About a month ago I wrote a tool that I called the Lightroom Preset Extractor.  Recent versions of Lightroom have started embedding xmp sidecar data into the EXIF of images that are exported.  Flickr has started recognizing this data and makes it available via the Flickr API.  Check out this page to see an example: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mjwiacek/3636420436/meta/. You’ll see values for Clarity, Exposure, Vibrance, etc.  What the Preset Extractor does is grab this data and convert the EXIF info into a Lightroom preset file for you to download.

If there is a photo on Flickr that makes you ask, “How’d they post process that?” and it’s  licensed in the Creative Commons or is part of our Lightroom Preset Flickr Group, the tool should be able to extract a Lightroom Preset.  The intention of this tool is to help you learn about post processing and demystify Lightroom sliders.  It doesn’t work with every photo on Flickr (only about 15%), as not everyone is using the latest version of Lightroom.  However, when you find a photo that does it does work with, it’s a lot of fun!  Use the presets as a starting point for coming up with your own style.  As always, do the right thing and give credit where credit is due!

Try it out!  All of the photos in our group should work fine with the Preset Extractor.  Share your thoughts!!