The 3 Things I Adjust on Every Photo

Hey friend,

If you've tried the preset and something feels slightly off, you're not doing anything wrong. Every photo is different, and a preset doesn't know the exact lighting you were shooting in.

There are three things I adjust on almost every photo after applying a preset: exposure, white balance, and individual colors in the HSL section. All three take less than a minute, and they're what make a preset look like your own editing style instead of someone else's.

I put together a quick video walking through all three on a real photo:

👉 Watch: How to use presets well (3 min)

The short version: I typically shoot a little underexposed, so the first thing I do is bump the exposure slider up to add some light back in. Then I'll play with the white balance depending on how warm or moody I want the image. And if any individual color looks off (greens are the hardest to get right), the HSL sliders let you adjust specific hues without affecting everything else.

Those small tweaks are what take a preset from "pretty good" to "this is my photo."

Speaking of which, here's what my three preset packs (5 in each) look like on real travel photos (These are just static images, but hit the button below to play with the sliders and see them in action):