Tuesday July 27, 2010 at 10:31 pm

    @lynda OMG you made #ACR presets! OMG I AM SO EXCITED
    via Twitoaster

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  5. BLOGitse BLOGitse says:
    Wednesday July 28, 2010 at 8:16 am

    ooops, I don’t photoshop but I use PhotoScape and have fun with Paint.net and other free editors.
    Thanks for your reply.
    I’ll join the gang when I have a little bit more time. Right now too busy (I moved to WP)…
    But I subscribed your feed – I read you even if not commenting every post :) + I followup your comments.
    You’re really good blogger. You know how to interact with people!
    BLOGitse´s last blog ..details of a lamp…My ComLuv Profile

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  6. Twenty Little Toes Twenty Little Toes says:
    Wednesday July 28, 2010 at 10:47 am

    My favorite is the second one. I love how the stars are so much visible. I was always a little intimidated by sky shots. I never really tried my hand at shooting the sky. Looking at your edits I think I should try it out soon.

    Reply
    • Lynda Lynda says:
      Wednesday July 28, 2010 at 11:01 am

      Thanks!

      Sky shots are pretty fun! I use spot metering and measure off a cloud or a medium portion of the sky before taking the shot. I find sky shots are perfect when there’s nothing else to shoot. Plus, it’s an ever changing subject!

      Twitter: @

      Reply
  7. softasylum softasylum says:
    Wednesday July 28, 2010 at 4:56 pm

    @lynda I downloaded them! I will try it out next time I take sky photos :)
    via Twitoaster

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  8. Patty Reiser Patty Reiser says:
    Wednesday July 28, 2010 at 5:06 pm

    I will have to try these out. Just returned from a family vacation at Bryce Canyon National Park and I have hundreds of photos with clouds in them. I will let you know my results.
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  9. Maureen Maureen says:
    Saturday July 31, 2010 at 9:48 am

    WOW Lynda those are amazing! Now one question, so I should download the ACR first right? I just recently upgraded to Photoshop CS4 and when I google ACR I’ve seen so many different versions. Which one do you think will work? Thanks Lynda!
    Maureen´s last blog ..Will Indonesian Language Go ExtinctMy ComLuv Profile

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