You follow a photographer on Instagram or YouTube, or wherever, and you love the look of their photos. Until you use them on your photos and the disappointment sets in and you realise you’ve wasted your money. Lightroom presets are not a quick fixīuying Lightroom presets may seem like an easy choice.

So when you apply a develop preset to a photo with a suitable color palette, the results will be better and closer to the original style of the photo the preset was designed for, or as is often the case, advertised with. The subject, and in the case of portrait photography, what the subject is wearing, as well as the background of a photo determines the color palette of the photo. Shot in direct light, late in the day then finished with the same preset used in the photo above and adjusted for the different lighting conditions and color palette. The light therefore also affects the look of photos differently.įurther reading: Light quality & quantity of light – essential knowledge

You also know that on a cloudy day there are little to no shadows, but on a sunny day the shadows are harsh. There’s different types of lightĮven if all you know about light is that natural light and flash are different, already you know that light is not just light. Most importantly though, light is not just light… 1. However, no matter what your subject is, or the style you want to shoot in, you can’t do it without light. While all photos start with the key ingredient of light, there are many other variables that affect the final look of a photo. You also add a little bit of this and a little bit of that and then bake it a certain way, in a certain container to get either a pie or a cake. You use flour, butter, and milk for both, but in different quantities. They’re just not a shortcut to stunning photos, and here’s why… Why a Lightroom preset won’t work on all photosĪ preset is a recipe, it’s like taking a bunch of ingredients and baking them a certain way to get a pie or a cake. I’m not saying that Lightroom presets are not a good idea.

It might be controversial to say that buying Lightroom presets is a waste of money, but hear me out.

Buy lightroom presets