I was recently approached by Sleeklens to try out their Photoshop Actions and Lightroom Presets to give an honest review.
I don’t use actions and presets very often since I tend to do my own editing, but I have used Mastin Labs presets and Greater Than Gatsby actions in the past for wedding and portraits to achieve a certain look clients were asking for. Sleeklens seemed to offer actions that I would use on a regular basis with my landscape, cityscape and time-lapse videos.
This is the first time I have ever tried any Photoshop actions for landscape photography though, so I was excited to test out what Sleeklens offers.
The Install was a cake walk and so was the basic run through of the possibilites that were outlined in the video (how to install and how to use).
My first image I decided to edit was a photo from Kerry Park in Seattle, Washington featuring the Space Needle. I decided to tryout the Sleeklens Landscape Adventure Actions first using Photoshop CC.
The actions I used helped with the exposure and contrast of the image and it was an improvement over the original and had nearly the exact same look as my edit of the photo.
My second edit using the Sleeklens Photoshop actions was a photo of Whatcom Falls in Bellingham, Washington. I liked the original capture of the photo, but I did want a warmer tone and look. I was able to easily achieve that with the Sleeklens actions.
After trying out the Photoshop Actions that should be a great asset in the future, I switched over to the Lightroom Presets. The install was a cake walk per usual and I started diving into the presets and possibilities.
I grabbed a few different photos captured at Artist Point and Bellingham, Washington. Each of these photos were edited with Sleeklens presets only and I did nearly no additional toning at all, which is very rare for Lightroom presets. You can see some of the results below.
I then snagged two photos that were actually of me skimboarding and bodyboarding in Hawaii. One of my friends used my camera and I tried to help him with the manual settings before I started skimboarding and bodyboarding. The framing was fine, but the overall exposure and look left a lot to be desired (still grateful you took those photos Matt S. in case you are reading this).
I really liked the final outcome of the two above photos. It makes those memories just that much better.
The final test for me was using the presets on a new time-lapse video project where I use Lightroom to batch edit all of my photos that make up the time-lapse. The “Punch it Up” and “Clarity” presets were great and saved me quite a bit of time from having to create my own presets from scratch to batch process all the photos that went into this video.
Overall, I am very happy with Sleeklens presets and actions. Some of the tools help provide more “pop” and some of the presets and actions can actually turn a very dull photo, into something so much better.
If you are looking for Photoshop presets and Lightroom actions to add to your library for landscape and even action photography I would have to recommend Sleeklens Landscape Adventure Collection.
Learn more by following the links:
Sleeklens Landscape Adventure Collection
All Sleeklens Photoshop Actions
Landscape Lightroom Presets
All Sleeklens Lightroom Presets
