I love Lightroom and all the options when it comes to editing and tweaking my images. I also love presets, but often find myself doing crazy tweaks and edits to almost every single preset I own. Rarely do I use a preset as one click. I don't think they are really set up to be a "one click" every time and I'm totally ok with that. Every once in a while I will strike gold and have a one click preset change, but it's pretty rare.

For my professional and client work, I only hand edit and usually start with ONE image from that set and will create my own preset to use on any similar images (typically in that same set). This process has saved me SO much time and energy when it comes to getting my client work edited and uploaded! With my personal work, I'm a little more creative when it comes to editing since I usually only edit 1-2 photos at a time, not 70-100. Editing only ONE image gives me the opportunity to play around, try out my favorite presets, hand edit or what not. There are tons of presets available and I have a few that are my "go-to" for starting (you can read more about my faves here), so I typically just play around and see what I like! And that's where this fun little "secret" called The Fader fits in! Now this is probably not a BIG secret, but it definitely took me a while to stumble upon the fun little Lightroom plug-in. The Fader is FREE (kinda - see below) and is a plug in slider tool that allows you to apply a preset at either a reduced opacity or an increased opacity (up to 150%). The reason I LOOOOOOVE this tool so much is because sometimes presets are just too strong for my style and tastes (and often kill my skin tones), but I still love so many other aspects of that certain preset (like the desaturated greens or the tone curve...). Using The Fader plug in lets me reduce the opacity of that plug in and then tweak any other things I think need adjusted! 

*The Fader is technically FREE, meaning you can download and install it today, but it's set up to have a start delay (which becomes longer and longer each time you use the plug in). If you want to get rid of the delay, it's just $10, which I think is totally worth it. 

For my professional and client work, I only hand edit and usually start with ONE image from that set and will create my own preset to use on any similar images (typically in that same set). This process has saved me SO much time and energy when it comes to getting my client work edited and uploaded! With my personal work, I'm a little more creative when it comes to editing since I usually only edit 1-2 photos at a time, not 70-100. Editing only ONE image gives me the opportunity to play around, try out my favorite presets, hand edit or what not. There are tons of presets available and I have a few that are my "go-to" for starting (you can read more about my faves here), so I typically just play around and see what I like! And that's where this fun little "secret" called The Fader fits in! 

Now this is probably not a BIG secret, but it definitely took me a while to stumble upon the fun little Lightroom plug-in. The Fader is FREE (kinda - see below) and is a plug in slider tool that allows you to apply a preset at either a reduced opacity or an increased opacity (up to 150%). The reason I LOOOOOOVE this tool so much is because sometimes presets are just too strong for my style and tastes (and often kill my skin tones), but I still love so many other aspects of that certain preset (like the desaturated greens or the tone curve...). Using The Fader plug in lets me reduce the opacity of that plug in and then tweak any other things I think need adjusted! 

*The Fader is technically FREE, meaning you can download and install it today, but it's set up to have a start delay (which becomes longer and longer each time you use the plug in). If you want to get rid of the delay, it's just $10, which I think is totally worth it. 

Check out this quick 5-minute video below to see this fun little "secret" plug in at work! 

The BEST secret ever, right?? Goodbye wacked-out skin tones! It's totally worth downloading the free version and playing around!!