Gone are the days when editing photos within Adobe Lightroom or Adobe Photoshop might take hours – for a single image! Nowadays, professionals and amateurs alike rely on tricks-of-the-trade like Lightroom presets to speed up their workflow and to give a consistent look across collections.
As recent as five years ago, there were only a few reputable companies out there where you could buy Lightroom presets. Purchase options were based on photography needs, budget, and editing style. Most were geared towards the professional photographer. But with demand and popularity, along with the rise of small shops and photographer-editors, the volume of preset companies is larger than ever before. Which companies offer the best presets for your unique needs?
We’ve combed through hundreds of services and businesses that advertised Lightroom presets for photographers in 2022 to find you the best Lightroom presets. Our methodology is detailed below. We hope that this handy guide will allow you to spend more time editing and less time searching for the right photography editing tools.
Your time is important and so is the quality of your work. What are the best Lightroom presets for your needs? We detail our findings here.
Our top 6 picks for best Lightroom presets for photographers in 2022
#1. The Luxe Lens
Best overall source for Lightroom presets
Pros:
- Large volume of styles and collections
- Very affordable
- Established business
- Free tutorials and community
- Excellent customer service
- Designed for desktop and mobile editing
- Easy to navigate website and help center
Cons
- Too many options for some
The Luxe Lens earns our top spot for best Lightroom presets for photographers in 2022. This company literally has something for everyone. It also provides strong levels of support for users at all levels. Their traditional line of products covers all popular editing themes and styles. In recent years, they’ve also introduced several product lines that mirror current trends in the editing community.
The Brixton Film line was designed for photographers who like the look of film and for those with more avant garde approaches to editing. Direct competitors of this line are Archipelago and VSCO. We loved the quality, service, and community associated with both. The price? Not so much. We found prices were significantly inflated on both sites.
The light and airy line mirrors the bright, light, and natural trend blowing up across social. The current direct competitor here is likely Light & Airy Photography. We were impressed with Light & Airy Photography’s community and their Instagram stories, but not so much with the quality of their presets. We also found their customer service lacking in personalization and detail.
The Instagram preset line focuses exclusively on the needs of on-the-go photographers, those who exclusively edit via mobile, and those who primarily shoot for social. Direct competitors tend to fall under small shops or photographers with their own small preset line. They tend to have well-developed social media followings, like Jared Polin of FroKnowsPhoto or Peter McKinnon. While we tended to rate photographer-editors high in terms of quality and service, their dearth of style diversity made it difficult to recommend them for any specific category.
In addition to comprehensive product list available at The Luxe Lens, we love that this company was consistently priced lower than its competition, while still offering comparable quality. Our customer service experience was also exceptional – detailed, timely, and with link outs to website-housed graphics and videos. This company as been around for a while, and so many of our staff members also reported positive previous experiences with this company.
#2. Adobe Creative Cloud
Best budget option
Adobe Creative Cloud is a tool for everyone, and their plans are based on your needs. Adobe discounts and offers can be found throughout the year.
Pros:
- Very affordable and often free
- Established business
- Free tutorials
- Trustworthy
Cons
- No community tied to free presets
- No customer service dedicated to help with preset use or installation
#3. Creative Market
Created by the software company that designed and sells Lightroom, these Lightroom presets are (mostly) free and often tied directly to a well-developed tutorial. This lesser-known gem of free assets is a great option for those on a budget or those just getting their feet wet with presets. The Adobe Exchange also provides options for free presets, but the Exchange is mostly limited to single third-party vendors posting their regular products for sale via Adobe.
Best curated small shops
Pros
- Large volume of options
- Directly supports artists & small shops
- Established business
Cons:
No tutorials
- Little to no post-purchase support
- Difficult to compare across products
- Search function can be cumbersome
#4. VSCO
Creative Market is like Etsy for digital creators. Single, third-party vendors list products in their store, which can be purchased directly from Creative Market. Each product contains ratings from past customers. Creative Market is slightly more lucrative for artists than Etsy and hosts many more preset small shops. Envato hosts a similar market for digital assets, but after interacting with both sites, we found Creative Market easier to navigate. We also like the support it provides to photographers looking to list their products. DVLOP is a new player on the block that hosts curated photographer-editors, but the lack of ratings and non-transparency of selected artists, makes the DVLOP site more of a gamble.
Best for film aficionados
Pros
- Large and active community
- Affordable
- Established business
Cons
- Not compatible with other brands
- Doesn’t work with Lightroom software or app
- Limited to looks-like-film crowd
VSCO is an app (annual membership fee + add-on options) that offers creative photo and video editing tools within an active community. The presets are functional and high-quality, but limited to the looks-like-film (and arguably avant garde) crowd. Coming in second for film lovers are Mastin Labs and Looks Like Film. Both of these groups offer an active community, their high quality preset collections are pricey for what you actually receive (as compared to cheaper alternatives).
#5. Pretty Presets
Best for the pageant parent
Pros
The OG of presets
- Excellent customer service
- Easy to navigate website and help center
- Helpful (and free) tutorials
Cons
- Styles are slightly dated
Pretty Presets was really one of the first mainstream businesses to focus on Lightroom presets. With Southern, White roots, the collection continues to offer good quality collections. However, their niche market might not be for everyone. Next in line within this category is Greater than Gatsby. While not as established as Pretty Presets, Greater than Gatsby has nevertheless been around for a while. It tends to emulate Pretty Presets in style, but the store’s offerings aren’t as substantial as this category winner.
#6. Visual Flow Presets
Best Professional Options
Visual Flow Presets are great for professional photographers. Their patent pending system is called “Lighting Condition Based Development,” which basically means that you select the preset to apply to an image based on the lighting condition that it was photographed in. So, if you have soft shaded lighting on your subjects, then you would select the “Soft Light Preset.” If your image was taken in Tungsten light, then you would select the “Tungsten Preset.” In total, there are 8 different lighting conditions including Hard Light, HDR, Over Saturated, Red Tint and more.
Photo Editing by lighting condition increases the accuracy of the presets and gets them closer to “one click” results than most other systems. It also makes it straightforward and easy for all levels of photographers. In contrast, other presets that have fun, quirky or random names can be great but lack the intuitive approach.
Pros:
- Polished Set of Presets by Reputable Companies (SLR Lounge and DVLOP)
- New Lighting condition based development system speeds up post production
Cons
- More expensive than other preset systems
- Each pack only comes with one single unified look (adapted for the different lighting conditions)
Bottom Line
We’ve spent the time extensively reviewing the best Lightroom presets for 2021, so you can focus on what matters – your work and your relationships. We’ve presented our all-around recommendations along with several functional alternatives, that may speak to your niche. In the world of photography, there is no one-size-fits-all solution, but this guide makes sure your Lightroom preset choices will be tailored to both your style and your needs.
How We Tested
We compiled a list of known Lightroom preset companies. We then added to that list by combing through 2021 Google and Facebook business advertising paid search trends.
Posing as an anonymous customer, we purchased a popular preset collection from each company. We then had an amateur/hobby photographer that was new to presets, and an experienced preset user, test the product by installing it and applying it to a set of three photos. Finally, we contacted customer service to ask a question about how to install the product and how to use the product. Companies were rated on the following attributes: quality of product, price of product, product ease of use, breadth of offerings, time in business, quality of customer service, customer service time to response, free tutorials and guides on website, website navigation, and associated community. A more detailed list of outcomes is currently being prepared for publication.
