Stop Repeating Yourself - Shelley Vandegrift

Each time you edit an image, do you find yourself repeating the same initial adjustments? How much time do you think you devote to going through the checklist: camera profile selected, contrast up, highlights down, tone curve set, etc. Did you know Adobe, in both Lightroom and Camera Raw, provides a way to automatically apply your camera profile and any other basic adjustments you regularly repeat on import?

These automatic settings known as Camera Defaults are camera specific, so Adobe recognizes which of your cameras the image was taken with and applies only what you have specified for that camera. This is a huge plus for infrared shooters who need to apply a custom profile and a number of other adjustments to the images from their infrared camera. Have two Sony A6000s, one converted to infrared and one not? No sweat, Adobe identifies the camera by serial number and will know whether the image came from the converted camera or the unconverted one.

Start by opening an image in either the Develop module of LR or in Camera Raw. Make the adjustments you typically apply to your images. If you have a profile you always apply to images from that camera, select it from the profile dropdown. If you start with Contrast at about 25, set it to 25. If you typically add Vibrance of 10, set it to 10, and so forth. Once you have all the basic adjustments set that you want applied to your images from that camera, do one of the following:

Lightroom:

Check your settings to be sure you have only those things you want applied on import set.
Create a preset by clicking the plus icon on the Presets panel header and selecting Create Preset.
Name the Preset something meaningful. I typically include my camera model and a description.
From the Lightroom menu, open Preferences, and select the Presets panel.
Change the Default setting for your camera from Adobe Default to the preset you just created.
Click Update Default.