How do you build realistic ReShade presets without overprocessing the image?
Hey guys,
I’m looking for some advice on making more realistic looking reshade presets across different games.
My goal is usually not to make games look overly cinematic, stylized or obviously “reshaded”. I’m mainly trying to make the image look more natural, grounded and believable by reducing things like overly vivid colours, strange colour bias, crushed blacks, washed out highlights, harsh sharpening, excessive bloom or anything else that can make the image look too artificial.
I’m generally happy with the results I get but there are a few areas I’d like to improve on so I’d really appreciate some feedback on the shaders I usually use and how best to approach them.
For colour grading, I usually use:
- Colour Isolation to remove colour bias and tone down unnatural colours.
- prod80’s Correct Color, though I’ve mostly stopped using it because freezing the correction can cause visual glitches, especially in the sky.
- Marty’s Lightroom, mainly for saturation and colour range adjustments.
- Colourfulness and Vibrance, used very subtly at the end if the image becomes too desaturated or still feels too vivid.
One issue I run into a lot is that games often have very strong default colour grading, so I desaturate to compensate. My issue is that I often feel like I go too far and the image starts looking lifeless. How do you usually find the right balance between natural colour and visual richness?
For tonemapping/contrast, I tend to use:
- Marty’s ReGrade
- Marty’s Lightroom
- prod80’s Contrast/Brightness/Saturation
- prod80’s Shadows, Midtones and Highlights
- RA Image Adjustment
This is probably the part I struggle with most. I can usually get close, but I’m rarely fully satisfied with the blacks, shadows, whites and highlights. Shadows either feel slightly crushed, washed out or just not sitting naturally in the image. What shaders or methods do you use to get the levels looking right without losing detail?
For sharpening/clarity, I usually use:
- Marty’s Sharpening
- CAS
- Marty’s Clarity or similar local contrast tools
I like subtle sharpening, but I really dislike the crispy, digital overprocessed look. What sharpening methods do you find most realistic, and how do you avoid overdoing it?
For lighting, I sometimes use Marty’s RTGI Diffuse and Specular, mainly in games that do not already have ray tracing or path tracing included natively. I like the extra depth it can add but I find it difficult to tune without causing issues like ghosting and trailing, where part of the image seems to stay imprinted on screen after movement. Sometimes I need to reload the shaders to clear it. Is that just a limitation of RTGI or are there settings that can help reduce it?
I’m also curious how you deal with bad or inconsistent auto-exposure in games. Do you usually fix that with exposure, levels, curves, Lightroom, regrade or something else? I often find that fixing interiors can make exteriors look wrong and vice versa.
Finally, I would like to ask what order do you usually work in? Do you start with exposure/levels first, then tonemapping, colour correction, colour grading, sharpening, AO/lighting, etc., or does it depend entirely on the game?
I’d appreciate any feedback on these shaders, better alternatives or general advice in terms of workflow. I’m not trying to make every game look the same, just trying to get more consistent at making natural looking hyper realistic presets without overprocessing the image.
I’ve attached a few before/after screenshots as well, just to give you an idea of the kind of results I usually get and what I’m aiming for. Feel free to be honest with the feedback. I’m mainly trying to improve my process.