Okay it’s no secret that presets are my thing. I can happily say a preset changed my life, dramatic yes? But truthful. I started selling presets in February 2019 and since then I have sold over 3.5K. That’s a lot of presets. But the reason they are so well loved? Because it’s a life hack. It brings photos, that you might not have thought you could use, back to life! My presets can correct colour and lighting issues. Even the dreaded yellow/green glow of indoor lighting. They are used by Instagrammers, professional photographers and my husband who wants his photos looking a bit better “Cath can you put one of your things on this photo please”! Hahah.
So lets’s go from the very start. What an earth is a preset? Well essentially it’s a set of edits. I have spent hours making refining them and then I package them all up into a DNG file (it’s a large image file that contains all the info). So when you have downloaded and installed the preset in Lightroom Mobile (we will get to that in a minute) the edit is there. All you need to do is a click it and it applies all those colour corretions, light adjustments, colour and light curve, saturation etc. It does the hard work for you. I have a super helpful guide to presets in my story highlights here.
The reasons you might want one? It can help improve photos, it can give photos a style, one you might not know how to achieve. It makes editing simple. If you are an “Instagrammer” if can give your grid a more curated look if that’s the style you’re after!
The app you need to use presets is called Lightroom Mobile. The best news? It’s totally free. There is a paid version but to apply presets the free version is perfect. It’s available on both IOS and Android. Once you’ve got the app downloaded onto your phone you are good to go. You can go ahead a pick a preset.
This is where the difficultly comes in. Choosing your style. On my shop I have it broken down into sections of what the presets will do. There is also before and after photos so you can get a good idea of what the preset does. Of course, although my presets are good, they are not miracle workers. They won’t work 100% on everything single photo. You might need to make adjustments. We will get to that in a minute.
If you are really unsure you can send me a DM and I can help you decide which one to buy, if you require me to test your photos I can book you in your a short consultation so together we can find the best one for you. You can book that in here.
So once you’ve decided you will need to install it. You can find all the instructions here. Follow step by step and you shouldn’t go wrong. FAQ’s can be found in my story highlights too!
You are now ready to edit. Simply to go to Lightroom, add in the photo you want to edit. Go to presets along the bottom and click which ever one you want to use. It will apply it. Click the tick in the right hand corner. You may need to make some small adjustments. I have a tutorial on how exactly you can do that here.
And you should be good to go! I hope that makes sense and explains a little bit more about the magic of presets! You can shop my presets here! And don’t forget to sign up to my monthly newsletter #thecreativemonth to receive a free preset on the 1st of each month!
