Why Presets?
First Off
Lightroom presets are pre-made editing settings that can be applied to your photos with just a few clicks. These presets are likely created by professional photographers, who have spent countless hours harnessing their previous experience/experimenting with different editing techniques and color-grading styles to create a specific look or mood in their photos. All with the intention of understanding how editing helps them achieve their own identifiable look time and time again. While there are many different photo editing software options available, Lightroom is the most common choice among photographers for its intuitive interface and wide range of editing tools. Plus, it’s the most common platform for presets in the editing world.
Let’s Explore
Consistency in editing
One of the biggest benefits of using Lightroom presets is the ability to achieve a consistent photographic style. This could be a certain mood, color palette, photo warmth (or coldness), and so on. This isn’t always necessary as photographers should feel the agency to change up the look of their photos as they please, but using the same preset or set of presets on your images can be a catalyst for ensuring that your photos have a cohesive look and feel.
This can be especially useful for photographers who shoot in a specific field, such as wedding photography or landscape photography. Where skin tones, grass greens, dresses/suits, and sky hues need to be accurately represented over and over again in a photo set. By using presets, you can quickly apply the same editing settings to multiple images, saving time and effort in the editing process.
There’s even an option to have presets applied right when you import your photographs to Lightroom. This can be especially fun if you have presets that emulate film or have a base preset that you really enjoy. So when you begin reviewing your photos more carefully, you may be able to cull your images that much easier. Saving time and consistency in photo look will already be present.
Save time and effort
Your time is valuable and presets can help streamline your photo editing workflow. Instead of spending hours editing each photo individually, you can apply a single preset to your images and make minor adjustments as needed afterward. Right away you’ve got a collection of images that work well together and will assist in sparking a sense of ‘this person knows what they’re doing’ in viewers. That’s not to say they will make good images for you since it’s truly the compositions within the photos that’ll have viewers deciding that or not, but a consistent look will very likely help with that sense. This can be important to attracting new clients in whichever field you find yourself in.
Presets can be especially useful for photographers who shoot in bulk, such as event photographers or portrait photographers. Who often shoot hundreds of images and may not want to hire an photo editor to achieve a consistent look to deliver to clients. With Lightroom presets you can quickly edit large volumes of photos without sacrificing quality or consistency.
This aspect isn’t just relevant to event and portrait photographers though. For myself, when I do happen to shoot digital, I often come back with hundreds of images from a single outing. I feel a lot more relaxed knowing the presets I have are ready to be applied if I need them to be. Most of the time I’ll find a photo I’m really excited about, find which preset works well with it, and from there apply it to the rest of my images.
Learn new editing techniques
Perhaps the best reason to get presets: learning something new. There are many, many editing techniques out there and it’s impossible to stumble across all of them on your own. Instead, with presets, you let another creative photographer tell you what can be done. Saving you time and leaving you with skills and the know-how to achieve something specific, forever.
One example I can think of that helped me oh so long ago was when I purchased a preset pack from a photographer who I’d admired for a long time. His images were soft, and colorful, and were taken in the same landscape scenarios that I’d often find myself in. After taking a look at his presets, the most consistent edit I noticed was the heavy reduction of highlights and whites. This was in almost every single preset and, after taking time to apply the presets without the highlights and whites being affected, I learned that heavy reduction was what was responsible for adding a softer look to his images. That technique is still something I use to this day and I’ve always been thankful for having come across that.
Many presets are designed to mimic specific styles or looks, such as film (can be helpful with rising film prices) or your favorite photographers’ style. By applying these presets to your photos, you can see how the different editing settings affect the overall look and feel of your images. Helping you to discover your own over time. See my Kodak presets for assistance in helping achieve the look of some of Kodak’s classic film stocks.
Customize to your needs
While Lightroom presets are pre-made settings, they are not set in stone. You can customize the presets to your liking, making minor adjustments to the exposure, contrast, saturation, and other settings. This is actually something many preset creators would likely encourage. As it not only provides you with a foundation for finding your own style, but it could be the building blocks for creating your own presets!
I personally have purchased tons of preset packs in my time. These days I often will only buy them when I want to support a photographer that I really admire or if my curiosity really gets the best of me. Way back when though, when I was buying them left and right, I was also learning as much as I could about editing in general alongside my purchases. This helped me better understand the presets, be able to utilize them to the fullest, and (most importantly) get creative with them & create my own.
Many Lightroom presets come with multiple variations or versions, allowing you to choose the one that best fits your photo and editing style. It’s vital that you take the time to review the variations and check to see what the difference in preset variations. It’ll give you more of and in-depth look on what curve affects what part of the photo, how lowered highlights affects overall softness, and so on.
Can you guess which of my presets was applied to this iPhone image?
Cost-effective
Finally, Lightroom presets can be a cost-effective way to improve your photo editing. While purchasing individual presets or preset packs can add up over time, it's still a more affordable option than hiring a professional photo editor to edit your photos for you or purchasing expensive classes that are intended to teach you how to edit. Additionally, many preset creators offer free or low-cost presets, allowing you to try out different styles and find the ones that work best for you.
My Kodachrome 64 preset.
In conclusion
Lightroom presets are a powerful tool that can help improve your photo editing workflow and overall aesthetic. By providing consistency in editing, saving time and effort, allowing you to learn new editing techniques, customizing to your needs, and being cost-effective, Lightroom presets can benefit photographers of all levels and styles. Whether you're a professional photographer or just starting out, Lightroom presets are definitely worth exploring.