How to sell presets online
How to Make a Lightroom PRESET PACK and SELL it online!
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what's happening team now recently I
created a new Lightroom preset pack
which I'm currently selling on my
website links in the description below
and I thought it might be quite fun and
useful to show you some of the technical
side of how to make a Lightroom preset
pack that you can sell online what
recommended settings work for a wider
audience and how to get them to Market
and what platforms to use to get your
Custom Shop up and running so let's
crack on so firstly you're going to need
Adobe Lightroom which I presume you all
have because you wouldn't be watching
this video so go ahead and open up
Lightroom now the first thing you're
going to require are some images how
many images depends on how many presets
you want to make so if you're going to
produce a preset pack consisting of say
20 presets then you want a minimum of 60
images to work on that's three images
for testing each preset now that may
seem a lot or you might think piece of
cake I went on a photo trip last week so
I can use all of those images well not
necessarily you need to have a good
variety of images you need to come up
with a list of genres you think other
photographers might be using presets for
for instance street photography
Landscapes portraits product photography
Etc and then choose three different
images per genre they could be shot at
different times of the day have
different white balance if you're
choosing portraits make sure those
images differ either in skin complexion
or gender are they shot outside or
inside a studio if it's Landscapes maybe
include scenes with water and without
shot either in gold now or blue hour you
get the idea and also make sure those
images are raw files and not jpegs
because presets work better and function
properly when used with raw files and
have the most impact so once you have
all of your images in your folder import
them into Lightroom so you have three
images per preset now the first and most
important rule when making a preset pack
is that you don't want to change the
white balance sliders now why is that
because you're creating presets that
other photographers are going to use on
a variety of their own images and each
image is going to have very different
white balance an image shot correctly at
2700 Kelvin is going to look pretty
strange if you position your preset
white balance sliders at 9000 Kelvin so
make sure the white balance is set to as
shot in the drop down menu we can change
the temperature of the images using
curves without affecting the white
balance as you'll see in just a moment
now it's also worth noting here that
when you compile your 60 images make
sure they have pretty good white balance
because it will make your life much
easier in the testing phase now let's
talk about color because this topic is
going to play a huge part in creating
your preset pack now the biggest advice
I would give when working with color is
less is more I tend to work with colors
that are either complementary analogous
or monochromatic a good website to help
with color theory is the Adobe Color
website here you'll see those options I
just mentioned complement Elementary
colors are those which appear at
opposite ends of the color wheel
analogous are the colors close to each
other on the wheel and of course
monochromatic are varying saturations of
the same color so how does this
translate over in Lightroom well on the
hsl sliders we have our saturation tab
which is going to be our first Port of
Call but just below the hsl section in
the color grading section we have a
handy color wheel to reference just like
the one on the Adobe website this is
going to be your friend so let's pick an
image to work with this London Marathon
Photo an urban setting including people
first I'm going to do a couple of basic
adjustments adding some contrast using
the black and white sliders now the main
colors in this image are the skin tones
which is generally going to be in this
portion of the color wheel oranges and
reds and I'd like my preset to have
complementary colors so let's reduce
down all of the colors that are not the
skin tones
and let's boost the color of the skin
tones just to add a bit of vibrancy
now if we reference our color wheel we
know that complementary colors are
opposite each other the skin tones are
in this region here so that means the
complementary color is over here on the
opposite side of the color wheel
but we've already eliminated those
colors from the hsl sliders the blues
and cyanes and that's okay because we're
actually going to be using Color grading
for this next part let's open up the
Shadows wheel and choose a color
opposite from the skin tones here looks
good and that's introduced some nice
teals into the darkest parts of the
image now we have a draft of our first
preset so let's create and save this
preset by going over to the presets
panel and clicking this little add
symbol then click create preset which
opens up the develop preset window and
because this is the first of many in our
new preset pack we need to create a new
group so choosing new group let's name
our new preset pack something original
like preset pack new
make sure all of the check boxes are
ticked and give a name to your very
first preset like Street orange and teal
then click OK congratulations you've
just created your first preset which
will show up in your list but we're not
done yet the preset needs to be tested
on your two other images so choose image
number two and apply your new preset and
this looks okay apart from the skin
tones being overly saturated in
comparison to our first image and the
reason is white balance if we look at
the original raw file for a moment we
can see the white balance is incorrect
it's actually too warm if we adjust the
white balance to where it should be
around 5200 Kelvin the preset works
perfectly now here is why you shouldn't
change the white balance when making a
preset if I created this preset using
the guy in the baseball cap and change
the white balance to the correct
position at 5200 Kelvin then the
marathon runner skin tone bones would
look too pink and washed out and we'd
lose those complementary orange and teal
colors so the rule of thumb here is work
on images with good white balance and if
not just be aware of where those white
balance sliders should be for that
particular image Let's test the preset
on our third image the Naked Cowboy in
New York City yep that works pretty well
but say we want to make adjustments to
the image add more contrast some more
clarity and boost the luminance of the
skin tones but we've already created and
saved our presets no problem head over
to the preset and right click and choose
update with the current settings and
this will override the original settings
and save the preset with the new
adjustments and just make some final
checks with your other images before you
sign off on this first preset done so
now let's look at creating an Adaptive
preset for our preset pack before we
start selling them online let's use this
cityscape of The Shard in London for my
next preset I want to create a specific
Sunset preset so let's add some contrast
using the black slider to begin around
negative 30 and some reduced texture
because it's a landscape scene but for
this preset we're going to be working
with adaptive masks clicking on the
masking icon let's choose sky and that's
done a nice job of selecting the sky for
us and because this is a sunset preset
let's add some warmth using the color
temperature and tint sliders now I know
I said not to change the global white
balance sliders but this is slightly
different these sliders are actually
relative to the mask and not to the
global white balance of your image
that's why these sliders don't have
Kelvin values so we now have a nice warm
colored Sunset but only on the sky
maybe bring down the highlights of touch
now it's important to rename your mask
so that future customers will know what
the masks are for I'll rename this Sky
let's create some Mist using a radial
gradient and I'm going to place this
across the middle section of the image
then reduce Clarity some negative dehaze
but of course this doesn't look right
because the Mist is covering the
building and we only want the Mist in
the distance if we choose intersect mask
with subject and then invert the
adjustment the AI engine figures out
where the subject is and excludes the
effect and because these are adaptive
masks whatever image you apply the
preset to it finds the subject within
your image and adapts The Mask
accordingly and this goes for the sky
mask we created as well so let's rename
this to mist
but say we did want to change the global
temperature of an image how do we do
that without touching the white balance
sliders simple it's by using tone curves
if we choose the RGB blue Channel let's
drag the curve into the blues and again
these temperature adjustments are
relative to whatever Global white
balance the image has another tool at
your disposal when adjusting relative
color temperature adjustments is
calibration we can make things more
yellow if we like or more magenta so
have a play around with these sliders to
see what combinations of colors work
well for you so again let's create our
presets and put it inside our new group
and rename it sunset adaptive this will
make it obvious to your customers what
the preset is for this clearly is not
going to work well on a studio portrait
and importantly don't forget to tick the
masking check boxes so they are included
in the preset so once again let's test
the preset on one of our other images
the sky mask adapts well to the new
image the color is nice and the Mist
filter is a movable object and still
intersects with whatever subject or
objects the AI engine finds in its path
Let's test this preset on one last image
and that looks very nice another thing
you can do when making a preset pack is
the ability to change the names of those
presets I realized I wanted to
capitalize the headings so it looks a
bit more professional so once you've
completed all of your 20 presets for
your new preset pack it's time to
produce the folder which you're going to
be uploading to the shop so you'll want
to right click and choose export group
and choose a location for the folder and
click save that's it simple as that and
here you'll see the exported zipped
folder with all of your XMP files you'll
want to keep this folder zipped up for
when selling on your shop and speaking
of selling how do we get our newly
developed preset pack to Market you
could try using Squarespace which
enables you to sell digital content
which of course is a must another option
is Shopify where you can get started for
as little as a pound a month with fees
or the one I opted for was selfie with a
basic monthly price of 22 dollars you
can sell up to ten thousand dollars of
presets per year with no extra costs
apart from the transaction fee when
using PayPal or stripe to receive
payments if you exceed the ten thousand
dollars then selfie will get in touch
with you and put you on the new business
plan for fifty nine dollars a month the
basic plan still gives you unlimited
products to sell digital products which
is what our preset pack is and you can
connect your own web domain if you so
wish so let's assume you've opened an
account with selfie and you're ready to
start selling your preset pack let's
click add a new product and selfie lets
you sell a number of items either
physical products like photo prints
perhaps or you can print on demand like
baseball caps t-shirts which they
basically handle everything you just
upload your logo and they print and
distribute the item for you but the
option we're interested in is digital
products now I've already added my
preset pack to the shop so let's use a
different example people of a digital
product which I'm about to add which is
desktop wallpapers browse in your
computer for the zipped folder of
desktop wallpaper images and begin the
upload this folder has 15 high
resolution images totaling about 66
megabytes in data now let's give our
digital product a name Mark McGee
desktop wallpapers volume one then we
can add a product description you can go
into as much detail as you like whatever
you think will add to the desirability
of your products we can also add artwork
or images showcasing the product I'll
choose my main product image which will
appear first on the product page then we
can add other images just as if we were
selling something on eBay
then you want to set the price for your
product I'm going to settle on 15 pounds
and you can set your currency and selfie
will deal with the back end conversion
rates for wherever your customers are
based you have the option to set
whatever people want to pay if your fans
are feeling generous
and of course we can leave the stock as
unlimited because this is a digital
product no inventory just for now I'll
make my new product invisible from the
shop before I save the product while I
check that everything looks okay and
here is how the new item will appear on
your product page if we click on the
desktop wallpapers we have the main
image with the two additional images and
of course these can be expanded for a
better view we have the price up top and
the buy now button which clicks through
to the checkout
and you can pay with Google pay if you
have that set up or Apple pay or
Standard Bank cards the email field is
what selfie uses to send confirmation to
the customer with a download link
although once purchased you have the
option to download directly from the
shop so let's look at my actual preset
pack you'll want to create some artwork
perhaps to show off the product tell the
customers exactly what they're getting
20 presets for Lightroom and classic
some of the presets include adaptive
filters so the latest versions of
Lightroom will be required and inform
them that the presets are intended to
work with raw files and another feature
that selfie allows you to do is insert
HTML code so you can include a YouTube
demo video of the product
so that's pretty much it it really is
that simple it took me just a couple of
hours to get the shop up and running and
styled like my main website uploading
all of the artwork and images writing
the descriptions for the products and
setting the pricing it really is a
pretty user-friendly experience on
selfie so if you want to purchase my
preset pack I'll leave links in the
description below so you can see how I
compiled them and what settings I used
so thanks for watching hope this little
video has given you a bit of inspiration
to go out and create your own preset
packs and don't forget to give us a
thumbs up for the video and hit that
subscribe button below
and I'll catch you next time
