Bulk editing in Adobe Lightroom is a great choice if you’re a sports or event photographer. And Lightroom sports presets are a great way to edit your action shot quickly. They let you share photos straight after a sports event.
So we’ve collected some free and paid presets sports photographers can use. Read on to find the best Lightroom presets for sports photography and how to use them.
What Are Lightroom Sports Presets?
Adobe Lightroom is an editing software program that lets you tweak your digital shots. You can raise and lower the exposure, play around with the colors, and even change the perspective.
Presets are a way to change an image or a batch of images with a single click. If you download a preset, these adjustments were made by other Lightroom users and are available for you to use.
Some presets might only increase the sharpness of an image. The majority will act as a filter over your scenes, letting you edit them quickly and efficiently. These “filters'” adjust different details. They change everything from highlights and shadows to clarity, color, and saturation.
Having your own preset can help define your unique style. Luckily, Lightroom also lets you create your own!
Installing, Using, and Creating Presets
Installing Adobe Lightroom presets is easy and only requires a few steps. Plus, there are a few ways you can do this.
We have a step-by-step tutorial on how to install Adobe Lightroom presets you can check out. This tells you how to add presets you download to Lightroom.
To learn how to use or create presets, read our article on how to add your own Lightroom presets. We also have a post on how to sell presets too!
10 Best Lightroom Sports Presets
Sports photography is a wide-ranging field. It encompasses team sports, like soccer. And it also involves events with fast-moving vehicles like airplanes and cars.
Presets that will cover different types of sports might be difficult to find. Each one concentrates on different details in a photo.
You’ll want to look at what connects all the images you are likely to take. For example, most of them might need a boost in contrast and clarity. This can help separate the many parts of your scene.
Many sports make use of distinct colors. So perhaps you want to find a preset that tweaks this to strengthen your images. The presets you need will depend on the aesthetic you want. You can even use your favorite preset to help define the look of your social media account!
So let’s look at the best sports photography presets out there. There are ones for Lightroom (CC), Lightroom Classic, and Lightroom Mobile.
1. Workout Lightroom Presets
This package by 123Presets contains 11 Lightroom desktop presets. They make your photos appealing by creating a clear and airy atmosphere. They soften your subjects’ skin and separate them from the background.
This makes it easier to focus on the people in your images. And it’s why it’s great for capturing workouts, where the focus is on the people and not on their environment. There is even a mobile version of the Workout Lightroom Presets.
2. Canon Sports Photography Presets
These Canon Lightroom Presets by sports photographer Ben Lumley are for Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, and Lightroom Mobile.
This FilterGrade package contains Lightroom presets for black-and-white and color images. And they improve your images without making the look too artificial.
Turning a color image into a black-and-white photo is not an easy task. Color images focus on how colors work together. But black-and-white ones focus on contrast and texture. This set o Lightroom presets can help you play around with both.
3. 10 Sports Model Presets For Lightroom
Eldamar Studio’s Lightroom presets are cheap and great for many types of images. This Adobe Exchange package includes 10 presets. This variety lets you try several and decide which preset is the best for your image.
These presets are not only for action photography but also for photographing sports models.
4. Vibrant Colors HDR Lightroom Preset
The Vibrant Colors Lightroom preset is a free one by Preset Kingdom. It is best used for water sports, like swimming. It’s also perfect for any sport near water or under a blue sky. This is because it enhances blues while reducing highlights and reflections.
By adding +100 to the Shadows setting, they become darker. This adds more contrast between them and lighter areas. And whites and blacks are reduced to add detail and remove the chance of highlights being blown out.
The added vibrancy and saturation make the colors pop. And the clarity separates the subject from the background.
5. Black & White Lightroom Presets
This elegant set of Lightroom presets by The Luxe Lens is not specifically for sports shots. Still, they can be great for sports photography.
Changing photos to black and white can enhance motion because all the distracting colors have been removed. This helps images look more dramatic. It can also be easier to freeze motion without colors. And you will also create a more timeless image.
6. Sport (Preset Love)
There are a lot of adjustments in this free Lightroom preset compared to others in our list. They increase the quality and “punchiness” of the scene and subject.
First off, the color temperature and tint changes add a touch of blue and green. Most sports, either indoor or outdoor, will benefit from the cinematic feel of this preset.
The raised contrast and blacks give the subject more presence. The whites are pushed up while the highlights fall, giving a little more light without overdoing it.
7. Sport Preset (Photonify)
The Photonify Sport Preset can be used for different kinds of sports. This free Lightroom preset doesn’t change the exposure value. It sharpens your images and strengthens clarity, vibrance, and saturation.
It nicely emphasizes the orange parts, which look especially nice on running tracks. It also separates people from the background. So it’s great for enhancing motion.
It makes your sports photos grungy and gives them a dramatic effect. We recommend it for advertising or a smaller photo collection. It does take away from natural colors, so it’s not the best option when documenting a sports event.
8. Skate Lightroom Presets
These are custom-developed Lightroom presets from action photographer Forest Dempsy. This FilterGrade pack has 10 different Lightroom presets. So you’ll likely find one that fits your sports image.
These are great for brightening your images and increasing their clarity. Lightening the background draws the viewers’ attention directly to your subject.
9. Light and Bright
As you may have guessed, the Light and Bright Lightroom preset adds light to your scene! This free preset by Exposure Empire pulls more detail from the darker areas. It does this by lowering the strength of the blacks and shadows.
The reduced contrast helps to set the subject in the scene. And raising the saturation and lowering the vibrance keeps hints of color without going over the top.
10. Grungy Sports
The Grungy Sports Lightroom preset by Nuugraphics is short and sweet. There are only four adjustments. But they make all the difference to a wonderful sports shot.
Added contrast adds punch to the subjects. And its high level of clarity separates the subjects from their stage. But the lack of color is what makes this preset special. Use this free preset for cinematic sports shots where teams or sides don’t need to be clearly defined.
Conclusion: Best Lightroom Sports Presets
Lightroom presets can be used in almost any field of photography. After you select one or multiple images, it only takes a few clicks to edit them. This way, you can speed up your workflow.
You might need to test several Adobe Lightroom presets for your sports photography. Sports are played in many different locations and lighting conditions. So there is no such thing as one ultimate Lightroom sports preset. But we have given you some top ones!
Many of these presets are free. But even the paid ones are affordable and worth the investment. And if you’re a sports photographer who uses Lightroom professionally, you can create your own presets.