Do Presets Really Work? Why They Are Not A One-Click Solution

Well, I have a lot to say about presets. I’ll be covering a lot of information in this post, like what a Lightroom preset is and how they work. But the main question I’ll be answering is: do Lightroom presets really work? Spoiler alert – you won’t like the answer.

What is a Lightroom Preset?

So let’s start with the basics

For those who are new to Lightroom presets, and editing in general, presets are a pre-recorded set of commands, that give specific instructions to Lightroom on how to adjust the values on different controls of your image.

A Lightroom preset can adjust things like contrast, white point, tone, tint, hues, and saturation, highlights and shadows, curves, grain and much more. Each of these elements brings the final picture to a look.

Each preset will have values recorded for all or some of the adjustments, and once you apply it to your image, it will modify your file according to the commands set. This can be a great way to edit fast, with one click getting a nice look and feel, and apply to multiple images for a unified look.

From a professional photography standpoint, I find that presents don’t often line up with the look of a high-end image. They tend to look too processed, washed out, and almost like “trying too hard”. To me, presets seem to work great for Instagram and blogging, and anything that you are trying to get consistency in, and display only small, and on a phone screen.

But when it comes to client work, more often than not, presets dull down the image. To top it off, with presets, you almost always have to make adjustments to each individual image to adjust, so I personally find a preset more of a starting point, rather than a one-click solution.

How do Lightroom Presets Work?

Lightroom presets work by making small adjustments to the different controls, resulting in an overall look and feel for your image.

Presets, are carefully built to create that look on different images, despite what camera they were shot on, lighting, and palette. This is a very tough task to accomplish, resulting in an oversaturated market of Lightroom presets, selling the idea of a look, but not the actual results. More on this later.

To load a preset onto your Lightroom Classic, make sure you are in the develop module, and on the left, you will see a tab that says “presets”. There will be a + next to it, and you can just click “import preset”. Once you have done that, your presets will appear on your left.

Most well done presets will give you the option to adjust any settings pre-recorded on it, on the right side of your develop module. As you scroll through your basic settings, tone curve, HSL, and others, you will see all the modifications applied, and you can go in and adjust any of them. For example, if you apply a preset and find the image is too warm, you can easily adjust the white balance, the split toning, or the tone curve.

Why Presets Don’t Work

Presets are great for creating a consistent look, for matching images, and to save you time on future edits. Presets became incredibly popular in the last few years through influencers and social media as they used them to create a consistent look on their feed.

Unfortunately, most presets you see being sold by these creators, are not made by professional colorists and lack the ability to be applied to an array of different images. Which kinda defeats the whole purpose of having them to begin with.

Chances are, if you bought a preset pack in the past, you found they didnt work in many images, the colors feel fake, or you need to make so many adjustments that by the time you are done, it doesn’t look anything like the preset suggested it should.

Why is this? 

Well, most influencers create presets that fit their own camera settings, their own skin tones, and a specific lighting and environmental color pallet. For presets to truly work across an array of colors and images, it would require not only a lengthy testing process on different cameras, settings, lightings and situations but almost always a set of presets specifically for each camera manufacturer.

Furthermore, most of these are created to look good on Instagram, so they don’t really translate well into the professional world. Pushing colors and contrast to create an effect on an image in a tiny square, can all of a sudden look incredibly processed and unrealistic on a client delivery.

It’s like trying to bake a cake, with a muffin recipe. You have a list of steps to follow and baking instructions, but if you are using different ingredients, how can you expect the same results?

The set of commands recorded into a preset are precise and accurate, but the elements/ingredients that made your photo are most likely very different than the “ingredients” in the photos used to create the preset.

Creating images, as you know, is a whole process combining a mix of “ingredients”. Each one of these elements affects the result of your final image, and each of these elements will require different approaches in post-production .

1. Technology: what camera you use, lens, what brand. Jpeg vs Raw, flash or studio photography.  The same photo taken on an iPhone vs an SLR would look very different, just like the same shot taken on the same settings and same lens, but two different camera brands, would also look different

2. Lighting: Was the image show mid-day and direct sun, or magic hour backlit?

So how the hell do you make a “fit for all” preset, when everyone is using different ingredients?

Well, you cant, really, and that’s the problem. 

In this video I use an Instagram photo as a reference and my original photo on the right. You can see me scrolling through tens of presets, including the ones from the influencer shown.

Still, none of them, not a single one, really mimics the same look as the photo shown. You can see at the end, I created my own edit to match the look. That’s why I think making your own Lightroom presets is better than buying.

The only preset pack I found to be actually worth the investment was created by the company VSCO, yes, like the app, and they provided you with a long variety of film look presets, and the proper adjustments to each of the major camera companies.

Not only this, they also provided a toolset to specifically modify each adjustment. The pricing was incredibly competitive as for the price of two or three influencer presets, you were getting a collection of 70 camera looks for each type of camera.

Unfortunately, these have become unavailable since a lot of creators copied their looks and used them to build their own, and re-sell them separately.

But not all hope is lost. A preset can give you a great starting point, a good base look, and even a place to create your own looks from. I even created a FREE Color Grading Class For Lightroom to teach you how to do this!

Here is an example of two very different images using the same preset. The first image responds well, while the second one looks overly saturated, with unrealistic skin tones, and crushed contrast.

Another example of one preset used in totally different images. Take a look at the texture and contrast on the second image, it almost looks pixelated, while the first image feels smoother and the tuk-tuk seems to stand out from the background.

Interested in learning new, professional skills in Lightroom? I created the ultimate Lightroom Masterclass to teach you EVERYTHING you need to know about Lightroom in ONE place!

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