When I first started the dive into photography I made a lot of mistakes. That’s all just a part of the fun when you’re diving into something new. One huge mistake I made right off the bat? I refused to use presets. I thought I was “too good” for them and that it was too easy to be legit. Now, working full time as a photographer, I realize how dumb I was.
So what even is a preset? Presets are simple! They are changes or “tweaks” to a photo like brightness and color that you can save, and then apply to other photos in the same exact way. It’s like a uniform for your photos! (not really but you get it). Most of the time, people use presets to give their photos a specific “vibe” or look. If you ever posted an instagram story, you probably know that if you swipe left or right after you select your photo, the photo changes and you see a name for a brief moment like “oslo”. This is one of instagrams built in presets! There are tons of apps you can use to add presets to your photos, but most people use presets on lightroom, and the VSCO app.
Presets are awesome for so many reasons, and there’s a time and place for them at every level in the photography world.
Say you’re a business owner who runs your own social media. You just don’t have the time to learn how to edit like a pro. BUT you can use a preset to make your photos look professional with just a tweak or two in just an instant. Even better, you can maintain a consistent look this way by applying the same preset to all of the photos on your feed! Presets are a super quick and easy way to get ahead of the social game with your business without breaking the bank AT ALL.
Maybe you’re an amateur/new to photography. For those who are newer to photography, presets can be a really powerful tool. First, it allows you to have good editing results fast – this means you might be able to pick up photography gigs sooner than you even realized before. It also gives you the ability to look at the preset, and tweak it. This is so important for new photographers to be able to see HOW others edit, and improvise and experiment off of that new information. This is one thing I especially wish I would have appreciated earlier in my photography career. Learning to edit photos quickly is really hard, but learning from presets is a really cheap and effective way to get insights on how the pros are doing it.
Finally, even for professional photographers, presets are so so so important. For one they allow us the ability to make a lot of edits really quickly. They allow us to maintain consistency through clients, even if it’s been years since the last time we edited a photo for them.
Ultimately, I find myself still using presets all the time. That’s why I was so excited to be able to make our new COZY PRESET PACKAGE, because I knew that I was going to be making something that could really make an impact or difference in someone’s business, photography career, or even just instagram feed (: Want to find out more about our presets? Check out more about our COZY PRESET PACKAGE here!
