[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Alright, so you’ve captured a photo and you’re very pleased about it. The conditions were great and you’re happy with the composition. But you’re not there yet. Next step: edit the photo to make it really stand out and add some extra ‘feel‘ to it! You can spend hours behind your computer to edit your photos the way you want, especially if you’re new to photo editing, but you can also use Lightroom Presets to edit your photo with just one simple click!
Adobe Lightroom is the most popular program for photo editing. It’s a slider based program, which makes it very easy to use once you get a hold of it. The desktop version comes with a monthly or yearly subscription, which is really worth it if you want to bring out the best in your photos. Besides editing, it also lets you organize and store your photos, depending on which subscription you choose. Another option is the FREE mobile version: Adobe Lightroom Mobile, which you can download from the App Store and Google Play Store. Great for quick edits for Instagram for example. On top of it all, the app even lets you shoot RAW photos, which will give you more control when editing! If you have the possibility, always shoot in RAW, but more on that topic in a later blog post 🙂 .
What are Lightroom Presets?
In fact, the name speaks for itself pretty much. Presets are a pre-set configuration of settings in Adobe Lightroom (Mobile). With just one click, you can apply those settings to your own photo to give it that certain feel you want it to have. The huge benefit of using presets is that they will save you a lot of time, you don’t need to understand every detail about the software to get your desired result, and they will give all your photos a similar style.
But let’s dive into all of the 6 reasons why you should edit your photos with Lightroom Presets!
1. It simplifies your photo editing process
By the time I found out presets even existed, I was using Adobe Lightroom for over a year already. I was spending hours behind my laptop to edit my photos. When I found out the simplicity of presets, I suddenly had much more time to do other stuff. Such a relieve! Once I’ve edited a photo manually, I just save the settings as a preset so a can apply it with just one click next time. This way we’ve built up a nice collection of presets over time. Lightroom presets just make your photo editing process easy and short.
2. Time is valuable, right?
I’ve mentioned it a little in the previous point already. Lightroom Presets can save you so much time! And your time is valuable, right? Depending on the result you want and your editing skills, a photo edit can take you anywhere from let’s say fifteen minutes to who knows how long. Multiply that by a bunch of photos… you do the math. It’s just insane to spend hours and hours on editing. If photography is your business, for example when you’re shooting weddings or another paid job, then it’s probably worth it to spend a lot of time editing photos. But if you need edited photos for your website or social media, you probably have better things to do. In those cases, Lightroom Presets are a great solution to save time and still have great results.
3. Bulk editing with Lightroom Presets
It’s possible to save even more time on photo editing with Lightroom Presets. If you have a lot of similar photos, you can apply the same Lightroom Preset to all of them with just one click, instead of editing each photo individually. Let’s say you’ve got 50 photos from a romantic sunset on the beach. You can apply the same Lightroom Preset to all 50 photos at the same time. It may not look perfect on all 50 photos (let me get back on that in more detail later on), but having to do just minor tweaks to some photos saves you much more time than editing each photo one by one.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][cq_vc_beforeafter beforeimage=”10074″ afterimage=”10075″ autoslide=”0″][vc_empty_space height=”15px”][vc_column_text]This photo is edited with our preset ‘Colorful city’. You can compare the before and after images by dragging the slider left or right. Do you want to use our presets on your images too? Sign up using the form at the bottom of this blog and we will keep you posted![/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]
4. You’re still in control
You can’t just apply one Lightroom Preset onto 50 different photos, save them and expect to have 50 awesome photos. Light conditions can change, people have different skin tones, water can have different colors… But you’re still in full control when you use Lightroom Presets! You’re still able to move all the sliders as much as you want to make little tweaks to end up with a stunning photo. It’s even possible to make local adjustments if you would like to. Presets will probably not contain small local adjustments that are specific to your photo’s.
For example, I’ve edited a photo and made a local adjustment to the sun. It was just too bright. I can bring it down and save the adjustment in the Lightroom Preset, but that wouldn’t make sense. When you apply that preset on to another photo, it’s likely that the sun is in a different place. So you will have a dark spot somewhere in your sky, because of the local adjustment in the Lightroom Preset to reduce the brightness where the sun used to be on your other photo. So if some small areas are too dark, too bright, or need a small color adjustment, you’re in charge!
In Adobe Lightroom Mobile you can only make local adjustments to your photo’s if you have a valid Adobe license.
5. Create unity and consistency with Lightroom Presets
I just mentioned that there are a lot of variables which can make a photo look a little different compared to another one. But still, if you’re applying a right preset to a bunch of similar photos, you do create unity to all of your photos. They will all have the same color tone and style. When you just tweak the photos wherever it’s needed, you end up with a nice collection that has one style. Even different Lightroom Presets can have the same kind of style when applied to the right photo as long as you know which presets to use, which is why Lightroom Presets can give your Instagram feed a big optical boost. When your posts have the same kind of color/style, your wall is much more pleasant to look at.
6. Variety
I know, I know… I was just talking about unity and consistency, and now I start talking about variety. But what I mean by that, is that a big benefit of the Lightroom Presets we use ourselves and are developing to make them valuable for your photos as well, are made for all kinds of photos. Beaches, cities, jungles, sunsets, sunny weather, clouded conditions… With our Lightroom Presets, you will be able to edit photos taken in all kinds of situations!
Do you want to be the first to know when our presets launch? Sign up down below and we’ll send you an email as soon as they’re live! Plus, you’ll receive our 9 tips for stunning travel photography for FREE right away!
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