As a photographer, if there is one thing I hate while editing my photos, it is jumping between several editing apps with a single photo and ending with duplicate files where my settings are burnt and cannot be ticking below the line. I will have only one file and if I need at the later date, be able to fix all my settings. And for this reason, I began looking for ways to push the litterrooms, who wanted more to more than Adobe.
Literoom was considered only a raw processing application. And if you wanted to do accurate editing, you were about to go to Photoshop. But as is someone who no longer does not do too much compositing or complex retaching, I started looking at Photoshop as an annoyance because I was using it for basic items such as most grains, shapes, stuffing, filing material-jealousy, and adding boundaries to my social media posts. This is why I spent the last year in search of a workaround to get out of my lighterroom editing workflow, so I would have to go to Photoshop and often learn a lot to post my work inside Literoom only, and in the process how the presets work and I have also started messing up with the code to get some extra functionality.
What is a file .XMP?!
This file format uses to store the preset to use lightroom. They are stored somewhere on your computer, and to find them, just right-click on one of your preset on the preset list inside the LR and click on the show in Explorer. You can open a preset with any original text editor such as notepad, and its content will look like code. But you don’t worry; It is super simple to understand, at least most of the time.
We do not care too much about the first part, but if you scroll down a little down, you will look like a luggage:
- CRS: saturation = “+10” | It means set on saturation slider +10
- CRS: shwadows2012 = “+25” | Which means that the shadow was saved at +25
- CRS: HueadjustmentGreen =+7 ″ | This means that in the HSL panel, the green is set on the hue slider +7
I am sure you get ideas; This is a way to save the position of sliders in the lesson. But it is good when reading the preset in this form, the fact that we can modify parts of the code and the preset will still work, it is cooler. Just pay attention to the draft as it matters a lot when it comes to coding. Talking about coding, let us take a second and mention some important things:
- If you are new to any kind of code. Take your time and read each line. .XMP files are similar to plain English, but be sure to respect the same format while modifying the values ​​in the code.
- There is no risk of damaging lighter or your catalog by playing with only one preset code.
- It is a good practice to backup any preset before modifying the code. In this way, you can also change it with the previous version if something is not working as you wanted.
- After modifying the code, you have to restroom the literoom for changes
Simple Editing – Decreases
Let’s start with a simple example. In Literoom, if you want to save the settings from the tone curve panel, you have two options: parametric curves and points decreasing. The point curve consists of all four channels: luminance, red, green and blue. But what if we want to save them separately within a predetermined set?! – Sorry cannot! -And even if you only modify a channel, call the green curve, and save it as a preset, the lighter will still save the entire position of the point curve. This means that it will transmit the other three channels and reset them when the preset is implemented.
But it turns out that you can work around it! Whatever I do, it saves the preset like normal, then open the .XMP preset file in a text editor. I seek part of the code that refers to the point curves (begins with
This ability to separate and preserve specific curve channels is required for me Color reaction workflow decreasesThis allowed me to create a preset that translates the color reaction decrease from the devini, who resolve the film Luts in Literoom. Even more importantly, it enables realistic film simulation, where various films can be switched between emulation, and the preset will only affect RGB color channels without resetting its work on the luminance curve.
And this is just an example. Most of the time, a preset will store the default value within a category, but if you go to the code to remove that section and edit the code, it will continue to work and will only implement the values ​​that are left in the .XMP file.
Boundaries without plugins: Just brush and code
.XMP code is another big example of manipulation is the way I managed to create Limits in straight ligroomThis time, I am using masking. Literroom masking can be super useful in itself, but with some codes and little help from the brush mask, you can find out completely straight lines inside the ligroom.
The lieterroom brush uses a generalized coordination system for masks, which means that each brush stroke position is stored as a percentage rather than a pixel. The top-left corner (0, 0) is the center (0.5, 0.5), the bottom corner (1.0), and the bottom-right (1, 1), no matter the image size. And the shapes of the brush work in the same way – something like 0.1 means that the brush is 10% of the width of the image, and 1 means the radius of the brush is equal to the width of your photo. This system makes it easier to reuse masks in different images with different megapixel count and aspect ratio. ,
In addition, by editing the code, you can get a lot of control over a lot of things inside the ligroom. Since a lot of mask-related sliders have a stored value that goes from 0 to 1 (generalized system) with 5 decimal, which means you get 10000 steps on that slider.
ID system hidden behind literoom mask
Finally, the last thing I want to touch in today’s article is that Literoom manages the names of the preset name, mask name and mask components. When you can convert all of them into a user interface, it is only a user-supporting title, and in the background, uses an ID made of lighter 32 characters.
In each preset, you will find a field called CRCS: UUID. It is unique ID and is used to identify predetermined. This enables you to make 2 preset in preset lists, but they may have different settings. Lightroom uses it to manage and refer to the preset internally without relying on the name alone. It is good for repetition on the preset, but even better the fact that Literoom also has an ID for masks. The tag for this is: CRS: cortrectionsyncid and you can have many presets that call on the same mask, modify its settings, and at the same time change its user-support name.
By editing the .XMP preset files, I use this ID to change generic mask names such as radial gradient 1 clear, custom label – “grains 400 highlights”. Even better, ID remains in line with my preset, so if I apply 200 in all one grain later, the name of the mask will turn grain to 200 highlights, so I can easily track which presets I have used. It is a small twist that keeps my workflow organized and my predetermined name is user friendly. And now I am in the process of reorganizing all the presets at my store to include this good and clear labeling.
Finally, CRS is: Maskasinkad. It is an ID for a mask components, and with it, you can do the same thing with the masks, but they are not as useful, or if you have masks made of 3 components, you can use them to write hikeu.
I’m sure I am scratching the surface here, and there are more large nerds that have given better ways to modify the .XMP preset files for amazing lighter tools. But my goal today was not to compile a complete list of possibilities, but to show some examples to people what is possible and how we – user – can pursue the preceptibility of the preset within the boundaries of Literoom. So enjoy thinking outside the box that is lighterm UI and start having fun with your preset.
About the author: Vlad Moldovian Brasov is a photographer and visual artist from Romania. He describes himself as an idiot who enjoys asking for DIY solution for photography problems. The opinion expressed in this article is only by the writer. You can find more work Their website, Facebook, 500pxAnd InstagramThis article was also published Here,
