A preset is a starting point. A few simple habits will take your photos from good to great.
Shoot RAW if you can: it gives you the most room to adjust. JPEGs work too. Get the exposure roughly right first, because every look responds to how bright your photo is.
Click a preset once, then try a few on the same photo. Compare them and pick the one that suits the light. One click is the starting point, not the finished edit.
Adjust Exposure first, then White Balance. If a look feels too strong, use the preset's Amount slider if your version has one, or ease back the strongest sliders by hand.
Pick two or three favourite looks and use them consistently, so your photos feel like a set. Save your tweaks as your own preset, and sync to Lightroom on your phone to edit anywhere.
Frame the photo first, so your later adjustments aren't thrown off by the crop.
Get the overall brightness roughly right before you apply a look.
Click the preset once, then compare a few.
Nudge Temperature and Tint until whites look natural.
Pull Highlights down to recover bright areas, and lift Shadows to bring detail back into the dark ones.
Add or reduce Contrast and Saturation until the look feels right for the photo.
Sharpen lightly, and reduce noise if you shot in low light.
Switch between your edit and the original to check the result, then export.
Warm light already helps the look, so go easy on Temperature.
Flat light can look dull, so add a little Contrast.
Check White Balance first, because this is where colours drift most.
Brighten gently before applying a look, and keep an eye on noise.
Edit one photo you like, then copy its settings to the rest of the set. In Lightroom Classic, select the edited photo in the Develop module and use Settings > Copy Settings, then select the others and use Paste Settings. Then adjust exposure and white balance on each photo, since the light changes from shot to shot.
Found a tweak you love? In Lightroom Classic, click the + in the Presets panel and choose Create Preset. Give it a name and it appears alongside your packs. Other versions of Lightroom have a similar option in the Presets panel menu.
Start with Exposure. Each look reacts to how bright the original is, so a small exposure change often fixes it before you touch anything else.
Check White Balance next. A small shift in Temperature or Tint usually brings the colours back, especially under mixed or artificial light.
Nudge Tint and Temperature first. If it still needs work, adjust the Orange channel in the HSL panel.
Use the preset's Amount slider if your version has one, or ease back Contrast and Saturation.
Lower Highlights and Whites, or raise Shadows and Blacks, a little at a time.
Add a little Contrast, then check your Blacks and Whites so the darkest and brightest areas have some depth.
Adjust Temperature a little at a time. Move it towards blue to cool a photo down, or towards yellow to warm it up.
Use Noise Reduction in the Detail panel, and avoid lifting Shadows too far on low-light shots.
Loading…