I had some time this weekend to try out the “Through the Woods” landscape workflow created by Sleeklens. This is a set of Lightroom presets and brushes (they have solutions for Photoshop as well) that can help simplify image editing. They also provide a set of video tutorials explaining how to install the tools and use them as an image processing workflow.
I had no problems getting things up and running and watched their videos to see how they intend the tools to be used. Their presets are nicely organized. Presets apply image adjustments globally to your image. The Sleeklens workflows include some “all in one” presets that work as an overall filter (similar to something you might use with Instagram) for your image, adjusting many of Lightroom’s controls to create a specific look. You can then apply specific presets to adjust exposure/highlights/shadows, color correction, contrast and clarity, and other details. These effects can be layered on top of each other to create the look you desire for your photo. You can then use the brushes included in the product to make local adjustments to color, contrast, and other aspects of the image. The brushes can be used with both the graduated filter tool and the adjustment brush tool. At any time you can take control of the Lightroom sliders to make adjustments manually.
I am very familiar with Lightroom and have an established set of tools that I use regularly. I consider the presets provided by Sleeklens as another item in my toolkit. I particularly liked the set of brushes as I have typically brought images into Photoshop to make some of the adjustments that these brushes make possible. After processing an image using the Sleeklens workflow, I would recommend looking through the Lightroom adjustments that it makes. As an example, I don’t care for the sharpness and noise reduction settings that it applies and would rather set those myself (which is easy enough to do).
The Sleeklens “Through the Woods” workflow that I tested is available here: https://sleeklens.com/product/landscape-lightroom-presets/
You can find their full set of presets here: https://sleeklens.com/product-category/lightroom-presets
I used one of my Horseshoe Bend images as a test case for the workflow. The unedited (all Lightroom defaults) image is shown below. I then used the Sleeklens workflow, starting with their “Shine Into the Sunset” all-in-one preset, to process the image. The final image is shown at the bottom of this post.
Horseshoe Bend, Arizona with Lightroom Defaults
Horseshoe Bend, Arizona edited with Sleeklens Through the Woods Workflow