How To Find Your Photo Editing Style: A Visual Guide
When buying presets, knowing your photo editing style is key. I have some tips to help you find your style. Consider your dominant colors, lighting, and preferred photo style. I have more in-depth tips on finding your photo editing style and choosing the right presets.
1) Dominant Colors
Your photos colors impact your final photo edit. Consider the mood you want to convey in your photos. To achieve bright and airy photos, begin with lighter colors. For a warmer, moodier edit, start by using warmer/darker tones in your photos.
When shooting outside in natural light with green, yellow, and blue tones, light & airy presets or natural light presets can enhance your photos. These presets bring out the vibrant colors and natural light in your photos while maintaining perfect skin tones.
Everyday Presets, Light & Airy Presets, Natural Light Presets
For overcast or grey skies with muted tones or neutral backgrounds: try a warm golden preset or a moody style preset. Warm & moody presets will enhance the warm tones in your images and create creamy skin tones.
Golden Boho Presets, Golden Hour Presets, Creamy Moody Presets
2) Your Lighting
Consider your lighting next. When shooting in overcast lighting, a warmer preset can help add a beautiful glow to your photos and enhance skin tones. For bright sunny days, opt for lighter, more vibrant presets to make your colors pop and bring out gorgeous skin tones.
Here are two different preset styles applied to the same photo. The far left is unedited, the middle is edited with Kodak Portra Presets, and the last image is edited with Golden Boho Presets.
This photo looks gorgeous with either a bright and airy edit or a darker, moodier edit. Your choice of preset depends on the editing style you prefer. Do you prefer moodier, warmer tones or are you drawn to bright images?
3) The Style Of Photography You Are Editing
As an artist, the choice often comes down to personal preference. For portraiture, weddings, engagements, senior photos, family photos, and newborn images, it's ideal to opt for light and airy or warm tones with a creamy feel. Avoid altering skin tones too much.
Wedding Photography
For weddings and engagements, emphasize your lighting and dominant background colors. For example, if you're in the PNW or East Coast and often have overcast days with moody green/brown backgrounds, editing with a moody tone will enhance your photos.
Wedding Photography Edited With Woodlands Presets
For those on the west coast or southwest, consider using an airy preset to soften harsh lighting and enhance color tones. Alternatively, you can experiment with a warmer preset to create soft warm color tones.
Wedding Photography Edited With Kodak Portra Presets
Artistic Portraiture & Boudoir
For boudoir and artistic portraits you can experiment with your style. A deep black and white preset will truly enrich the mood of your photos. You can also explore various tones like dark and moody, film, and warm muted tones. Enhance the depth and emotion in your boudoir and artistic portraits by playing with different styles.
Boudoir Photography Edited With Kodak Tri-X Film Presets
Influencers, Bloggers, Food Photography
As influencers and bloggers, it's important to maintain high-quality photo edits that preserve the original product or clothing colors. Consider using vibrant and clean presets or a true-to-color option. The same advice applies to foodies and food photographers.
Influencer Styled Photo Edited With Aesthetic Presets
Newborn Photography
Stick to soft & natural tones for newborn photography. Neutralize red/yellow undertones in their skin. Our Bright & Airy Preset is perfect for this. Bright & Airy was specifically designed to enhance newborn photography.
Before & After Newborn Photo Editing With Bright & Airy Presets
4) Find What Inspires You
Spend some time on Instagram, Pinterest, or another inspiring site. Save photos or create a Pinterest board for reference. This helps you see if your saved photos have a consistent style or are all different.
If you saved all one style of images, you'll know exactly what you're looking for when you're ready to purchase presets. If you were all over the place with the style of photos you're drawn to, you'll need to do a little more to narrow down your style.
5) Test Your Style
Finding your perfect photo editing style may take some time and experimentation. The key is to try out a variety of styles to find what works best. Certain photos truly shine with a specific preset style.
To help discover your editing style, consider a few options. For beginners, the Starter Bundle is a great choice. This bundle includes all our best-sellers.
To customize your presets, take advantage of our buy 3, get 1 free sale. Try to choose two light and airy toned presets and two warm and moody toned presets.
I would recommend our best-sellers: Light & Airy, Golden Boho, Colorful Clean, and Creamy Moody.
You could also test a black and white preset. I would suggest either Kodak Tri-X Presets or Classic Black & White Presets.
Feeling Lost With All The Options?
If you are still having trouble narrowing down what presets are going to be the best for your photos don't worry. Honestly it can be really hard to find your style. I can help you narrow down some options if you are feeling lost.
Send Me Your Photos
You can send me a few of your images. I can edit those images with a few different preset styles. I will send you the before and afters of your edited photos. I try to include a light & airy preset edit, a golden preset edit, a moody preset edit, a black and white preset edit, a film preset edit and a colorful preset edit. This is really helpful to see what presets will look like on your images.
Our goal at Lou & Marks isn't to just sell you presets. We really aspire to help you find your style and streamline your editing. Please don't hesitate to reach out to me with any questions. Fill out our contact form and I will happy to help you.
Final Thoughts
When buying presets, knowing your photo editing style is key. Consider your dominant colors, lighting, and preferred photo style. One way to discover your photo editing style is to experiment with different presets and see which ones resonate with you the most. Pay attention to the colors, lighting, and overall feel of your favorite edits. You can shop all our different styles on our Preset Shop.
