I like to think of them more as a ‘primer’ – a quick way to check out variations on your image you might not have thought of yourself (or simply don’t have time to do). You will always need to do SOME work to make the images sing. Now, let me reiterate that a good Lightroom preset is never going to be a one-click solution to achieving a perfect image. Lightroom presets – what are they good for? Here’s where having some really great Lightroom presets in your armoury can really help to achieve punchier shots and a stack of time. That ‘Auto Sync’ button will only get you so far… After all, clients are waiting patiently and are often excited to see the results. It’s do-able once you get into a rhythm and have your workflow perfected (I find setting myself much smaller chunks and scheduling mini breaks helps things feel a lot more achievable).īut with such a high volume of edits to get through week-by-week, the idea of working individually through each image from scratch, perfecting the white balance and exposure, and fine-tuning curves and levels, is unrealistic. It’s not unusual to have to edit 1,000+ images over the course of a week, maybe more when shooting back-to-back sessions. As well as eating into precious profits, it feels uncomfortable as a professional to relinquish control of the final appearance of my images, and how they’re presented to my clients. Plenty of places offer post-production services, and there’s no shame in enlisting these when your time needs to be spent in the field, shooting with clients. No matter how many shortcuts are memorised, or workflow systems tweaked, the image-editing process never seems fast enough. The season always starts with the intention to keep on top of the workload, but before very long my left eye develops the over-tired floating blur and RSI sets in. Working as a professional wedding photographer, the “ wediting” churn throughout mid to late summer can be really overwhelming. But something is amiss it somehow lacks the punch you pictured when shooting it. Technically, your photo is sound, the exposure spot on, the composition is solid and you’ve worked hard to get the lighting just right. Best Adobe Lightroom presets for photographers