What are Lightroom Presets and why you should be using them?

We all have been there, you have captured an amazing photo with great composition, beautiful scenery, and a gorgeous subject, but it is missing a little something……like some of the best elements such as the colors, brightness, sharpness and more.  You want your pictures to look like the professionals take.  Well, let me show you how you can edit like a pro.  One of the most popular editing programs is Adobe Lightroom.  It is the easiest way to edit your photos using presets.  It is a great place to begin for editing images and will save you lots of long hours of editing.  In this post, I am going to share with you what is a preset, how does a preset work, information about Lightroom Desktop and Lightroom Mobile, and why you should use Lightroom Presets.  

What is a Lightroom Preset?

Presets are files that are loaded into Lightroom software and when applied to a photo, it will apply particular preset settings to an image such as colors, exposure, hues, shadows, contrast, texture, grain, and much more.  With presets, you click one button and your portrait can be changed in a subtle or dramatic way based on the preset’s settings.  Presets save lots of time from manually editing an image.  For example, check out this image:

This image above was cool and dark.  With the Elaine Pierce Beach Vibes Presets Collection, I was able to bring out the warm tones, contrast, brightness, and color of the image.  One click of this preset plus some minor adjustments brought this image to life.  Look at those beautiful golden tones!  Love!!

This image above was very dark and muddy looking.  I wanted to do a very different look with this image.  The ocean water is absolutely beautiful and so I wanted to highlight the beautiful blue tones while bringing out the pretty skin tones in this young lady.  So, with the Elaine Pierce Beach Vibes Presets, I was able to make this image more vibrant and timeless.  

How do you Presets Work?

I have a whole FAQ section on how to get the free Lightroom mobile app, how to install your presets, and how to use them here at https://www.elainepierce.com/a/faq.  I walk you through each step of the way. 

For this tutorial, let me show you some of the basics of how presets work.

Download the presets you purchased and save them to your Lightroom Desktop or Lightroom Mobile.

1.  Pull up an image into your library of Lightroom.

2.  Click on Preset and choose the different styles of presets by clicking on the name of each one.  You can see how fast and easy it is to use. 

3.  Find the one you like best and then press the check mark.  

4.  Now, make any minor adjustments such as your white balance (color), exposure (brightness), etc.

Not all images are one size fits all for presets.  What I mean by this is all portraits are taken in different lighting scenarios which means different looks will appear to each image with your presets.  Once you apply a preset, you still may need to adjust the color or exposure (brightness of an image).  This can easily be done by dragging the sliders up and down to your desired look. 

My Lightroom Presets are designed to give you simple portrait edits that give you sharp, colorful, and bright images.  Check out some of these before and after senior pictures using my Senior Presets Collection.  These presets are designed to bring out the rich and vibrant tones, and create beautiful smooth skin tones.  

Why should you use Lightroom Presets? 

1.  Lightroom is easy and fun to use!  

2.  Saves you hours of editing

3.  Lots of Options

4.  Customizable & Versatile  

5.  Affordable

6.  Use in LR Desktop and LR Mobile

Lightroom is so easy and so much fun to use!  It can save you from spending hours on your computer or phone from editing!  You can batch edit your images in one click.  For example, you took 100 portraits in the same area of beautiful green trees and the lighting is all very similar.  You could edit each image by hand adjusting the white balance, exposure, shadows, hues, etc, but who would want to spend hours editing each individual image.  Or you can simply apply a preset all with a click of a button to all 100 images.  Then you will sync the settings in Adobe Lightroom and now all of your images look consistent.  It is that easy!  You may need to still adjust some of the images exposure, or other fine tuning to images. Presets can adjust color balance, exposure, shadows, hues, and much more.   With applying the presets, you just did it all with one click and saved so much time.  Simply using presets will cut down your editing hours tremendously.  Who doesn’t love having more time doing other things!!

Presets offer a variety of options.  Most presets come in a pack which give you different presets for different types of scenery, lighting, and more.  So if one preset in the pack does not work, you can simply try a different one.  

Lightroom Presets are versatile and fully customizable. You can fully customize your image after you apply a presets. You can adjust the exposure, shadows, white balance and more.  Also, there are brushes that you can use to edit specific areas of your photo. I like to think of Lightroom Presets as a good base for my editing and then I can tweak it to my exact desire from here.  

Lightroom Desktop and Lightroom Mobile

What is great about Lightroom Presets is that you can use them on your Lightroom Desktop software and sync them to your Lightroom Mobile App on your phone.  It truly is amazing!  All those images that you edited on your desktop can be synced to your mobile.  In addition, presets can be used on your desktop and mobile. (That is as long as the owner made them that way). I make all of my presets to include a desktop and mobile versions on them so you ca use in both places.  

Adobe Lightroom for desktop does come with a monthly subscription of around $9.99 a month but it is so worth it.  The desktop version has more features and settings that you can use than the Lightroom Mobile app.  You can check out the different plans HERE.  

The Lightroom Mobile App is great for those on the go and want a quick, easy, and beautiful edit. The Lightroom Mobile App is free and easy to use.  Download it HERE from your app store.   

Check out our presets HERE 

And our FAQs in which we walk you through the process of setting up your Lightroom mobile app and more tutorials. 

I hope you enjoyed learning more about presets!  Try them, you will have so much fun!