The 20 Best Lightroom Presets You Need to Know About

Presets are a starting point

A preset is someone else's taste applied to your exposure. Used well it saves twenty minutes. Used badly it flattens every photo you own into the same orange and teal mush.

What separates a good pack from a bad one

• It respects your highlights instead of crushing them
• It is built around curves and colour grading, not heavy saturation
• It ships variants for indoor, outdoor, and low light

My working method

1. Fix white balance before applying anything.
2. Apply the preset at full strength to see its intent.
3. Dial the exposure back to your own histogram.
4. Save the result as your own preset.

Building your own look

After a month of step four you will notice the same three adjustments repeating. Those adjustments are your look. Bundle them, name them, and stop buying packs.

Portrait work in particular rewards restraint: keep skin tones honest and let the background carry the grade.