What are Instagram Presets?
What are Instagram Presets? Well, that question has a really simple answer - they’re filters that you’ve saved and can be reused on other images. If that’s all you need to know then you’re welcome! If you want to know more about what Presets are, why they’re important and some basic dos and don’ts, read on.
Applying a Preset can change the style of an image subtly or dramatically.
What are Instagram Presets? A more in-depth look…
Keeping it cool with a light blue theme
If you’ve spent any time on Instagram in the last 6 months you’ll have noticed that a lot of accounts have a really cohesive look to their photos and you may have been served some ads on your feed or in Stories about buying Presets. This means the person selling them has created some edits that make photos look stunning and they are selling these Presets (saved filters) to you so you can recreate this look. They’re selling you an image in DNG form that has all its edits saved as a Preset so that when you use it on Adobe Lightroom you can copy that Preset and use it on your own photos. A Preset will have edits to the photo’s colours, tones, special effects and other enhancements.
Presets have been a handy tool for photographers for aaaages, they’re not a big industry secret! A photographer can use their editing software to save down some basic edits and apply them to multiple photos at once and then make further changes to photos individually. This saves a lot of time, especially if all the photos from their shoot can be edited in a similar way. At some point in 2019, influencers realised that people wanted to be able to recreate their looks and started selling Presets as some magical way of enhancing photos. It’s easy income for them as people are already coveting their beautiful Instagram feeds so they just need to meet this new demand.
Why are Presets important?
If you’ve ever wanted to grow your Instagram following and have found yourself scouring through tutorials, blog posts and how-to videos, one of the common themes is post quality content. I spent a quick 10 minutes looking through some of the top search results for “How to grow your Instagram account organically,” and quickly found articles by Social Insider, Oberlo, Lyfe Marketing, WordStream, Shopify and Hopper. They all word it a bit differently, but these posts have a similar point that you need to create quality content to grow your Instagram account, starting with good quality images. A few point out that you should have a consistent style for your content and you can do that by finding a filter that works for your content and saving it as a Preset.
I made a slow transition from bright blue sunny sky shots to a warmer look on my feed when I went from the European summer to a Danish autumn
Think about one of the first things you do when checking out a new profile on Instagram…you probably scroll through their feed quickly, right? The first few moments that someone spends on your Instagram account are crucial because those precious seconds are all you’ll have to impress them enough to make them follow you. If they like what they see, they’re more likely to follow you and engage with your content. Once they’re following you they’ll expect to see similar content from you when it shows up in their feed. A Preset helps you keep your photos consistent with similar colours, tones and effects, so your audience take notice of what you’re sharing. Instagram is highly visual so keep that in mind.
Dos and don’ts
DON’T - Don’t spend heaps of money on Presets with the expectation that they’ll make all your photos look like they’re done by your favourite influencer. The thing with Presets is that they apply the same edits to every photo, so the same Preset could make one photo look amazing and the next look terrible. For a lot of Instagrammers, this is their bread and butter, so they’re thinking of their overall aesthetic, not just using a filter on something and hoping it will work.
DO - Set up different Presets for different occasions. I like to enhance the teal and orange colors in my photos on Instagram but skin colour always poses a problem so I have a couple of filters that create a similar look. One for when there’s a human in it and one when there isn’t. This is because orange is very tricky to play with as you can make yourself look like an oompa loompa if you turn it the saturation of it too high. In the photo below I wanted to enhance the lovely peach building behind me and the near-ripe pomegranates on the tree but I had a really great tan already so needed to be careful not to go overboard.
An example of how enhancing the orange in a photo can make it pop, but also giving yourself a Donald Trump tan!
DON’T - Don’t let the quality of your photos slip just because you’ve set up some good Presets. You should always be thinking about how your photo is going to add value to someone and whether it’ll spark something in them.
Presets can be really subtle but will still have a big impact on your feed when used consistently
DO - Use a Preset, no matter what your look is. Even if you’re going for a simple look, you can still set up a Preset for that. You might want to make sure that all your images have higher contrast or slightly muted colours; it doesn’t have to be a big, cinematic look for every photo.
DON’T - Don’t have unrealistic expectations. If you buy a Preset that’s all bright blue skies and pops of colour, you can’t expect it to make your image look all colourful and happy if its an image of a dalmation dog in a white room. A Preset isn’t creating something out of nothing, it’s enhancing what’s already in an image. There’s no point using a Preset that’s made for the beaches of Bali if you’re always posting shots of you and the girls on a night out.
DO - Try to make your own. If you’re new to photo editing but don’t want to fall into the trap of buying a new Preset everytime you change your look, check out my DIY Presets tutorial here. It’ll introduce you to all the tools you need to figure out how to make your own Presets.
DON’T - Don’t be afraid to mix it up and change your look! Just try and phase out one look slowly so it’s not jarring for your audience. As long as the essence of your content stays the same and you don’t move too quickly your followers will be fine with it and might even like your new look more.
If you want to really get into Presets you can buy my DIY Presets tutorial here, it breaks down the process of how to make a Preset yourself with the Adobe Lightroom mobile app. It makes it super easy to make your own Presets for the price you’d pay for 1 Preset pack, if you’re lucky!
