Fun with Presets

I was playing with Lightroom, and downloaded some presets from Matt Kloskowski...I decided to see how they worked with the photos from Italy.

This is one of my favorite images from that trip.

Then I applied the Matt's New York effect (medium). I think it gives it a much more romantic, old world look.

Then there was this church in Florence. It was right across Via Tournabuoni from our hotel. The facade was beautiful. We walked past it every trip we took in Florence, but we never went inside. I remember being so curious about what it was. After I got home, I figured out it was a church I should have visited. Ah well. This image is from my blackberry 8300...

and it isn't bad as blackberry camera snaps go. But with the same New York effect as above, isn't it more, well, old world than the original?

It's interesting to me that the photos themselves capture the image as it was, but it takes the preset to represent the feel that Sienna (first photo) and Florence had for me.

The point is play with the presets or filters or whatever comes with the photo processing software you have access to---you might find some fun results!