Blog
How grading actually works, what to do when a preset misbehaves, and the parts of Lightroom nobody explains properly.
Grading Indian wedding photographs without wrecking the colour
Red lehenga, gold thread, marigold everywhere, and skin that has to stay believable through all of it. What actually works, and what to avoid.
18 Oct 2026
How to make your own Lightroom preset, properly
Build a preset that survives contact with other photographs: what to include, what to leave out, and how to make a DNG version for mobile.
11 Oct 2026
Free Lightroom presets for travel photography (and how to use them well)
A free travel grade for Lightroom, in both desktop and mobile formats, plus the technique that makes travel frames hold together as a set.
3 Oct 2026
Why a preset looks different on your photo than in the preview
Presets are transfer curves, not filters. Here is what actually changes between the sample image and yours, and the three corrections that fix most of it.
25 Sept 2026
XMP vs DNG: which Lightroom preset file do you actually need?
A plain explanation of the two Lightroom preset formats, which app reads which, and why a pack that only ships one of them is a problem.
14 Sept 2026
How to install Lightroom presets on mobile, including the free app
The free Lightroom mobile app cannot import .xmp preset files at all. Here is the DNG method that does work, step by step, on iPhone and Android.
2 Sept 2026