Explore Luke Stackpoole’s Presets.
Luke Stackpoole (WithLuke) Lightroom Presets – Complete Collection Review
Luke Stackpoole’s Lightroom presets are world-class. Best known as @withluke on Instagram, Luke is a London-based photographer with an unmistakable style to his work.
His travel and lifestyle photography has been featured by Adobe, American Express, Aston Martin, Bowmore, Fjallraven & The North Face to name just a few.
Luke was kind enough to let us test out all of his collections of Lightroom presets, and this review will dive into the differences between each to help you find the right one for you. Some of the links here will help support our publication should you choose to purchase anything.
what type of photographer are these presets for?
It’s clear these presets are the culmination of years of mastering color science, designed to help you quickly achieve a dynamic atmosphere in your own images.
Luke’s work is largely based around landscape and travel photography – so it’s a given that any collection will satisfy the boldest of adventure photographers.
But how well do they work for portraits or product photography? We’ll let the results speak for themselves.
what camera works best with Luke’s presets?
The presets are designed to work on files from Canon, Sony, Nikon, Panasonic and Fuji cameras. They work on both Lightroom Desktop and the Lightroom Mobile app, including all legacy Lightroom versions.
Which collection is right for you?
Number of Presets: 40
Atmosphere: Moody, contrast. Beautiful skin tones, deep shadows.
Personal Favorite Look: “Portrait – Vibrant”
Review: This collection gives you a classic cinematic grade, without overdoing the teal-and-orange look that so many preset packs are saturated with. Skin tones come out soft and balanced, standing out against rich blacks from the shadows.
Number of Presets: 60
Atmosphere: Classic, warm, earthy.
Personal Favorite Look: “Landscape – Highlands”
Review: This is the color grading that put Luke on the map. Warm earth tones are delicately balanced with steel shadows. This collection offers a great foundation to begin your edit. The colors are not overbearing, and instead help you find the right direction to take your image.
Number of Presets: 35
Atmosphere: Smooth skin tones. Deep shadows.
Personal Favorite Look: “Bloom”
Review: Portrait lovers rejoice, this collection has you covered. Luke has an elegant approach to skin tones that keep them balanced in the mix of highlights across your image. Those classic deep shadows provide the perfect backdrop to draw the viewer’s eye to your subject. Combine with a soft vignette to complete the look.
Number of Presets: 50
Atmosphere: Dynamic, vibrant, lush.
Personal Favorite Look: “Desert 12 – Jordanian”
Review: As the name suggests, this collection of presets are indeed timeless. We found them to be some of the most versatile across Luke’s various preset packs, and worked across every environment that we tested them with. Whether you’re looking for colors that pop, or a more soft and muted look, you’ll have no problem finding the right starting point in this collection. There are even a few presets included specifically for astro photography.
Number of Presets: 14
Atmosphere: Bright, warm, arid.
Personal Favorite Look: “Long Grass”
Review: Highlights shimmer in this special pack within the Master Collection. Details in the shadows are brought to life – almost as if by the warmth of the African sun.
Number of Presets: All 150 Presets, including Cinematic, Timeless, Portrait, Aerial and Legacy Collections
Atmosphere: Epic, inspiring.
Personal Favorite Look: “Desert 2 – Mist”
Review: This collection includes everything. They will dramatically speed up your workflow in Lightroom and act as a base to transform your edits. If you are trying to develop your own style, these presets are an effective way to work backwards and deconstruct how Luke creates his distinct look.
final thoughts
Luke uses these presets daily, and they have helped him to build a client portfolio of leading brands around the world and an audience of over 850,000 followers on Instagram.
He has left no stone unturned when it comes to the different environments you might find yourself shooting in. They span landscape photography, portraits, night photography as well as urban environments, and he regularly uses them on his high-end commercial work.
We look forward to continuing to follow Luke as his style evolves, and will be applying these presets to our own photography for years to come.
Explore Luke Stackpoole’s Presets.
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