How to Create ISO Adaptive Presets in Lightroom 9.3
One of the interesting new features added to the latest version of Lightroom is the ability to create ISO adaptive presets. What this means is that you can create presets that will change their settings depending on the ISO of the image to which they’re applied. Creating these is actually pretty straight forward, but there are a few things you should consider.
How to create an Adaptive ISO Preset
To create one of these new Adaptive ISO presets in Lightroom, you simply select two or more images of different ISO settings from which to create your presets, and then when creating a new preset check the box for creating an adaptive ISO preset. Here are the instructions step by step:
Step 1 - Select and Prepare Your Source Images
Make sure you have your images ready from which to create the presets. You will need at least two images of different ISO values (you can have more than two). You then need to apply the settings to each image, including changes between the two for anything you want to change with the ISO setting
For example, if you wanted to create a preset for sharpening and noise reduction, that had different values depending not he ISO settings, then set these settings on your source images. If you want to have other settings that don’t change with the ISO value, then make sure that these settings are the same on all your source images. For example, if you wanted to add contrast to the sharpening and noise reduction settings but wanted it to be constant, then make sure that this value is the same between images. For demonstration purposes, here are the settings I’m going to use in this demo:
| ISO | Noise Reduction | Sharpening Amount |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 0 | 40 |
| 800 | 20 | 30 |
Step 2 - Create Your Preset
From the Filmstrip in the Develop module, select both images. Make sure both are selected and then go to the top of the preset browser and click on the + button and choose Create Preset.
This will bring up the New Develop Preset dialog. Check the settings that you want to save, and uncheck any setting that you don’t want to be part of the preset. At the bottom of the window, make sure to check the option that says: Create ISO Adaptive Preset.
Once you click Create this will create your new adaptive preset.
How does this work if you apply to a different ISO value?
So you may be wondering what happens if you apply the preset to an image with a different ISO value form one of the ones that you stored in the preset. Well, if it’s between the two values, the adjustments get interpolated. If it’s outside the rage, then it stays whatever the nearest is.
What does this mean in practical terms?
let’s say you created a preset with a different value for Luminance noise reduction. You used two images, one ISO100 and the other ISO800. For ISO 100 you set the noise reduction value to zero, and for ISO 800 you set it to 20.
If you then apply this to an image at ISO400 it will set the noise reduction value on that image to 10. The same will apply to any settings you have stored as part of the preset.
In this same example, if you apply the preset to an image of ISO1600 it will just use the ISO800 value of 20.
The upshot of this is that you don’t need to use every conceivable ISO value as source images to create your ISO presets. Just use images at either end of the scale and it will interpolate the rest. Of course you can use more than one.
A Valuable feature
ISO Adaptive presets are a pretty valuable new feature, and makes the creation of certain types of presets much more convenient for end users. But where I think these will be most valuable is with the new(ish) defaults system in Lightroom. As you can now set your defaults for specific camera models to be based on presets, having those presets vary by ISO is highly valuable. It takes a little planning to set up, but once you do it can save you a lot of time with your workflow.
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