Sunny Days for Lightroom
Just In Time for Summer
I thought I would make one of my most used presets available for download. “Sunny Days” is a Lightroom preset I created to give me a one-click starting point for battling harsh noon light. In the picture above, the default settings are shown on the left, and the preset is applied on the right.
If you find yourself shooting at this time of day (and who doesn’t) you may notice that your highlights are harsh and bright while shadows are too dark. This happens because straight, direct light is difficult for a camera sensor to capture without creating harsh contrast.
This is a subtle present to counter these problems while also restoring some color and vibrance typically lost in harsh direct light. Try it out and please leave a comment if you like with your feedback.
Download Sunny Days for Lightroom. (you may need to right click and save as…) To install the preset, simply navigate to the Develop panel, under presets and right click to import.
I usually apply this preset to all of my harsh-light pictures, and then go through and adjust blacks as neccesary to add “pop.”