
Today, we have 5 tips that you must know before purchasing any preset collection. The aim here is to provide some key points so you can avoid wasting money on presets. A preset is basically like an Insta Filter but it’s more than just a simple filter as it is easily customizable to suit any editing style. It contains pre-recorded settings to achieve looks that are hard to achieve. Some presets also produce signature styles of photographers that you follow and admire. Let’s get started!
#1 Photographers Presets
Buying from an award-winning photographer or a well-known photographer in the industry can cost a lot more than buying from a preset selling company or website. Sometimes photographers charge for their signature style that they have been building over the years, they know people love their photos and their editing style then why settle for less. That’s why buying from a photographer can be expensive and you should buy from them if your editing style matches with your favorite photographer.

Before buying, you have to make sure that these presets are exactly made for your photos or you can work your way up to get those preset settings right to use them on your photos. If that’s not the case, we wouldn’t recommend buying from a photographer, instead, go with a preset selling company. These presets are usually cheap but do not comprise with the quality and provide a lot of options to choose from.
The best part the results can be amazing and you can save a lot of $$. So don’t fall for someone’s signature style instead build your own.
#2 Before & After Imagery
Before & after imagery says a lot about any preset collection. By comparing the before and after photos you can get a pretty good idea of how the preset would work on your photos. That could be a win-win for you if you would be able to get an idea about the presets by just looking at the before & after imagery.
Let’s take the example of our Cinematic Collection, if you take a look at the image before applying the presets, you can notice these presets are perfect for those who love street photography and works well with urban photos that are a bit on the gloomy side.

These presets add cinematic looks by adding teal to shadows and warm tones to highlights. If your photography revolves around capturing the streets of New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong, or where the streets are busy, these presets can help you.
You can also take a look at the colors of the image to decide what colors they are affecting. For example, in the image below our dark & moody collection targets the green, it darkens them and desaturates them a bit to get you a dark and moody look. So always take a look at the before & after imagery before you decide.

#3 Learn The Basics of Lightroom
People get wrong expectations that a preset would magically change their photos. But that’s not the case most of the time, it’s true that sometimes a preset might nail it right off the bat but sometimes it just won’t work. It’s not the preset itself, it’s you who couldn’t able to tweak the settings after applying the preset.

You should learn the basics of Lightroom before you buy any presets. A professionally created preset wouldn’t take you long to figure out the best settings for your photos. Most of the time, you can play around with exposure, white balance, and Basic Panel to make the preset work.
#4 Pairing Presets With Right Images
You have to understand every image is different and needs to be treated differently so is true for every individual photo editing style out there.
We would highly recommend working towards your own style that could greatly help you decide what preset to look for you.
The most important key factor about presets is using them on the right images. Without the right images, it would not be possible to get the most out of the preset.
You can’t expect a photo taken indoors to go well with the Dark & Moody collection. Because the Mood collection is designed to work with the outdoor images, especially the image that highlights foliage, green, open park in the background. For example, The image below is perfect for Moody Collection.

They would do nothing if you apply them on indoor photos. On the other hand, if you pair the Light & Airy preset with indoor photos, they can do wonders with your photos. So, make sure you have the right images for any preset collection that you are about to purchase. It could also be related to your editing style mentioned in Tip 1.

Thanks for following the post. You should also consider searching for the reputation of the presets creator. Are they trustworthy? Do they have reviews? What do their social profiles say? and so on… I hope these tips help you avoid your money going to waste. You should be able to make a wise decision before you purchase. If you have more tips before buying a preset collection, do comment below.
I bought and paid for a preset but I don’t know how to download it to my Lightroom on my computer when I bought it on my IPhone.
Please check your email, I have already sent the link to your email to download. Just click on the link to download the Master Collection
I can use in Photoshop CC
If I buy the preset collection and download it in my current old MacBook Pro, how easy is it to transfer to the new MacBook Pro in 2 months time.
I feel this bundle is good for my work.
Hi Prem,
Presets files are less than 100MB, so it won’t take you long to transfer the presets to your new device.
Thanks,
Bunty
Thanks for the quick response.