One Click Presets (Do They Exist?)

One Click Presets

(And How to Adjust Them in Lightroom)

I have been a professional photographer for ten years, and in those ten years, I have found very few one-click edit presets.  They come VERY few and far between, and I think it's important for many of you who are "just starting" on your photography journey to realize this. 

I often see people get discouraged that they can't JUST CLICK A PRESET to instantly turn their photo into an amazing work of art.  I'm here to tell you that it generally does NOT work like that, so "DON'T GET DISCOURAGED."

The best part about the editing process is that you can adjust presets (or Actions in Photoshop) to your liking.  YOU have the control to adjust them to match your personal style.  It can be as easy as taking a few seconds to adjust your White Balance in Lightroom or making some minor adjustments to the other sliders.

For this post, I decided to re-edit some of my photos using the brand new Clean and Colorful Millennium Preset Collection, and let me tell you; the presets from Pretty Presets are as close to one-click presets as they come for me, and many times they are!  You can tell that a lot of time and care was put into developing their Lightroom and Photoshop products.

All the images throughout this blog post are edited with different presets from this collection.  I will also share some IMPORTANT AND EASY TIPS to encourage you and help make your editing easier!

For the main image and the image below shot in a grassy field, I used the Crystal Springs preset from the Clean & Colorful Millennium Collection and then made a few adjustments using the HSL sliders.

For those who don't know, "HSL" stands for Hue, Saturation & Luminance.  I find that most of the time, adjusting or tweaking my HSL sliders can make a big difference in helping me achieve the exact look that I was going for.

For the senior image below, I used the Pashmina preset, also from the Clean & Colorful Millennium Collection.  For this photo, I also just slightly tweaked the HSL sliders.

If you are feeling discouraged because you "can't seem to get it right," I urge you to play with your presets by using the sliders located on the right side of Lightroom, especially the HSL sliders.  As you do this, you will develop your Lightroom skills and should start to feel more and more confident as time goes by.

Many people think that editing and using presets should be a one-click type of thing.  It certainly can happen "once in a while" if your lighting, exposure, white balance, etc., are just perfect.

The reality of a one-click edit is that it happens pretty infrequently.  So as you learn how to make some of these minor adjustments in Lightroom after you apply a preset, you will start to see the magic happen and bring your vision to life!

Conclusion

Photography is a never-ending learning process.  Even after ten years, I am still learning new things.  And if you are passionate about it, photography can be an incredible and rewarding journey!

I encourage you to play around and keep practicing in Lightroom.  I promise the more you learn by "trial and error," the better at editing you will become.  And as that happens, you will find your confidence growing, and you will be a Lightroom editing pro before you know it!

Do you have any questions or comments about One Click Presets and How to Adjust Presets in Lightroom?  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)!