Presets (Don't) Suck! / Plus Recommended Lightroom Presets

Commercial Lightroom presets are a controversial topic in the photography community. They're a crutch. A cheat. A shortcut. A cheap way of applying style without doing the hard work of learning how to process images yourself. In this video, I unpack the controversy and offer a defense for why I think presets are useful and an important part of the learning process.

Really Nice Images Film Emulation Presets

Rebecca Lily Presets

[SeshwaChickenKebab]

Been using a combination of Alex Ruskman's via his gumroad and RNI for the last months. Adore them!

[drewrobertson]

Presets are like cookbooks, & this is what Gordon Ramsey says about cookbooks when a chef was calling out another chef for memorizing cookbooks & not being innovative enough, he said this... “I don’t care if she has memorized cookbooks or not, her cooking tastes better than yours!” It doesn’t matter if you use presets or not, what matters is does your image look good? People sell cookbooks, why not presets? I have no problem with that, none whatsoever, being open minded is so important. On a side note, your sound has always been good, now it’s about 3.14% better then before... your going in the right direction 🧭

[yashwinning]

I used to edit all my images on my phone using VSCO and the C7 preset. Since I shot Fuji the JPEGs were incredible and I always used to get compliments for them. When I transitioned to RAW and Lightroom I ended up using VSCO's C8 preset on all my images and it became my "look". And I'm satisfied with it. Using presets and doing the "shortcut" that you mentioned gives me Imposter Syndrome from time to time whenever people ask me how I get my "look", and sometimes those people would be shocked when they found out I was using presets, but you know what? I'm over it now.

Because I noticed that people who edit their own images aren't always great photographers. Hell, sometimes their images are kinda crap. It feels bad to say it but the time I don't spend on editing is the time I spend on framing, composing, posing, and actually putting something worth while in front of my sensor. There's no "shortcut" to that. There's no cheating on that. I don't cheat with my composition, I don't cheat with my actual photography. After a while I stopped seeing it as a lazy mentality and more as a film photography mentality. I already shoot manual lenses and Fujifilm, so I just took it an extra step further and just process my images the same way I'd shoot film. After all, back then film photographers didn't use their own custom film stock and roasted other photographers for using commercial stock, or in modern terms "commercial presets".

[bricelettkeman]

I think every photographer enjoys different steps in the photo making process. Personally I love hunting for, composing, and capturing a great photo. I don’t really enjoy editing at all. It’s more of a means to an end for me. I don’t personally use presets but I can definitely see the appeal.

[jordanking]

I wholeheartedly agree with you here Todd. All these people saying 'oh but presets are cheating', sorry but that's garbage. A preset isn't and was NEVER meant to be the be all and end all of a photo and just a, for lack of a better word, one click solution. A 'preset' is meant to be a starting point. You STILL have to tweak your images to suit your own style, so it's not as if it's removing you from the creative developing process AT ALL because it's not. It's only a starting point if you don't know what you want a particular photo to look like, and then adjust it to suit YOU. You still have to do the work yourself.

[rickbiessman]

1000% agree. Personally: I understand the tools in Lightroom on a technical level (except calibration tbh) to the point where I could make tutorials on them. But it takes years to develop a style. That's perfectly fine by me btw. But why not learn from others in the mean time? In reality, creativity is always a process of adaptation of someone else's ideas. If you don't treat presets as a "cheat code", then they're genuinely not a cheat code. And if you do treat them that way - well good luck standing out from the crowd; you won't. Everyone with an artistic vision will create their own style. Everyone without an artistic vision won't get anywhere by copying others.

That's why presets, in my opinion, have only positive effects.

[JoeYatesAlaskanFilms]

I’ve been using RNI presets for the past year now. However, I only use them at 50%. RNI is, by far, the best set of presets that I have found.

[ericdelmar]

Todd, great vid. Two things: Your audio always sounds good, rich and clear. And about something you mentioned regarding all the areas that a pre-set might modify: The Camera Calibration channels. I've used LR since 2006, and I've never played (or noticed!) these sliders. I shoot a fair bit of infrared, and suddenly, I'm able to get colors out of my IR raws that I've never been able to access before. Thank you!

[nickbianchi]

Thanks for this video. I read at many places that presets were useless, as they work only with the advertised photo. Still, I got a few packs recently. And I must admit that I’ve been positively surprised. First and foremost, i need to say that i did experiment with the sliders. A lot. It becomes quickly obvious what happens when you move one slider or modify one curve. The tough part, which takes a long practice (for which amateur photographers with long job hours and kids don’t always have enough time if they also want to shoot photos), is to understand how each setting interacts with the others.
Also, i had a lot of jpegs from an Around The World Tour that needed to be enhanced. Trying to get it done by myself led to a catastrophe! In the jpeg optimised preset pack i bought, i found some that were suited for the Australian or Filipino beaches, others for the Aussie red and sandy Outback or Malaysian jungle, and even others for the green mountains of NZ or the Snow in Nepal!
Very happy I found those, which I still adjust to my own taste.

[Kenkichi]

Love the honesty and the knowledge. GREAT CONTENT CREATOR BUT STILL UNERRATED YOUTUBER. I will be there when you get 100k subs and EVEN 1 MILLION SUBS!

[ChrisBoultonPhotography]

Great advice, presets are a good place to learn to understand how each tool in LR works. The trouble is one size never fits all and when I was starting out many of the presets seemed to be created for the weather/light of the US and not the often overcast conditions here in the UK. So in turn I learnt how to create my own basing them on the light, weather and mood I was trying to convey. I often start in LR, apply a base then dip into AS or photoshop to tweak further...

[benugdsen]

I use Buttery Luts presets for BRAW.. And they are hands down the best LUTS for Blackmagic cameras. When it comes to still photography, I’m still a beginner so I’ll try some of your recommendations. Thanks for a great video. 👍🏾😊

[martinohesse]

Thanks a lot! I was searching reviews for RNI, and reading you talk good about them really makes me confident to buy :)

[albertphillips]

Todd, great stuff, I have just begun learning about presets and film emulation and I found your video very helpful. I look forward to giving them a try. Thanks, Al

[photobeast]

Presets helped me learn how to edit. I would fond presets I liked then I would learn from what was done and usd that to learn color grad techniques

[looppp]

RNI is pricey but worth it so much. I esp love the Fuji Sensia 200 and the Aerochrome emulation

[_NoDrinkTheBleach]

I've got about a dozen or so presets that I use. They've all got a different purpose for me, depending on the scene in the photo. I still process some images without using my presets, but I will usually try one or more of them first, just to see where the image could go.

[tonymckeage]

Thanks Todd, Great Vlog and great opinion and advice on point as normal. I haven't used presets ever unless you count pressing the Auto button in Camera Raw. I don't have a opinion about them one way or another. In terms of your sound, your auto quality is always great. It does sound a bit deeper and richer, but it was great before anyway.

[miltechmoto]

the user submitted recommended presets is a huge help. Because although you can make your own, it's much quicker to just select a pre-made one and then adjust it to your needs. Plus youre able to try out a bunch of different presets to see what works best for your image rapidly. And of course you can adjust them. But I'm personally not trying to make an art gallery photo, im doing it for social media posts. I just wish that feature was added to premiere pro as well. Because right now it's still a choir to to experiment and find a good lut. And ive tried importing the cube file into premiere and it doesn't work at all.

[vermontmike]

Why are RNI presets for LR expensive compared to the presets for iPhone and iPad?