{"id":172944,"date":"2022-08-22T12:17:35","date_gmt":"2022-08-22T11:17:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/?p=172944"},"modified":"2022-08-22T16:33:53","modified_gmt":"2022-08-22T15:33:53","slug":"best-adobe-lightroom-presets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/buying-advice\/best-adobe-lightroom-presets\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Adobe Lightroom presets"},"content":{"rendered":"

A great Lightroom Preset not only gives an image a new lease of life and can raise its quality to the next level, but it can also drastically speed up your workflow. Emma Davenport rounds up some of the best options available for photographers tackling their post-processing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Best Adobe Lightroom presets for photographers<\/h2>\n

Technically, your photo is sound, the exposure is spot on, the composition is solid and you\u2019ve worked hard to get the lighting just right. But something\u2019s not right and it just doesn\u2019t have the punch you pictured when you were shooting it. Does this sound familiar?<\/p>\n

Working as a professional wedding photographer the \u201cwediting<\/strong>\u201d churn throughout mid to late summer can get really overwhelming. The season always starts with great intentions to keep on top of the workload, but it\u2019s not very long before my left eye starts gets the overtired floating blur and RSI sets in. No matter how many shortcuts are memorised, or workflow systems tweaked it always feels like the image-editing process is never fast enough<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Sure, there are plenty of places offering post-production services and if you\u2019re more interesting shooting and spending time in the field with your clients there\u2019s no shame in this. But, for me, it\u2019s never felt appropriate. As well as eating into precious profits, there\u2019s something that\u2019s never felt quite right about completely letting go of the control of how my final images will look, and how they\u2019re presented to my clients.<\/p>\n

It’s not unusual to have to edit 1,000+ images over the course of a week, maybe more if you\u2019re shooting back-to-back sessions. It\u2019s do-able once you get into a rhythm and have your workflow perfected (I find setting myself much smaller chunks and scheduling mini breaks helps things feel a lot more achievable).<\/p>\n

But when you have such a high volume of edits to get through on a week-by-week basis, the notion of individually working through each image from scratch, perfecting the white balance and exposure and fine-tuning curves and levels becomes massively unrealistic. After all, your clients are patiently waiting and often very excited to see the end results. That \u2018Auto Sync\u2019 button will only get you so far\u2026<\/p>\n

Here’s where having some really great Lightroom presets in your armoury can really help you to achieve punchier shots and a stack of time.<\/p>\n

\n

Lightroom presets – what are they good for?<\/h2>\n

Now, let me reiterate that a good Lightroom preset is never going to be a one-click solution<\/strong> to achieving a perfect image. You are always going to have to do a BIT of work to make the images sing.<\/p>\n

I like to think of them more as an \u2018primer\u2019<\/strong>. They\u2019re a quick way of checking out variations on your image you might not have thought of yourself \u2013 or simply don\u2019t have time to do. With a lot of the groundwork done for you, a few quick adjustments can be made to suit your image and the overall look you\u2019re going for. Most of the time, this means only have to concentrate on basic tweaks such as white balance or exposure and any spot adjustments, of course.<\/p>\n

In Lightroom, you can fly through some options and check out the preset effects by glancing at the \u2018Navigator\u2019 preview and there’s very little lag.<\/p>\n

Some will radically change the overall appearance of a shot; they might give your image a vintage effect, apply a radical colour cast or quickly transform your monochrome shots into black and white, or they can be really subtle and simply be a quick way to tweak your image curves or contrast.<\/p>\n

Free Lightroom presets – why pay more?<\/h3>\n

Lightroom comes with a few presets as standard<\/strong>. A quick Google of ‘free lightroom presets’ will also throw up a load more. So why on earth would you ever consider paying out $100s for a set?<\/p>\n

Freebies are great for getting your head around Lightroom presets work, but the outcomes aren’t that exciting and often quite heavy-handed. You really get what you pay for when it comes to presets. As well as technical support for photographers, many of these have been tried and tested with a particular genre of photography in mind. The more expensive presets also bundle in Lightroom profiles and make use of Adobe Look up Tables (LUTs) for more finely-tuned colour correction and grading.<\/p>\n

Not only that, but some of the more expensive preset companies have a great community surrounding their products. You can share and get support from other photographers and educate yourself at the same time. When you’re working on your own, getting feedback from other photographers who are using exactly the same product can be invaluable and inspirational. If you can get more commissions because your work really stands out, it’s not long before these presets pay for themselves.<\/p>\n

It might take a while for you to find some presets that really click with you and how you want to showcase your work. Here are some recommendations for places to look<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Once you get the hang of what they do, and how they enhance your work you can set about making your own versions and tweaks for future use!<\/p>\n

\n

Top Adobe Lightroom preset developers<\/h2>\n

Archipelago Lightroom Presets & Profiles<\/a><\/h2>\n

Price | $49-$98 per bundle<\/h3>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\"best\t\t\t

FourxFive preset before and after from Archipelago Presets. Photo credit: Liam Rimmington<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n

Archipelago often fresh their presets to keep on top of the latest editing trends . Its selection is clearly split into four different looks; \u2018Earthy\u2019, \u2018Modern\u2019, \u2018Moody\u2019 and \u2018Filmic\u2019. Photographers are given extra control over the final look of their images with the addition of Creative Profiles that are offered which each bundle.<\/p>\n

The Archipelago creative profiles allows image-editors to apply effects that are added on top of a profile. These can then be controlled with an \u201cAmount\u201d or intensity slider, in a similar way that you would be able to tweak an Adjustment Layer in Photoshop.<\/p>\n

Support and guidance from Archipelago is excellent with plenty of tutorials and helpful articles to sink your teeth into. Choosing a preset is a bit like being in a sweet shop, but the handy before and after sliders make it quick to browse. The clear descriptions as to how each preset affects tone, shadows and highlights helps with the decision making too.<\/p>\n