Importance of White Balance When Editing with Presets

Image edited with the Crystal Springs preset from the NEW Clean & Colorful Millennium Preset Collection.

Importance of White Balance When Using Lightroom Presets

White Balance is your friend, and can DRASTICALLY change your image/edits.  AND, it's really FUN to play with White Balance in Lightroom to see how it can change your image and how it affects the look of your presets too!

If you have no idea what white balance is, make sure to read this first.

Personally, I like to apply my Pretty Presets first, and THEN adjust white balance to see how it changes my image.  Although, if I see that my image's White Balance is WAY OFF to begin with (i.e. my camera did not get it right), I will typically change White Balance first and then apply the preset.

All of Pretty's newer presets do not have any white balance settings embedded within the preset, giving you full control of your own White Balance settings (we feel it's important for our users to have control over their White Balance setting because it CAN and WILL be different for everyone, depending on many factors including lighting, camera settings, etc). 

So when you apply one of our presets, the White Balance setting in Lightroom will default to "AS SHOT".  Keep in mind that Lightroom's "AUTO WHITE BALANCE" is really very good, and can usually correct an INCORRECT White Balance most of the time.

Example of How White Balance Can Change the Look of Your Image

To show you an example, I edited my SOOC (straight out of camera) image below with the Crystal Springs preset from our Clean & Colorful Millennium Collection - ONE-CLICK, no other adjustments except for the White Balance.

Here is the unedited SOOC image:

The image below has ONLY the Crystal Springs preset applied.  The White Balance setting in Lightroom automatically defaulted to "As Shot". 

Finally, the image below has the same Crystal Springs preset applied, but in addition, I also changed the White Balance setting in Lightroom from "As Shot" to "Auto".  Thats it!

Do you see how nearly ALL the colors in this image have changed?  Take a close look at the greens in particular.  Which image do you like best?

Conclusion

Try playing with all the default White Balance Presets in Lightroom, and then try adjusting the sliders to find which white balance setting YOU prefer for your image and what resonates with YOUR OWN VISION.

Keep in mind there are NO right or wrong answers here!  Just know that White Balance is a powerful tool that can help you achieve your editing goals with just a few quick adjustments.  Now give it a try!

Do you have any questions or comments about How White Balance Can Dramatically Change How a Preset Looks on Your Image?  Just leave us a comment below - we would LOVE to hear from you!  And PLEASE SHARE this post using the social sharing buttons (we really appreciate it)!