Lightroom presets can really give you a headstart on tweaking the look of your images, and in some cases even changing the mood. There are tons of presets around for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, and Digital Photo Buzz (DPB) has some decent samples. Three packages are available: 25 Essential Wedding Presets, 19 Instagram Like Presets and 26 Ultimate Portrait Presets. That’s a total of 70 presets in all — a decent variety to choose from.
Upon testing out these presets, they delivered varied results — some fabulous, some OK and others not so much. But the fact is that a particular preset may work better with a certain photograph over another. Albeit, presets are highly subjective, and the preset that you may choose for certain photographs reflect the kind of finish you want.
There are some persons whose photo editing is more on the picky side, and the presets that they would use would be minimal. One thing to like about these presets, or at least a select number of them, is that they are based on actual photo effects of a past era.
Instagram Like Presets
Instagram which is currently only available on Apple and Android platforms has been revolutionizing the finishing of photographs taken with mobile devices. These finishes are highly entertaining and mostly have an appealing vintage look which a number of folk like. Social media sites, especially Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are becoming filled with photos edited in this fashion (thanks to Marketing Heaven). The DPB Instagram styled presets offer these kinds of finishes. No doubt there are other vintage presets to compare them with, but these are worth testing out. Here are examples of how the 19 presets can be used on a regular cell phone photograph which wasn’t edited to begin with.
Original (Unedited)– 1977 – Amaro – Apollo – Brannan – Earlybird – Gotham – Hefe – Hudson – Inkwell – Lomo-fi – Lord Kelvin – Nashville – Poprocket – Rise – Sutro – Valencia – Walden 2 – X-Pro II 2
Ultimate Portrait and Essential Wedding Presets
Portraits and wedding photographs usually have a soft, refined and elegant finish to them. Naturally, presets designed for these kinds of images help to create such a feel by toning down on highlights, lightening shadow regions and even hiding particular (unwanted) details through tonal adjustment. For example, a greenish tint may help to hide certain facial flaws of a subject, and ‘Go Green’ may do just that in a decent way.
Wedding Presets go a little further with automatic changes that whisper ‘romance’ even with a vintage look.
Get DPB Lightroom Bundle (Instagram Like, Ultimate Portraits and Essential Weddings presets package)
A preset may subtly or drastically change a photograph, and you can experiment with them as you see fit. Casual photographs are often subject to drastic changes, and that’s OK — once it suits your needs. The Instagram like presets provide this. But for Photographers who have clients to satisfy, the wiggle room isn’t that wide. The Portrait and Wedding presets have traditional, retro and contemporary styles. There’s more than likely some presets to meet your needs.
A preset doesn’t make up for a poorly taken photograph. In some cases they can hide flaws, but they really are alternatives to the original. Furthermore, they can be a launching pad for further editing.
If for any reason you didn’t like this presets, you might check our other (new) article, Preset Shop …