I’m an 80’s kid. I was a huge fan of Blockbuster, until its unfortunate end. I’ll never forget walking the aisles, reading the back of the VHS boxes, the giant popcorn bowls and candy boxes at the checkout. I was always the huge box of Hot Tamales type. Sometimes everyone agreed on a movie, sometimes not but everyone sat together and watched.
It’s so wild how far we’ve come from Blockbuster stores. Now, the whole family can watch whatever they want on their own personal device. It’s bittersweet for me. I love having access to unlimited shows and movies from the comfort of my own home, but I miss Blockbuster. I miss the experience.
So, why did such a great company fail? Well, a new competitor Netflix, came out and they were mailing DVD’s directly to consumers homes. Redbox machines were popping up in grocery stores. In short, Blockbuster refused to mail videos, they refused to have convenient, self serve machines in grocery stores, etc. Therefore, refusing to adapt which ultimately caused their demise. Hence the reason for this blog. I found myself in a Blockbuster type of dilemma a few years prior when Lightroom presets were gaining popularity.
Photography presets were becoming increasingly popular and I was adamantly opposed to using them. Some of them just looked awful to me and I couldn’t figure out why anyone would want to use them. It takes so much effort to get a great shot in camera, then we slap a preset on it, completely changing many aspects we worked so hard for? It didn’t make sense. At the time, I was on social media and I began comparing. I started thinking my photos were great because they didn’t look like everyone else’s. They lacked that consistency. Which is funny to me now because that consistency isn’t even the hard work that goes into photography, it’s literally just a preset.
Amateur photographers could break every single rule of photography but as long as they used a preset, they were good. Cutting heads off in horizon lines, not following the rule of thirds, have zero depth of field, incorrect lighting were somehow all okay now as long as a preset was slapped on.
So, the decision was obvious, I had to use presets or lose bookings like Blockbuster. And because I love photography, I was willing to adapt to please my customers, in current trends. Obviously, I still feel bittersweet about it or I wouldn’t be sharing this. But through experience, I’ve learned that some of the presets actually make the photos really pop, and they’re beautiful. Other times they just don’t work for me. I’ve included examples here.
This top photo looks great with the preset (Wilde - Cozy Christmas Collection). However, the solo portrait of my daughter below, just didn’t work. When I deliver a portrait of a child’s face, I want that little face as close to natural as possible. I want to capture every freckle on that face and the color/contrast it actually is.
I feel that balance is a lifelong practice for me and presets are proof of it. I try my best daily to balance motherhood, business, self care, contributing to the world, etc. I’ve found that it’s best to offer both natural and preset photos in my client galleries. I always include the original (lightly retouched image) and a copy with the preset. That way, if they don’t love the preset they don’t lose the photo. That is what I found works best for me.