All About Lightroom Presets (10 Surprising Benefits and Must-Know Tips)
From the moment you pick up your camera (or iPhone) and snap your first photo… Lightroom Presets are placed on your radar. These automatic photography editing settings are touted as ‘magical’, ‘transformative,’ and ‘the secret to stunning images’...and honestly? They are. When used together with a thoughtfully composed, intentionally lit, and well-captured photo, Lightroom Presets can transform your work into a true artistic masterpiece.
So what exactly are Lightroom Presets? And how are they used in the editing workflow?
To understand Lightroom Presets, let’s first talk about the software makes all this magic happen. Adobe Lightroom (LR) is a powerful yet easy to use photo editing software that is used by the professionals and every day people who inspire you with their polished jaw-dropping portfolios and scroll-stopping Instagram posts.
Photographers use this all-in-one software to import, edit, organize, and share their photos. Lightroom’s powerful but intuitive editing capabilities allow for adjustments like white balance, tint, exposure, tonal curves, color grading, camera calibration, and so much more.
Lightroom is easily the best editing software for the modern photography professional. Bold statement? Maybe. But we believe in it so much that we’ve created our entire line of presets specifically to use with Lightroom!
WHAT ARE LIGHTROM PRESETS?
Think of Lightroom Presets as pre-built templates that can be easily applied to any of your photos to instantly color grade correct for brightness, contrast, blur, shadows, and many other settings that totally transform the style and “mood” of an image.
(Be sure to check out our best-selling Lightroom presets).
The best part? These small and quick changes can make a BIG impact on your photos and how your audience perceives your work!
Presets allow you to edit your photos consistently due to their simplicity and ease of use. This means you will free up precious time which can then be used to engage with your audience, or create more content!
When people first consider “What are lightroom presets?” many believe that they are synonymous with filters. The truth is, this is technically incorrect, although both filters and presets do edit photos.
Let’s dive into the details a bit more together, to better understand the differences.
DO PROFESSIONALS USE LIGHTROOM PRESTES?
Yes, professionals absolutely use Lightroom Presets!
One of Adobe Lightroom's most valuable feature set is easily the photo editing presets.
So, what are Lightroom presets best used for? In two words, global adjustments.
This is the type of editing where the preset instantly changes the entire image’s contrast, white balance of the picture, exposure, etc.
Lightroom Presets also provide the ability to modify the Higher Dynamic Range. This allows for adjustments in fine-tuning the lightest and darkest parts of your images.
Professionals and every-day content editors use them as a foundation for their edits. In photography, people benefit from a faster workflow with using Lightroom Presets.
Let’s say someone needs to make global adjustment to correct a specific attribute in an image (maybe it’s too bright or too dark or the colors didn’t come out as intended). So they will usually pick a preset to achieve a specific look, and then fine tune other elements of the image.
While not all content editing professionals follow this process, the vast majority of them do.
Lightroom presets provide global adjustments on an image. However, they cannot fix small flaws in the image itself.
Because of this, professionals often do not use them for making physical object edits. Detailed edits such as flaws in the background, or even on the subject itself cannot be repaired or removed using Lightroom presets.
10 REASONS TO INVEST IN FLOURISH LIGHTROOM PRESETS
Although it might seem overwhelming to start using these “techy” professional grade presets, they are quite easy to use and you’ll wonder why you didn’t start using them sooner!
Simply choose a Flourish Preset that matches your mood. You’ll find these saved inside your Lightroom app on the List of imported custom presets in the Presets Panel.
2. Time Saver
Saving time and a maintaining a steady workflow are both important in the path to becoming a better photographer or a more professional content editor.
Professionals say that Lightroom Presets improves their workflow and increases engagement across socials.
A preset is a time saving template. To apply a preset within the Adobe Lightroom app literally takes one click. You’ve captured the moment, now capture their hearts!
3. Easy to Quickly Compare & Contrast Various Filters
Lightroom comes with a feature that allows you to quickly preview the various presets you have! This can be found in the navigator box.
4. Increased Consistency
With presets, you can now apply the same global photo treatments to all of your photos. This will allow your photos to have a consistent, professional look.
Pro-tip: If you routinely use your favorite preset in your content it’ll quickly becomes your “signature” look part of your personal brand!
5. Easy to Make Adjustments and Customize
Are you a perfectionist and seek a very specific look? Maybe your presets are “almost” perfect and you still need to make some minor changes? No worries, Lightroom has got you covered. Lightroom users are free to change, customize, and even save their own presets.
This allows you, the user, to really tap into the fullest potential of you creativity and time into making the perfect preset.
6. It Becomes the Foundation of Your Edits
Often, after you apply a preset, only minor adjustments are needed.
The adjustments may range from a quick change of contrast or layering another preset on top of the earlier one.
With so many people joining social media as influencers or as a business, the need for fast edits with maximum results has never been greater.
Lightroom Presets (for mobile and desktop devices) are able to deliver that in less time.
7. Batch Editing
One of the most popular features in Lightroom is batch editing. Batch editing allows you to edit a large number of photos at the same time.
Let’s pretend you took 112 weddings photos for your client.
It would take a considerably long time to manually edit every single picture, but with Lightroom presets you can apply a preset to all of the pictures at once.
While you may still need to add some minor fixes, these minor fixes will only take a couple of minutes and some adjustments to the settings vs hours of editing.
8. Inexpensive SolutionWith all of the benefits and convenience that presets provide, people may think that professional grade presets would be expensive to buy.
Fortunately, our presets are very affordable and come with BOTH mobile (ideal for editing on the go) AND desktop (professional edits) formats!
Our value bundles contain several hand-picked collections for even more cost savings. You’re welcome 😊
9. Protect the Original While Editing
Yet another benefit to editing content with Lightroom.
The app does not edit the original image directly, it only edits a copy of it. Which means that the original photo is safe and preserved from accidental whoops edits!
The file from Lightroom can also be exported as different type files for added convenience.
10. Side by Side Comparisons
Many image editing apps do not provide a side-by-side comparison.
Users are often forced to manually open two tabs and put them side by side.
However, in Adobe Lightroom this problem is solved by providing you the “split modes” which allows for a quick side-by-side glance to compare the photo before and after your preset edits.
HOW TO USE PRESETS IN LIGHTROOM
Now you may be wondering how to use presets, there are only a few steps required, which makes them very user friendly.
- Select a photo and click the “edit” icon. Click Presets at the bottom column of the edit panels.
- Choose a category in the panel to access your presets. Click to apply. That’s it! Photo editing presets are also stackable which means you can layer more than one preset to achieve unlimited effects.
- To see how the preset would affect your photo, hover your mouse over it and the picture will change itself as a preview (but will still not be fully applied). Deleting or removing the preset can be done by simply using the “Undo/Revert to Original” command.
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PRESETS VS FILTERS
1. Presets
Yes, it may seem to be a subtle difference. But in the world of photography, every detail provides the key to achieving your desired content output.
Presets can produce images that are more consistent. Even if it is your first time using a preset, you can generally produce a higher quality photo than by just applying filters on it.
BONUS: Using of presets in your business or portfolio will show-case your professionalism and will earn you some respect from your fellow photographers and followers!
2. Filters
There are many types of filters out there right now.
From physical filters that are added to our camera lenses to add the desired effect, to electronic filters that are applied in many social media apps (such as Instagram, Snapchat, and many others).
Photographic Filters
Traditional physical filters have many use cases, from protecting the camera’s lens, to allowing certain colors to pop, helping reduce reflections from objects (polarizing filters), to diffusion filters that can change the focus of the lens (like fisheye lens), etc.
Social Media Filters
These electronic filters have notable disadvantages, especially with regards to consistency. In terms of consistency, this mean the results on the details, (not on the filter) will differ.
For example, if you take 5 photos from a variety of angles, and lighting, then apply the filter on them, the results will become inconsistent between photos. Some will look good, some average, and some will just look bad.
But, filters from Instagram or Snapchat may be your best choice if you are in a rush and the photo is only used for personal purposes.
Lastly, never use a filter and upload it to your business account or portfolio, it does not demonstrate your true photographic abilities.
When you compare Lightroom presets to its brother, photo editing filters, it all depends on the usage or purpose.
If you want a more consistent and professional look to your photos choose a good preset company with a strong track record for quality that provides exceptional customer support. If you want a faster, less consistent photo for personal purposes then a filter would be appropriate.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DESKTOP + MOBILE PRESETS
One of the best things about Lightroom is you can use their software + your presets on Desktop AND Mobile. Mobile Presets are designed for compressed JPEG Mobile and Drone Images whereas Desktop Presets are designed for RAW images.
Ultimately, this capability allows you to create consistency between your social and professional work (with the click of a button anywhere you go!). How’s that for brand cohesiveness?
Elevate your editing with our Lightroom Desktop + Mobile Presets, HERE
Should you sue photoshop and Lightroom Presets? Yes, you should consider using both of them together!
However, this decision will depend on your goals.
If you are seeking highly detailed photos that are heavily edited, then you should use Photoshop.
Taking photos of models up-close may sometimes show their imperfections which can be edited out using Photoshop to do skin smoothing, get rid of their crowfeet, or even make some body parts… more toned.
On the other hand, if you are someone who does not need a very detailed edit (i.e. for social media), Lightroom Presets should be just fine for you.
CONCSLUSION
Lightroom Presets are very useful in producing quality photos with minimum effort. These tools are used by casual social media posters, professional photographers, and editors in the photography industry.
Although they may appear very similar, filters are different from presets. Presets are able to provide global adjustments to the photo and are highly customizable, while filters are not.
Professionals highly recommend Adobe Lightroom Presets to use for quick overall editing.
Although both Photoshop and Lightroom Presets have their advantages and drawbacks, both can be used to get the best results in content editing.
Lightroom is used for an overall image adjustment, while Photoshop is used for a more detailed manipulations on specific areas of the image.
Lightroom Presets provide several benefits: they are simple, efficient, and provide a high level of consistency.
There is a large variety of presets available. Lightroom Presets also allow you to edit in bulk. Lightroom also only edits a copy of the original, leaving the original safe and protected. Lightroom presets are also very affordable.
Presets themselves are very simple to use, just open the edit icon, click on presets, choose the desired preset and apply! Happy editing.
GET YOUR PRESETS NOW
Let’s Flourish together and save time while elevating your content into timeless memories. Shop Flourish Presets, today!
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