Comments on: LR Preset Toolkit: X-Equals Monochrome Toolkit

By: Review: Creative Production Presets Vol. 1, Cold Storage Film Presets Vol. 1 — The Turning Gate

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 05:02:34 +0000

[...] Michael Gray has written an in-depth tutorial on how to use the Monochrome Toolkit. The basic workflow goes like [...]

By: Michael W. Gray

Michael W. Gray — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:27:25 +0000

Thanks for the kind words Blue. It is much appreciated.

By: Blue Perez

Blue Perez — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:10:48 +0000

Further thought…these toolkits are such a potentially powerful tool in trained hands, or the hands of those prepared to study and experiment, as a real darkroom. I spent many years teaching darkroom practice back in the day, setting up and running community darkrooms in a range of settings, as well as in traditional education, and for us to have you amidst us now, in the world of the digital darkroom, is such an empowering thing.

By: Blue Perez

Blue Perez — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:07:54 +0000

Great post here Michael, watching and reading with great interest!

By: Michael W. Gray

Michael W. Gray — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:41:35 +0000

The system would work even better if Adobe would implement “relative” presets. If I could adjust an exiting setting by -10 from the current value, I would be able to actually build a working filter collectionas well. Currently, you can only set a defined value in a preset, if LR gets relative presets I could define a preset as Exposure (x-25), reducing the image’s current exposure by 25, not simply setting exposure to -25.

With black and white filters, it would come in handy, as they tend to reduce a colors effect, not completely eliminte the effect of the color. My presets currently only work when the image it is being applied to is “perfect”. Getting that would rally allow me to creat presets allowing for a virtual “Darkroom”

By: Stuart Allen

Stuart Allen — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:24:10 +0000

Think if you can do that it would be great. I will have another play with the paper grades presets myself and see if I can get my head around them. Just that they did not do what I expected but that is clearly down to the paper not reacting like other VC paper.

The filters seem to work well. Like the results I am getting from the green one. That will be really useful sometimes.

Think the whole idea of the system is very clever.

By: Michael W. Gray

Michael W. Gray — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:54:46 +0000

I was given half a box of 5×7 of the Fotokemika paper by a guy who didn’t like the results he got from it. When I started developing this toolkit it was the only paper I had that had the same image printed in each different grade.

In truth, I did not enjoy the paper, but I ran with what I had at the moment. I plan on developing a paper evaluation system much like my film system, I just have to get more paper samples and more darkroom time.

Or get my home darkroom set up finally.

By: Stuart Allen

Stuart Allen — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:42:00 +0000

Interesting paper choice.

You might find this link interesting where people are talking about the paper. Just follow the thread down.

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?t=24156

By: Tweets that mention LR Preset Toolkit: X-Equals Monochrome Toolkit | LifeInDigitalFilm -- Topsy.com

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:03:49 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Martin Junius and Paul Bousquet. Paul Bousquet said: RT @xequals LR Preset Toolkit: X-Equals Monochrome Toolkit – http://bit.ly/2h0yVu [...]

By: Michael W. Gray

Michael W. Gray — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 11:17:35 +0000

Admittedly, this is not my moat accurate emulation. The preset pack was more of a proof of concept that I released as I was done testing and figured I may as well share what I had so far.

To answer your question, the VC grades were based on a series of 5×7 test prints on Fotokemika Fiber Based VC paper, matte finish. Loosely based upon, but still those test prints were my source material.