Nata Leto
Best Lightroom Presets for Photographers
Remember how a few years ago, after coming back from Way Up North in Stockholm, we kept preaching about the importance of consistency and curation of your portfolio? Prepare to be amazed.. Things haven’t changed! Maintaining a unique, uniform style and color palette across all your work is important. It tells your fans and potential clients that you’re a professional and know exactly what you’re doing. It also helps them understand what type of work they’ll get if they hire you.
And while you may be the most talented, experienced Lightroom guru, editing thousands of photos, one by one, in the same color palette and tones, can be challenging if not mind wrecking. Presets help, whether you create your own, or use and tweak the magic sorcery crafted by leading photographers of the industry.
Here are our top favorite Lightroom presets:
BH Presets by Baptiste Hauville
The insanely talented Baptiste Hauville created a preset pack that comes with three presets: Electricity, Fire, and Silver. Electricity is Baptiste’s go-to preset, with orange, warm, and natural tones; Fire is perfect for pictures taken on especially sunny days; and Silver will delight any lover of black and white photos. Take a look at his presets here!
Cara Zagni Presets
If you’re after a clean, modern preset, with a strong editorial influence and a nod to keeping things natural and controlled, this preset pack for wedding photographers is for you! It’s a full set of presets for every scenario you may encounter at a wedding, including main base, indoors, golden hour, night/flash, and 2 B&W presets. It also includes a 4-piece toolkit to help you add/remove grain, fix orange skin, and reduce noise. See the presets here.
Embrace Presets
It started in 2017 when boudoir photographer Jasmin Jade founded Embrace Presets. What was originally intended to be presets for boudoir photographers has evolved into much more. Since then they have been used by boudoir and portrait photographers around the world. Jasmin’s presets are known for transforming your work overnight with their dark and moody style combined with strong colors and contrast.
Heck Yeah Presets by Ben Sasso
You know a Ben Sasso photo when you see one. This incredibly talented, fun and creative photographer, who spends most of his time traveling around California in a van, with the awesome Katch Silva (scroll down for some goodies from her as well). See his presets here. Find out more about his philosophy and process in this interview.
Katch Silva Presets
One of the most talented people we know. You get a feel of her charismatic personality just by accessing her website. Well, Katch is also sharing her secret recipe through her stunning presets. Read the interview we’ve had with Katch here and find out more about her presets here.
Phil Chester Presets
A bit over a year ago, Phil Chester shared with us his story about dropping out of college, serving 4,5 years in active army duty, being deployed twice during his tour to Afghanistan, and then starting his photography path with a feature in National Geographic. Read his full story here, but know that he also released some kickass presets that you can find and get here.
Sascha Kraemer Presets
Add more passion, more character and LIFE to your clients’ memories with the secret spice from Sascha Kraemer, while preserving the natural colors and looks. Check them out here.
Julia & Gil Presets
If you are looking for that gorgeous film look, texture feel, grainy charm for your photos – check out the awesome presets created by Julia and Gil. A lovely photographer couple from Germany, kicking ass at wedding and couple sessions and awesome creators of the Beloved Stories community. Explore their presets here.
Tribe Archipelago Presets
With over 10 years of creating industry-defining post-production tools, Tribe Archipelago continues to develop fresh, cutting-edge editing tools for their Tribe. Their latest CREATIVE PROFILES are redefining editing by allowing optimal customization, giving photographers their own unique look and style. Stand out from the crowd. See all Tribe Archipelago presets here.
Roots Presets
If you’re after a natural, yet warmly soothing type of look for your images, with creamy, soft tones and that gorgeous Melli & Shayne type of elegance, check out their Roots Presets.
Cascade Presets by Benj Haisch
Loving the natural, warm and outdoorsy look of Benj Haisch’s work? Get his Cascade preset pack and add that secret tone to your own galleries. Cascade is actually available via Meridian Presets (see next section).
Meridian Presets
You are going to love these! It’s a new project by the awesome team at LOOKSLIKEFILM, in collaboration with some of the most talented and inspiring photographers around the world. Every photographer will find a preset that speaks to their creative soul, since Meridian offers presets packs by:
– Benj Haisch (Cascade)
– Cody & Allison (C&A)
– Pablo Beglez (PBX)
– Rafal Bojar (Hero)
– Diane Villadsen (Pop! Color, Pop! Harsh Light and Pop! Soft Light, or all of them in a bundle)
Kreativ Wedding Presets
With the new Kreativ Wedding Presets your pictures will get a beautiful film look. Just one click and they will look even more special. Deep greens and a palette of warm, natural earth colors. Topped with moody grain. To get the picture you have in mind, apply the preset first and then play around with exposure, contrasts and other basics. As every image is different you need to do small changes to get the perfect result. Get the presets from here.
For the Hearts Still Beating
This amazing presets pack created by Hafenliebe Wedding Photography contains 7 Color and 7 Black & White presets, two extra version of one of the Color presets + a bunch of presets from their so called TOOLBOX. The For the Hearts Still Beating presets will help you achieve a contrasty, cinematic, gritty and moody film like look and feel for your photos. Check them out here.
Beloved Stories
Vibrant, moody, juicy preset packs from some of your favorite photographers, who are part of the Beloved Stories community. Check them out here.
Slate & Ivory by Jennifer Moher
There is a certain level of mystery and wonder in Black & White images. If you love a minimalistic, artistic approach in photography, add a note of elegance and film with the Slate & Ivory presets created by Jennifer Moher. Check them out here.
Visual Flow Presets
SLR Lounge and DVLOP merged their knowledge and technology, accumulated over 15 years of combined preset development experience, and created a set of very intuitive and powerful presets for photographers. See how it all works here.
Strike a Pose Portrait Presets by Sleeklens
These wonderful presets will help you transform usual portrait images into impressive photos. You can use these presets to apply a wide range of diverse effects (including flawless skin effect for your subjects). See the presets here.
Vicky Baumann Presets
Vicky offers a range of preset packs, suitable for every taste and style of editing. Anything from natural, soft colors, with beautiful warm skin tones, to moody, crunchy tones, to add some intensity and accent to your photos. Find all the preset packs by Vicky Baumann here.
Lady Byrne Presets
The Lady Byrne Preset pack comes with 14 presets, 12 color and 2 B&W. Deep reds, rich blues, and sometimes subtle changes. Dreamy imagery without feeling overly processed. See LadyByrne presets here.
Brandi Potter Presets
The most amazing thing about these presets by Brandi, is not just the beautiful and moody tones and feel that you add to your images – it’s the fact that half of the profit is being donated to a new charity every single month. See all presets here.
Elopement Presets
Perfect if you’re looking for crisp, clean whites, dynamic colors and a warm, cinematic feel for your images. Find the Elopement presets created by Levi Tijerina here.
Davis Hilton Presets
Ideal for photographers who shoot weddings or portraits and prefer natural light. The Davis Hilton presets are curated to achieve warm, natural skin tones, neutral greens and earthy golden light for your images. Find their presets here.
Anni Graham Presets
Have you been searching for editing presets that give your photos warm shadows, natural + earthy skin tones, and bright highlights so they stand out and totally rule? Well, Anni Graham’s presets will offer you just that. Find her presets here.
G-Presets by Greg Petersen
www.gpresets.com – website built with Squaremuse
Inspired by an adventurous outdoorsy style, G-Presets are all in dark, moody brown tones, with just the right amount of contrast. Exactly what a photographer needs to add a cozy, intimate looks for their wedding and in-home session photos. Check out Greg Petersen’s presets packs here.
Kristen Marie Parker Presets
These presets are meant to deepen your blacks, tone down your skin tones, and offer a more cinematic and intimate look and feel to your images. Check out her presets here.
Twyla Jones Presets
Add a more vibrant atmosphere to your images, be that a portrait or couple session, Twyla’s presets will add new life to your photographs, through intensity, moody contrast, and sharp highlights. Check out her presets here.
Mastin Labs
Stunning film emulation presets created by Mastin Labs. They spend a lot of time and effort, meticulously testing each new preset against film scans, so it’s barely possible to distinguish the digital image from the film one. Check out all their preset packs here and learn more about their most popular and raved Portra Pushed presets in our review.
DC Presets by Dawn Charles
Versatile, creamy and moody, this is how Dawn describes her presets. The perfect amount of light, warm creamy reds, bold contrasts and focus on the way each image feels. She even has a separate pack specifically tailored for your reception images. Grab them all here.
AFFOB presets by A Fist Full of Bolts
All natural colors, preserving the skin tones, the green, the blues, with unique mid tone contrast and lots of different Black & White options for you to test. Check out the presets packs offered by the awesome photographers.
Dirty Boots Messy Hair Presets
www.dirtybootsandmessyhair.com
A collaboration between the creators of one of your favorite photography communities and leading artists from all around the world, resulted in 8 awesome preset packs, to add some adventurous tones and romantic mood to your photographs. Check them out here.
Soulmate Presets by Sven Malajlo
If you know SMAL Presets and their community you’ll love SOULMATE Lightroom Presets. Sven Malojlo created a new brand where you can now buy all his classics like SMAL, WILD and ROSE and also enjoy his brand new SOULMATE Presets. Get timeless edits with a creative touch now. Check out all the packs offered by Sven Malajlo here.
Rover Collection by Rooke + Rover Crew
The Rover collection is full of dark tones, warm golden browns, cool blues and greens, warm highlights and cool shadows to give your images a more moody and vibrant look. You’ll also find a pack with more dramatic browns (with a tiny hint of red and yellow), some options for those who shoot in the Golden or blue hours, and many more. Check out all their presets here.
Noble Presets
Noble presets were created by hybrid film photographers, inspired by rich pastel colors and luminous skin tones of film. If you love and shoot bright and airy, these are for you. Check them here.
Modern Market Presets
One more amazing option for those looking into bright and airy, beautiful pastels, moody matts and vibrant colors. Check them out in action here.
Trey Wallace Presets
You will find 2 different packs of presets offered by Trey – Ascent & Atlas. Both cary some tome of moodiness, while offering your images a very adventurous, epic and mesmerizing type of look. Trey’s presets are perfect for adventurous weddings, epic landscapes, moody scenes, and so much more. Check them out here.
Tip: Have a look through these Lightroom tips to start editing photos faster with Lightroom presets.
While the preset market is waaaaay larger and more diversified then the list described in this article, these are our favorite for now. However, trends change, let’s see what we are all into in 6 months!
Flothemes Team.
Empowering You & Your Creative Business!
Ian
16:45 May 18, 2017
Nice feature...how about Sascha Kraemer presets, they are pretty cool as are the Rooke and Rover crew sets....cheers!