Put your best foot forward with Lightroom Presets for Fashion Bloggers!

If you’re a professional photographer, Lightroom Presets are part of your everyday vernacular.  But if you’re a fashion blogger first and photographer second, the Adobe Lightroom software and its tools, known as presets, might be a foreign concept.  This article will break down the whats, wheres and whys of Lightroom Presets for Fashion Bloggers and help you take your photos from off the rack to haute in no time flat.

What are Lightroom Presets?

Lightroom presets are a powerful tool  that every photographer, whether you’re a fashion or food blogger, should consider adding to their arsenal.  Adobe’s photo editing software, called Lightroom, is software designed specifically with photographers in mind.  Lightroom allows you to import, edit and export photos with ease.

Presets are a tool within Lightroom.  A preset records one or more changes made to an image and then applies all those changes to another image in a single click.  Think of them as a pre-established combo platter at your favorite Mexican restaurant.  Rather than ordering a taco, enchilada and flauata, you simply ask for a #12 plate.  With presets, you get all the changes when you put in a single order.  Except that instead of beans and guac, you get more saturation and a vignette or a JPEG resized for sharing on Facebook with your watermark.

Need help installing your presets?  We’ve got you covered!

   Lightroom Presets for Fashion Bloggers

What are the different kinds of Lightroom Presets?

There are several different kinds of presets you can use in Lightroom, allowing you to control how your photos are edited, printed or exported.

Develop Presets

Develop Lightroom presets are the general editing tools.  These presets make edits to your entire image.  Changes can include things like adjusting exposure, contrast, temperatures, sharpness, etc.  They operate similar to a filter you might use in Instagram or on Snapchat.  But unlike a filter, you can adjust the presets exactly to your liking.  They are completely customizable to your exact liking.

Brush Presets

Brush presets are the fine-tuning editing tools.  Lightroom lets you implment a change on just a portion of the image, such as whitening a smile or darkening the black of a pair of shoes.  You paint these effects on with a digital brush, applying them only to the areas where needed.  Brush presets can also be customized to give you just the right level of “wow!”

[ad id=’1′]

Printing Presets

Printing presets let you control how and image will be printed.  You can create specific sizes or create collages and save those settings to be used again and again.

Export Presets

These presets control how images are saved and exported out of Lightroom once you are done editing.  You can control the file type, resolution, size, naming convention and more.

Amp up your fashion photography with a simple ring light

How do Presets Work?

The genius of Lightroom presets for fashion bloggers is that they can make a single change or a dozen changes to an image at once.  For example, my editing style runs to saturated hues with more contrast.  I have a develop preset titled “Outdoor Portraits” that will automatically increase my shadows, exposure and saturation while decreasing my blacks and pulling down highlights.  It slightly desaturates the greens in an image.  Think of that as my #2 combo platter.

Develop presets get my image 90 percent complete.  Then I’ll use my brush presets to finish the image exactly to my lighting.  If it’s a portrait, I might use a skin smoothing brush to soften facial imperfections or the spot heal brush to touch up acne.  Not to belabor the food analogy (I’m getting hungry) but brush presets are sort of like garnish that ties everything up together and makes the plate look complete.

Here’s the best part about presets…you can create your own OR you can purchase them.  If you aren’t sure exactly how to create your look, you can purchase a pre-made pack from other photographers or editors and begin transforming your photos in seconds.

Fashion Blogging Presets for Lightroom

Why should Fashion Bloggers use Lightroom Presets?

Two words…speed and consistency.

Speed

Presets speed up your workflow considerably.  One click makes dozens of changes at once.  And no more trying to remember exactly how to export for Facebook or Instagram.  Build presets once, use them a thousand times.  They are simply a huge time saver.

I also love that you can preview how a preset would look in your image in Lightroom.  Hover over the preset and you’ll see a preview of your image with the preset applied.  Did you apply the preset and hate it?  You can just as easily remove the preset as you applied.  One click and the changes are gone.

Lightroom Presets they also offer fashion bloggers speed in another way.  If you haven’t been using Lightroom very long or are new to fashion photography, presets can help you get up to speed on photo editing quicker.  Because you can purchase premade presets, you can skip messing around with sliders and tone curves to find your style.  With a little homework, you can find the presets to purchase that will jumpstart your editing and get you well on your way to your signature look.

Consistency

The other major advantage of presets is establishing consistency.  As a fashion blogger, you understand the importance of a consistent brand.  Your readers expect your blog and photos to have a certain feel to them.  You want your audience to recognize one of your images even without your logo or tagline accompanying it, regardless of where they see it.

Presets help you accomplish that.  Because you are making the same basic changes to each image, you will get consistency between images in each set.  And you’ll see more consistency among all your photos, from your blog to your Insta feed and beyond.

Best Lightroom Presets for Fashion Bloggers

Where to Find Lightroom Presets for Fashion Bloggers

Now that you have a better understanding of what Lightroom presets are and how they work, it is time to find a set that works for you.

If you simply Google “Lightroom Presets for Fashion Bloggers,” the choices may overwhelm you.  Instead, create a list of words that you feel best represent your signature look.  Does your list read “dark, moody and mysterious?”  Or maybe “light, airy, bright, crisp” is more your style.

Now that you know more of what you’re looking for, you can search more effectively for a style that matches your own.  You can narrow down your options using those descriptive words in your search or let them be your guide as you browse a collection.

Read the description carefully to make sure you know exactly what you are getting.  Are you buying a develop preset bundle?  Ordering a brush pack?  A combo?  Huge mega preset packs look like a great deal but you might pay for something you don’t really need.  A few presets that you truly love and use consistently are a much better value than 300 you’ll try once and quickly discard.

Pro Tip: Many stores that sell presets off a sample pack of four or five presets for free.  These are a great way to try before you buy.

Be aware that because it is a digital product, most companies will NOT give you a refund or exchange on any preset packs you buy.   Once you buy them, they are yours to keep.  And pay for.

Your first fashion-forward preset pack!

One of my favorite sets of presets is the “Prestige Collection” available here on Cole’s Classroom.  These are develop presets that I absolutely love for weddings or high-end fashion shoots.  They add the right amount of pop to an image while preserving beautiful skin tones.  The black and white presets turn my photos into a timeless work of art, which is exactly the look I want for wedding images.   Cole’s Classroom also offers a 30-day money back guarantee on the presets, so you really can shop with confidence.

Grab your set of Prestige Presets Now

It doesn’t matter if you blog about high-end fashion or pet fashion.  Lightroom presets can help create your signature look, speed up your editing time and provide you with consistent images that speak to your own brand.  And those qualities will always be on point.

Similar Posts