As a photographer, you’ll be aware that the process of getting the perfect shot doesn’t end with the click of the shutter. The editing stage is just as important, and using the right tools is essential. In order to get your shots looking as pristine as they possibly can, and to make your clients more than happy with the results, using Lightroom is without a doubt one of the best options for photographers.
Lightroom is a very intuitive and easy-to-use piece of photo editing software that is used by both professional and amateur photographers alike. One of the main reasons why it’s one of the most useful photo editing tools out there is because it allows you to use presets on your photos.
Presets, in Lightroom, are files that can be applied to any photo to adjust the development settings quickly and easily. They quickly modify various aspects of the photograph such as the contrast, color, and shade. For example, you could try this polaroid Lightroom preset to quickly and easily give your photos a cool vintage look.
There are many reasons why Lightroom is the go-to software for professional photographers, including the preset function. Let’s take a look at 7 of them.
Lightroom is super easy to use
Lightroom, compared to other photo editing software, is very easy for beginners to get into. Whereas most other photo editors have very complex and difficult-to-use interfaces, Lightroom has a simple design with intuitive slider controls for most of its tools. This means that even a novice can get their photos looking amazing without having to take too much time to figure out how to use the software.
Images are easy to organize
Lightroom allows you to search through batches of photos and sort them in many different and very useful ways. As photographers, we know the importance of keeping your image files and folders organized, and Lightroom is an invaluable tool to help with this. Each shot can be given star ratings and thumbnails can be color-coded. Additionally, you can tag your favorite photos in an instant with only one keystroke.
Bulk editing can speed up your workflow
Once you’ve found the perfect preset, like the polaroid Lightroom preset, for example, you can easily apply this to many photos at once. This feature can save you so much time when editing. With just a little bit of fine-tuning, you’ll have a whole batch of photos looking consistent and polished in just a few minutes.
Lightroom doesn’t use too much of your computer’s memory
Fortunately, Lightroom isn’t very memory intensive compared to other photo editing programs. Because of this, it keeps your system running quickly and seamlessly, allowing you to work faster without any frustrating loading times or freezing. Lightroom uses about 10% of the memory that Photoshop uses, allowing you plenty of disk space and RAM to use the program on any laptop or desktop computer, or even on mobile devices!
Auto-Tone can get you started with a single click
Lightroom has a feature called Auto-Tone which detects various aspects of your photos such as brightness and contrast and it quickly applies and adjusts settings to optimize the photos. This gives you a great starting point to then make your own adjustments. It’s also very useful for beginners to use if you’re new to making adjustments to the hue, saturation, and luminescence.
You can always undo to fix mistakes
Lightroom keeps track of every single edit you make, so if something goes wrong you can quickly and easily fix it by going back to any stage of the editing process. This gives you the freedom to try different things and experiment without the worry of ruining your shots.
There’s a huge range of available presets
You can find a large variety of presets online that have been made by professional photographers. This lets you use these settings on your own images to give them a polished and stylized look. You can also tweak the settings after to give the photos your own personalized flair. There are so many different presets out there, you can find one for almost any style imaginable. Presets are such a useful tool that’s used by professionals and amateurs for creating a consistent look and saving time. Many photographers create and share their own Lightroom presets, so you can achieve the same results as your favorite photographers.
To conclude, Lightroom is used by professional photographers because it is such a useful tool for the reasons listed above, but additionally, its user-friendly interface makes it suitable for amateur photographers and absolute beginners too!
Barry Lachey is a Professional Editor at Zobuz. Previously He has also worked for Moxly Sports and Network Resources “Joe Joe.” He is a graduate of the Kings College at the University of Thames Valley London. You can reach Barry via email or by phone.