Purchasing Lightroom presets is a personal choice that can help enhance your photographic style and speed up your editing time. I have a small pick of creative presets that I use for my work and also a heap of presets that I don’t use at all (but they were purchased as part of a pack). It’s a lot of trial and error figuring out which look you like and finding a style that suits your RAW files without it looking over-processed.

So far the most successful presets for my work have been made by Archipelago, a community of professional photographers who have spent the last 10+ years refining their presets. Their preset styles are earthy, modern, true colour, film and moody. I think almost everyone would find a look they like in their presets but it can take time to find the right one depending on what you want to achieve. I’ve purchased about 5 different packs over the years and have settled on one that I really love in 2024 which feels like I have found my editing style.

My favourite and most commonly used preset is from a set called Archipelago Quest 05. Over the years I have also used their Summit, LXC, Tempest and Wayfarer packs. Here is a run-through of each of these preset packs and how I have found the process of developing my editing style over the years. At the time of updating this blog post in 2024, I don’t believe any of these packs are available for purchase but you will get a feel for the diversity in their range (and also see the development in their presets over the years!)

Archipelago also offers a ‘Quest preset membership’ which gives you a new preset and creative profile monthly, plus a discount for their main shop. This was how I found my current preset and got to learn more about my own editing style. This is a really clever way to test out their products before purchasing some of their more expensive packs.

Here is a RAW image, this is what all of my images look like before editing. I shoot in RAW format to get the most detail and highest sized files from my images. The best way to describe a RAW file is comparing it to an unbaked cake, it has all the right ingredients but you need to bake the cake to get to the final result which is the process of editing.

It’s really important to note that every time I apply a preset to an image I will tweak it to get the best out of each image. In these examples I share, I haven’t done any tweaks in colours/hues so you can see the presets as they are in their original form.

Tribe Archipelago Quest 05 Presets Review (current edit style)

This is currently my most used preset pack and almost all of my work is edited with AQ05 ii or AQ05iii. All of the presets in this pack have only slight changes that can be hard to spot but I like the subtleness of them all. In my experience of using Archipelago presets over the years they have improved the colours in skin tones and lowered the high contrast, which I love. Everything feels more natural. In some of their older packs, I found I was always having to decrease the saturation of the orange/red in people’s faces as well as the hue, often the skin just looked too unnatural and orange.

Archipelago preset examples review of Quest 05 — AQ05 i - This preset is quite close to how the RAW image looks, so it’s natural but it has taken away some of the vibrancy.

Archipelago preset review and examples of photo edits — AQ05 iii - This would be the preset I use to deliver an image like this. It has my signature ‘film’ look while preserving the natural look and feel that their home had in real life.

Archipelago preset Quest 05 review — AQ05 iv - I love that this pack includes a dreamy black-and-white preset! I find I need variety for finding the right B&W preset, this will only suit some images.

Tribe Archipelago Tempest & Wayfarer Review (current edit style)

I currently still use the black and white presets from the Tempest and Wayfarer packs. Here are some examples! I tend to switch between all 3 black and white options depending on the photo and scenario. I haven’t included all of the examples of the colour presets in these two packs as I only sometimes use these 4.

Archipelago black and white preset reviews — Tempest 06 - This B&W preset has a warm colour grading added in the shadows which I quite like!

Archipelago preset reviews — Tempest 03 - The only colour preset from this pack that I sometimes use

Wayfarer 08 - This B&W preset has a warm colour grading added in the shadows which I quite like!

Archipelago black and white preset examples — Wayfarer 09 - You can tell the difference with no colour grading added. it is cooler toned.

Tribe Archipelago Summit Presets Review (retired presets)

The Summit presets are more saturated in colour and higher in contrast. You will notice the skin tones look more saturated than the Quest 05 pack, which is something I have moved away from in recent years. Overall you will see that these images look more processed. Looking back on my older work edited using these presets I can see the higher contrast in editing, everything used to feel quite bright. I don’t believe this pack is available for purchase at this time.

Archipelago example Summit preset — Summit 01

Archipelago example Summit preset examples — Summit 02

Archipelago Summit preset examples — Summit 03

Examples of editing with Archipelago Summit preset — Summit 04

Tribe Archipelago LXC Review (retired presets)

LXC is no longer available to purchase which is why I call it my OG Tribe presets but I believe they have released LXCr, I’m not sure if this is an updated version of these older presets that I own.