A soldier

Sometimes, when I have no good idea for a Friday special something, I would just pick a decent photo and go through all the presets I have in my Ligtroom. And I am quite a colector, basically downloading everything what is free and thinking about the use later. I have rather disorganized 220 presets (can you believe it?). From time to time, I will go and try and make subfolders and stuff, but with new version coming of old presets it probably makes more mess then help. Where do I take all the presets from? Lightroom Killer Tips is one of pages worth checking, and X-Equals has some free presets as well. But sometimes I see a link on somebody’s blog or on Twitter, and just add to my collection and forget where it was from.
Anyway, one of those no-idea day is today. I had this image of a single soldier, right in the middle of the frame, and wanted to do something interesting with it. Don’t get me wrong- I really think the composition works for this image, I like it overall. The soldier is in Napoleon-era outfit, an actor in the reconstruction of the Fort of Srebrna Gora battle from 1807. It is just asking for an aging treatment. I tried several different sepias, and it was just not doing it for me. So I went through my presets one by one, watching if something catches my eye. I “aged” the photo with Matt’s Old Fashioned Look, and through just for fun Matt’s Sin City on it, which added back reds to black-and white image. It is far more interesting now, and tells the story better. Don’t you think?