The Benefits of Lightroom Presets from someone who didn't like them
I'll admit it, when I first started in photography and content creation, I saw Lightroom Presets as a way for people to "cheat" or "take shortcuts". I was so hung up on the idea that I needed to learn how to edit the images myself, that I completely missed out on the benefits that Lightroom Presets bring to photographers of all skill levels. It wasn't until many years later, when I had become pretty comfortable with using Lightroom and Photoshop, that I realised that although I am confident in editing photos, there was still so much I could learn from other people's presets.
Let me explain.
First off, what are Lightroom Presets?
Lightroom presets are essentially pre-configured sets of editing adjustments designed to streamline and enhance the post-processing workflow for digital photographs. They contain specific combinations of settings, encompassing parameters such as exposure, contrast, colour balance, tone curve, and more.
Think of them as templates that apply a consistent aesthetic or style to your images with a single click. This allows photographers to achieve a desired look quickly and also allows them to maintain a consistency across a series of photos. Rather than manually adjusting each slider for every image, presets offer a standardised starting point, which can then be further customised to suit individual preferences.
In practical terms, they serve as a powerful tool for:
Efficiency: Significantly reducing editing time, particularly when processing large volumes of images.
Consistency: Ensuring a uniform visual style across a project, which can be crucial for branding or portfolio presentation.
Creative Exploration: Providing a foundation for experimentation, allowing photographers to explore various aesthetic directions without extensive manual adjustments.
They sound great Nathan, so why did you hate them so much?
As I briefly mentioned in the intro, I just viewed it as a way lazy people relied on to edit their photos to mask their lack of skill. Brutal, I know. Also, very incorrect.
I would see people who just bought a camera for the first time suddenly start posting cinematic colour graded images (clearly from some trending Youtuber's Lightroom Presets) and I would feel like they took a shortcut to get to a place that I was trying to get to. So, in reflection, maybe it was jealousy? Maybe I assumed these people were using presets because even after all the time I spent learning Lightroom, I still couldn't get the colours and the tones the way that they could. Wow, who would have thought I could start getting all introspective about editing photos in Lightroom...
Learning from the tool I originally despised
So after a while, I decided to get a pack of presets (unsure of my thought process when I did it, and also have no idea which pack was the first I purchased). I loaded up some RAW files, clicked through the presets and then realised something...it literally shows me the settings that the creator used to achieve their certain looks, and I can toggle on and off certain parts of the Lightroom panels to understand what each adjustment did to the image. I started spending quite a bit of time understanding how certain HSL shifts affect overall colour schemes in images, and how certain types of tone curves can create some really interesting and beautiful feelings within my images. It was like finding the answers to a test, and then working backwards to understand how they got to that answer. I realised I was completely wrong about Lightroom Presets, and finally realised the true benefit and utility of them.
Becoming a hypocrite
So, I started to experiment to create my own Lightroom Presets for my own personal use - both as a challenge to see what I can create, and also as a way to build in efficiencies to my image editing workflow. I've now created quite a handful, some that I like more than others - here are some examples of before and afters:
My preset based on Rollei Digibase film
My preset based on Fuji Superia 400 film
Wrapping this all up
So look, I take it back, Lightroom Presets are actually far from useless. I do 100% see the value in them now, more so as an educational tool. I feel that it is still very important to understand how to navigate Lightroom and edit photos without presets, however, they do come in handy when trying to understand how to achieve certain looks in your images.
I'm thinking of creating a pack of Lightroom Presets that include some to give a film-like look, and others that just have a really nice colour grade. If you're interested in potentially being notified whenever I decide to put them on my website, sign up to my email list below (I don't spam, I promise).