Landscape photography lives and dies by light — and the right Lightroom presets can turn a good shot into a world-class image in seconds. After 20 years shooting landscapes across 50 countries for clients like National Geographic, Nikon, and Skylum, I have built a preset workflow that consistently produces the cinematic, emotionally charged look that defines my work.
In this guide I will break down exactly what makes a great landscape Lightroom preset, what to avoid, and why the presets I have released are the ones serious photographers keep coming back to.
What Makes a Great Landscape Lightroom Preset?
Most landscape presets on the market are built by people who shoot landscapes occasionally. The difference is obvious the moment you apply them — blown highlights, crushed shadows, and colors that look great on a phone screen but terrible in print.
A professional landscape preset needs to do five things well:
- Preserve highlight detail — skies are the most important element in landscape photography. A preset that blows out clouds is useless.
- Open shadows without going gray — foreground detail matters, but muddy shadows kill the mood of a landscape image.
- Enhance natural color without going fake — greens should look like real greens, not neon signs. Blues should be rich, not cyan.
- Work across different times of day — golden hour, blue hour, midday, and overcast all require different starting points.
- Leave room for fine-tuning — a great preset is a foundation, not a finished product. You should always be able to push it further.
The Lightroom Presets I Use on National Geographic Work
My Landscape and Cityscapes Lightroom Presets are the exact starting points I use on every landscape image. They were built from thousands of hours of editing at locations like Mono Lake, the Grand Canyon, Lake Tahoe, the Everglades, and Malta — each environment teaching me something new about how light behaves and how Lightroom interprets it.
The collection includes presets for:
- Golden hour landscapes (warm, saturated, film-like)
- Blue hour and twilight (cool tones, deep shadows, maximum mood)
- Overcast soft light (muted, editorial, clean)
- Long exposure water (silky, ethereal, fine art ready)
- Dramatic storm light (high contrast, dark vignette, cinematic)
How to Use Landscape Presets Correctly
The biggest mistake photographers make with presets is applying them and doing nothing else. A preset is a starting point — here is my actual workflow:
- Set your white balance first — presets interact with white balance. Get it close before applying.
- Apply the preset — look at how it reads on your specific image.
- Check the histogram — pull back highlights if clipping. Open shadows if the foreground is too dark.
- Fine-tune HSL — adjust individual colors to match what you saw in the field.
- Crop and sharpen last — always in that order.
Why Preset Quality Matters for Print
If you ever plan to print your work — and you should — preset quality becomes critical. A preset built for Instagram looks completely different on a 30×40 inch Hahnemühle fine art print. My presets are calibrated for print output, not just screen viewing. That is what 20 years of selling fine art prints teaches you.
Compatible With All Versions of Lightroom
My landscape presets work in Lightroom Classic, Lightroom CC (cloud), and Adobe Camera Raw. They are delivered as .xmp files — the modern standard that works across all current Adobe products.
Get the Presets
The Landscape and Cityscapes Lightroom Presets are available as an instant download. You get the full collection, installation instructions, and my personal editing notes for each preset style.
If you want everything — landscape, street, real estate, drone, and more — the Ultimate Lightroom Presets Complete Collection is the best value and the one most serious photographers end up with.