MCP Quick Clicks Collection for Lightroom – a hobbyist’s view

It’s Here! The Ultimate Presets Collection for Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw and I was a tester!

I want to share something that I have had the privilege to test in recent weeks. As many of you know I help Jodi from MCP Actions run her Project 52 group on her blog and Flickr – come see us here if you want to join the best Project 52 group ever – and I also work with Jodi as one of her small group of testers for her new products. Earlier in the year I helped test Jodi’s latest action set MCP Fusion which remains my favourite action set for Photoshop but as I am more of a Lightroom girl you can imagine my delight when Jodi told me she was planning her first Lightroom preset set and asked if I would help test it.

Now I am not a professional photographer, I am a Mum with a camera who has put a lot of time and effort into learning how to take better photos of my family. If you go back to the beginning of my blog and look at some of the photos there I think you will see I have improved over time but let’s face it I am not in the league of the photographers that do this for a living. I might know my way around the exposure triangle and can use fast shutter speeds to capture motion or close down my aperture to create star bursts from lamps but the light changes quickly here in England and my 4 year moves even faster and so often I don’t get that perfect shot. But hey that’s fine as I have chosen not to make this my profession and I can wear my Mommy goggles and love a photo for the moment it has captured rather than the technical ability.

That is not to say I don’t feel a little out of place in a tester group when everyone else is a professional and trust me there are some stunning images coming from the photographers on that testing panel – just look at the selection of photos Jodi has chosen to promote her new presets and you’ll see what I mean < view a slide show of examples here >

I know I have purchased presets in the past and have been disappointed that my photos haven’t magically turned into the wondrous images I have seen in the advertising materials and so I thought you’d appreciate seeing how MCP Quick Clicks Collection work on my ‘Mum with a camera’ photos.

SOOC = Straight Out Of Camera. These are photos that I have shot in RAW and imported into Lightroom but left the import settings at default.

Example 1 – A shot I couldn’t resist when I spotted Theo ‘reading’ himself a book. I used my 70-200mm lens so I could keep my distance and had my ISO cranked all the way up to ISO2500 so it’s a little noisy. EDIT – Just 3 clicks here; a WB adjust, then preset ‘Laughter’ and finally ‘Silence the Noise light’. Took me all of 5 seconds

Example 2 – Fancy a little black and white, you can do that too with just one click. Here I have used preset ‘Sugar Cone’ and no other tweaks.

Example 3 – Charles Bridge in Prague shot at dawn. This one took a lot more work as my original image was underexposed and the white balance totally wrong but I managed to do the whole edit just using the options in Building Blocks and Finishing Enhancers and a little selective use of the adjustment brush. A nice save don’t you think?

I think this is a great preset collection and there are a LOT of choices in this set so you can make subtle changes or dramatic edits that are all completely reversible. Once you know how to use the synchronize setting in Lightroom you can give all the images from one shoot a consistent style in just seconds.

I would like to say I am on a commission scheme and get a little change in my back pocket every time someone follows my recommendation and buys MCP Quick Clicks Collection but unfortunately not!

If you are new to using Presets and are interested in buying this set here is all the information you need;

What’s Included?
MCP Quick Clicks Collection includes more than 200 photographer-tested presets for every shooting situation. MCP has organized them into five sections to help you find just the effect you’re looking for without wasting time clicking through your settings. It’s like having 5+ mega sets in one.
1. Building Blocks fine-tune your photos’ exposure and color settings, giving you a flawless foundation for layering on additional looks.
2. Quick Clicks Color presets give you one-click access to gorgeous color-enhancing results.
3. Quick Clicks Black & White presets include a full range of monochrome looks plus a menu of color tints and options.
4. Finishing Enhancers help make your photos pop with effects ranging from fill flash to customizable vignettes.
5. Quick Clicks Customizers allow you to save your favorite combinations so you can apply them any time with a single click.

Presets: What’s the Difference?
Unlike Actions, presets don’t work directly in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. They work in Adobe Lightroom or with Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), the separate image-processing software that ships with Photoshop. To use MCP Quick Clicks Collection Presets, you’ll need:
• For Lightroom (LR) version: Lightroom 2 or Lightroom 3
• For Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) version: Photoshop CS3, CS4, or CS5

Please note that MCP Quick Clicks Collection is NOT compatible with the version of ACR included with Photoshop Elements. You must have Photoshop CS3 or later to use the ACR product.

RAW or JPEG: What’s Your Flavour?
Whether you shoot RAW, JPEG, or both, there’s a version of MCP Quick Clicks Collection optimized for you. The base price of $179.99 includes either the RAW or JPEG-optimized version. If you’d like to be able to use MCP Quick Clicks for all your RAW and JPEG shots, you can choose the RAW+JPEG version for $219.99.

Introductory Offer: No Trick, It’s MCP’s Treat
Ready to give your photos the power and flexibility of MCP Quick Clicks Collection? MCP has allowed me to extend this offer to you. Now through October 31st, the complete set of more than 200 presets is available at an introductory offer of just $149.99 for RAW or JPEG ($189.99 for RAW+JPEG version).
This $30 savings is a thank you for being one of the first to own MCP Quick Clicks Collection. Download today and get ready for some scary-good photos this Halloween and beyond.

<<< Purchase MCP Quick Clicks Collection for Lightroom >>>
OR
<<< Purchase MCP Quick Clicks Collection for Adobe Camera Raw >>>

 

And as a final offer from me if you would like to see how one of your photos looks using the presets for the first 5 people that send me a message via my contact form (look in the ‘This is Me’ section at the top of my blog for my contact form) I’ll send you a couple of examples using your photo. Any questions just post a comment below and I’ll get back to you.