[adwb]

in the develop mode of LR v3 on the left are the presets supplied that you can apply to a image.

if they are to strong how do you tone them down?

in PS they would be a layer and you could adjust the opacity but I can't see how you do that in LR?

[jatrax]

Whatever the preset does is shown on the sliders on the right. So if the preset adjusts WB, look at the WB settings and apply the preset, you will see the sliders change. If you want to adjust the effect just change the sliders.

LR can be hard for PS users to get used to because it is not a pixel editor, nothing ever gets changed. All you are doing is making a 'script' that will be used to create an export file (jpeg or TIFF) or a print.

[vladimiroltean]

in the develop mode of LR v3 on the left are the presets supplied that you can apply to a image.

if they are to strong how do you tone them down?

in PS they would be a layer and you could adjust the opacity but I can't see how you do that in LR?

Manually. You check what exactly is "too strong" and you turn it down.

[adwb]

Thanks guy, I realised that however in a lot of cases there are many individual sliders that create the effect and moving one or two alters the effect, what I was hoping was there was a way to globally reducing the applied effect across all the sliders involved.
for example the selenium tone adjustment which has many slider combining to give the effect.
I realise I can create a clone copy, apply the effect and then open the original and the clone in PS and layer them then apply opacity to tone it down but thats a long winded way of doing things is it not?

[jatrax]

however in a lot of cases there are many individual sliders that create the effect and moving one or two alters the effect, what I was hoping was there was a way to globally reducing the applied effect across all the sliders involved.

That's Lightroom. I understand what you are trying to do, but I cannot think of any way to do it except what has already been mentioned. You could take the preset, adjust to suit and save as a new preset, but I'm sure you knew that.

There may be third party software (plugins) that would allow what you want, but none I am aware of. I think Lightroom does 90% of what most photographers need but there are things it just does not do. Edit in an external editor for the final 10%. Maybe in LR5

[crewl1]

what I was hoping was there was a way to globally reducing the applied effect across all the sliders involved.

The way Lightroom works you can't just do that as there may be a slider that once you move it it may alter the effect negatively, such as a slider that removed all blues, now your black and white photo shows blue tint, when all you wanted was to lighten the contrast a bit.

Suggestions above are right on.

I also suggest you do a search for free LR presets on the web, there are a ton out there and you may find one in the category you are working that is more to your liking.

Example http://www.presetsheaven.com/

[adwb]

Thanks every one I suspected as much but just wanted to make sure I had not missed a trick somewhere

[riveredger]

Try the Fader plug-in --> The Fader | Capture Monkey. It will do what you want, but it is not as intuitive as using the opacity slider in PS.

[adwb]

Excellent just what I was looking for