Sleeklens - Strike a Pose Workflow {review}

I am going to kick off my 2018 blogging a tad differently than my normal session posts, with a product review!!!

While it may seem that a photographer's job is simply going to fun locations with beautiful clients and snapping pictures, the reality is that about 90% of our job is spent sitting in front a computer. Editing and post processing can be an extremely tedious process, so I was super excited when Sleeklens asked me to try out their editing workflow, since I am ALL about saving time and finding a simpler and easier way to deliver a beautiful final product to my clients.

Sleeklens- Strike a Pose workflow is composed of two elements- The Strike a Pose Preset set, and the Strike a Pose Brush Set. The Strike a Pose Brush set was incompatible with my version of Lightroom (6) so we will be focusing primarily on the Presets, diving in to both how they work on their own, and then how they can be stacked and used together. Every image shown in this post was only edited with the Sleeklens presets, no additional changes were made so that you can see just how awesome they are!

There are 70 presets included in the Strike a Pose set so I have divided them into two categories: All-in-One,

and "Miscellanious Adjustments"

All -In- One

The All-in-One collection is a lot of fun. There are 25 All-in-One presets which includes everything from Matte to Vibrant finishes as well as 5 black and whites.

As with any presets, your final product will greatly differ depending on how you shoot I did find that since I tend to shoot on the darker side (In order to keep my highlights from being blown out) that I was having to go in and bring my highlights back up or it had a more muted look than I would normally like in my final images, But all in all I found that these worked really well with all of my images. The presets that were meant to have crisp and vibrant colors (such as Edgy Radiance and Portrait - Golden) did so without that overly saturated look that often happens with all inclusive presets. I LOVED the black and whites in this collection (Greyscale-Medium and Duo are shown below) Sleeklens did a really great job creating B&W presets that keeping the 3 c's (crisp, clean, contrast) that I have a hard time finding in other presets.

Edited with All in One - Duo

Edited with All in One- Love Bug

Edited with All In One- Edgy Radiance

Edited with All In One- Greyscale Medium

Edited with All in One- Portrait- Golden

Miscelanious Adjustments

The Remaining 55 presets are meant to be used together as sort of a buffet style "make-your-own preset" which I tend to enjoy more. You pick one of 12 bases, and then work your way down the line, adjusting your Exposure, correcting your color (I feel like I am going to use the Color Correct- Fix Red Skin quite a bit in the future). You then adjust your Tone/Tint, Polish it up by adjusting your contrast levels and then (optional) add a Vignette.

My Only negative about this product is their Vignette options. With all of their other lovely presets, I feel like the Vignette leaves a sour taste in my mouth. I would have loved to see some subtle options, a slight darkening of the corners to tie the image together and instead we are left with a VERY dramatic, very early 2000's, completely either black or white corners which I feel completely distracts from an otherwise fantastic collection. (See Image Left, edited with Lovebug + Vignette White Dreamy)

That being said, it is a collection of 70 presets, and I would highly recommend about 60 of them, which if you have ever bought a preset package, you will know is an awesome ratio! (Trust me, I have bought preset packages where there are like only three or four usable presets)

I would recommend the Sleeklens - Strike a Pose Workflow to anyone looking for a way to speed up their editing process. I would also recommend this to people that are like me and "aren't really sure what they want to be when they grow up" as far as style is concerned, because it offers a great variety of different options, while also ensuring that they aren't compromising on a quality product.

Please check out their collection of Presets and all of the other awesome services that they offer here:

https://sleeklens.com/product/professional-photo-editing-service/

or if you are a Pinterest buff like myself, you can find all sorts of goodies here:

https://www.pinterest.com/sleeklens/lightroom-presets/

Or if you would like a video explaining more about these awesome presets:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXjFjEe9Yc6h5c06xJolHMFCLR5kOM7rq

Edited with Base- Edit 2