Vince DeSantiago is a Photographer and Art Director based in Chicago. Coming from a background in art & design, Vince utilizes his experience in order to create photography that tells a story and holds some water. Vince often leans on friends and clients to help him make sure he achieves photography that everyone can be proud of. Here, he shares the background in creating the Adobe preset, which is now offered to the Leica Instagram community in celebration of reaching an incredible community of 500,000 fans. You can download the preset via this link.

Please share a bit of your background and professional experience as a photographer.

I’ve been shooting for my whole life, really. Growing up there were always cameras around. I would pick them up and figure out how to work them. It wasn’t until high school that I started taking film and photography seriously. I went to college for film but changed my major 2 years later to Graphic Design. Throughout college I took multiple photography classes just because I enjoyed taking photos as a hobby. A few years into my professional career I realized that photography brought me a lot more satisfaction than design did so I started taking steps to make that my primary focus in my career.

Can you please describe what Leica equipment do you use and how do you compare it with other similar equipment?

My first Leica was a Leica Q (Typ 116). I was lucky enough to work with Leica on the launch of the new Leica TL so I have that as well as the Summilux-TL 50mm 1.4. Compared to other gear I’ve used, the quality of the Leica is far better. When I would go out to shoot I used to bring out all my camera gear. I soon found that having all these options was inhibiting my creativity.

You designed an Adobe Lightroom Preset, can you please share some of the main characteristics photographers can find with this preset?

The preset I made was created mainly for architectural photography. I strive to convey certain moods in my photos and one type of aesthetic I absolutely love is the dark, gloomy feeling Chicago gets in the winter.

What was the process for creating this filter? Was there a particular need you had while doing picture processing?

The photo I made this preset for was shot on a rainy day in Chicago so I wanted to accentuate that gloominess that was already present in the existing photo.

An important aspect of the color rendering is that it is not suitable for faces, since the oranges get quite saturated. Can you explain this a bit more?

Like I mentioned before, this preset is mostly meant for architecture but does, in fact, work for some portraits. It all really depends on the temperature the photo was shot at. I enjoy giving my photos a strong pop of blood orange so the oranges in this preset are pretty pronounced.

You have a strong following on Instagram, would you say this preset is thought out as a tool for fast but effective post-processing, i.e. to share on social media?

This preset is probably the base for 50% of my recent photography. I always tell people that the majority of the time tweaks will have to be made to each photos. Rarely do I ever apply a preset I’ve made and immediately export the photo. What the presets are meant to do is give you a solid base to work from. Each photo will have it’s specific nuances that need finessing.

Lastly, would you like to share some of the projects you might be working on right now or something else about the preset?

I’m in the process of shooting some apparel for a couple companies as well as working out the details for an upcoming project with Leica. Some super exciting things are coming down the pipeline and I’m ridiculously excited to share what I shoot with my Leica gear with all of you.

Thank you Vince!

To know more about Vince DeSantiago, please visit his official website. 

To download the preset, please follow this link.

All Leica customers who purchase a Leica digital camera receive a
90-day membership of Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan including
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC.