Comparing Our Cinematic Presets
Photographers who capture narrative-driven, storytelling images lean heavily into the cinematic-inspired editing style to emphasize emotion in their images. Often moody, Let’s take a deep dive into Quest Presets and Archipelago Presets that bring those moody, dramatic tones to your photos!
What characterizes Cinematic edits?
We bet you can name a few of the top photographers who use a cinematic editing style off the top of your head. While popular among photographers based in areas with dramatic landscapes (think Scotland and Iceland), the cinematic style can be applied to photos that emphasize dramatic light and shadow, capturing emotional depth and storytelling scenes.
Cinematic photo editing recreates the mood, tone, and drama of film cinema in still photography. The main goal is evoking emotion and immersion.
Key Elements:
🎨 Colors: Cinematic color grading includes common teal-and-orange palettes, along with split-toned highlights and shadows for emotional impact. Often, the style leans into desaturated colors.
⛰️ Mood and Feeling: Rich, moody tones that emphasize drama. Atmosphere and depth can be added with haze, highlight bloom, and grain. Lean into cinematic composition with widescreen crops like 16:9 ratio to mimic movie frames. Intentional framing and lighting add to the scene.
☀️ Contrast and Light: Soft highlights & gentle roll-off. Light transitions are smooth, avoiding harsh clipping for a more natural, “filmed” look. Often leans toward deep shadows, muted highlights, and balanced contrast for a filmic feel.
Image by Lucinda Steiner
Edited with Light & Ember
Why Choose a Cinematic Edit?
The emotional impact of cinematic color grading and moody tones is unmistakable. They create a visceral storytelling atmosphere for viewers.
The style is inspired by decades of film cinematography, lending itself to a timeless, polished, artful feel.
Portraits, weddings, travel, editorial… You name it, the cinematic style works well on it! It’s incredibly versatile, adapting to dramatic and romantic moods.
Image by Hello Norte
Edited with Quest 43 Llŷr
Our Core Cinematic Preset Collection
If you want a moody, cinematic collection with a robust toolset, look no further!
Available in the Archipelago Presets Shop
Image by Mariah Arianna
Light & Ember was developed with the emotive storyteller as its core inspiration. Those who yearn for imagery that encapsulates the soul and the soft intimacies in every fleeting moment. Moments where narrative and history mean just as much as light and color. With an unparalleled richness of depth and mood, Light & Ember delivers this and so much more.
This set includes 6 meticulously crafted color grading presets tailored for the dark & cinematic aesthetic. Featuring a unique palette, the presets in this collection give you a variety of tonality to use across a wide body of work. Use the included creative profile to further modify each preset to perfectly match your lighting environment whether harsh or soft.
The Light & Ember Toolset extends your customization with a host of tools and effects, each carefully developed to help you achieve your desired look with precision and ease.
True to Color CInematic Presets
The following presets offer cinematic tones and lean toward color-accurate hues for editorial and storytelling photography.
Image by Mel Panteli
Unveil the raw essence of storytelling with Veritas, a Lightroom preset collection that honors the art of truth in its purest form. Designed for the discerning creative, this pack bridges the gap between cinematic grandeur and minimalist precision. At the heart of Veritas lies a dedication to authenticity.
Each of the 5 color presets is carefully crafted to deliver true-to-tone palettes, evoking the subtle richness of filmic color grades while maintaining the integrity of your original shot. The black-and-white preset, stark yet soulful, transforms light and shadow into pure emotion, revealing the depth within simplicity.
Veritas includes a dedicated Cine Toolset, offering finely tuned emulations of essential cinematic techniques.
Quest 23 Odeon
Available in the Quest Archive and Quest Public Shop
Quest 23 Odeon delivers a subtly cinematic aesthetic that allows the narrative of your photo to be told in a richly dynamic way. Each of the three base presets offers a uniquely beautiful starting point for your image, while the three Color Grade presets can be layered on top and used in conjunction with the ‘preset amount slider’ to further dial-in the look. The Odeon creative profile gives ultimate flexibility by adjusting the highlights and shadows across the image, giving total control over the dynamic range. In addition, tools such as Anamorphic Flare, Cinematic Haze, Background Texture and Black Bars use Adobe’s advanced mask features to bring a creative edge to your work.
Quest 17 Ayre
Available in the Quest Archive and Quest Public Shop
Bridge the gap between dark and light with AYRE. A cool, modern, minimalistic set with an emphasis on stunning skin tones. Included are 3 preset variations, 2 preset modifiers, and 1 creative profile. These variations give you complete flexibility to maintain consistent tonality across a wide range of imagery. The preset modifiers provide a simple warm or cool boost in color while maintaining saturation levels. Lastly the Ayre profile boosts contrast with a slight vignette effect to bring mood and depth to your imagery.
Perpetua
Available in the Archipelago Presets Shop
Image by Mariah Arianna
Perpetua is a collection of meticulously crafted presets designed to bring an elegant and luxurious feel to every aspect of your photography, from intimate moments to majestic landscapes. With a focus on rich tonality, exquisite details, and flawless skin tones, Perpetua ensures that every photo exudes sophistication and class.
The included style options — Bright, Cinematic, Dark, Earthy, and Filmic — utilize masking layers to give you the ability to adapt each preset to your preferred style and can even be used with other presets.
From timeless black and white elegance to vibrant and bold color palettes, this collection offers a diverse range of presets to suit every style and preference. Perfect for wedding photography and any other genre where you want to achieve a clean and refined look.
Cinematic Blues
These presets bring out some of the blue hour vibes that cinematic color grading is known for.
Quest 43 Llŷr
Available in the Quest Preset Archive and Quest Public Shop
LLŶR is inspired by the cool, muted tones of winter oceans, designed to bring a serene and atmospheric quality to your images. Featuring oceanic blues and icy hues, each preset enhances the depth and mood of winter scenes. The pack includes modifiers that amplify blue tones even further and a preset that emulates the soft, dim lighting of polar twilight, creating a unique and immersive effect. LLŶR is perfect for bringing a refined, wintry feel to your photography.
Quest 35 Nexus
Available in the Quest Archive and Quest Public Shop
Immerse yourself in the world of modern cinematic tonality with Nexus. Inspired by the masters of contemporary filmmaking, Nexus delivers stylized presets aimed at giving you a “filmic still” look and aesthetic. This set features 2 distinct color presets along with 2 variations of each. Also included are 2 creative profiles and 4 color-grading masks which emulate specific times of day. Simply apply your preset as a base, then apply a color grade for a further customized look.
(Be sure to use the profile and preset amount sliders when editing!)
Quest 22 Glacial
Available in the Quest Preset Archive and Quest Public Shop
Inspired by the ice giants whose majesty and scale inspire all those who lay eyes upon them, Quest 22 delivers beautiful glacial tonality mixed with brilliant color for a one-of-a-kind set of presets. Using the power of AI, this set has been designed to balance skin tones with brilliantly colorful landscapes, giving the user vibrant results without sacrificing accuracy where it’s needed. Included are 3 colorful variations, each designed to work with the other for a cohesive experience. Lastly, the Glacial profile gives further control over dynamics, producing consistent results over a wide body of work.
Mood and Drama
These presets offer moody, dramatic, and atmospheric edits perfect for emotional cinematic images!
Quest 20 Orphic
Available in the Quest Archive and Quest Public Shop
Entrancing, dark, and mysterious; Orphic delivers a powerful collection of presets using the latest Adobe AI technology to help create the dark & moody images you’ve dreamed of. The 3 color presets included fade from cool & neutral tonality into a bold warmth giving you a simplistic variety that will translate across your entire body of work. Also included is a one-of-a-kind B+W preset, mirroring the features of its counterparts, while providing a uniquely toned aesthetic. Lastly, the AI tools featured with Orphic not only provide transformative lighting, but the ability to add a realistic Mist effect to any image. Explore the darkest corners of your creativity with Orphic.
Quest 33 Trouvaille
Available in the Quest Preset Archive and Quest Public Shop
Trouvaille delivers a hauntingly romantic set of presets designed for the emotive aesthetic. Featuring 2 creative profiles, 1 B&W preset, and 2 color graded presets; this set covers a minimalistic range of tonality built around dark cinematic storytelling. Also included, an essential set of tools to help you shape all the quiet moments your lens encounters.
Quest 31 Mythos
Available in the Quest Preset Archive and Quest Public Shop
Mythos is a concept that refers to the imaginative and storytelling realm where artists, writers, and creators draw inspiration, craft narratives, and bring their ideas to life.
The Mythos black and white preset collection is an invitation to embark on a creative journey where the boundaries between imagination and reality blur. These presets encourage us to explore the depths of our creativity and craft rich, timeless stories within our images. Mythos transcends being just a preset collection; it’s a reminder that the power of imagination can transform the world into a canvas where every moment holds the potential to become a masterpiece.
Quest Cinematic Bundle
The Cinematic Bundle of Quest Presets is available in the Quest Archive and Quest Public Shop
If you’re looking for the best combination of our cinematic Quest sets to try, shop the bundle and get Quest 07 Obscura, Quest 17 Ayre, Quest 23 Odeon, and Quest 35 Nexus.
Each of the above mentioned presets applied to one photo:
Image by Bettina Vass Photography
Edits in order: Before, Light & Ember, Veritas, Perpetua, Quest 07 Obscura, Quest 17 Ayre, Quest 23 Odeon, Quest 22 Glacial, Quest 35 Nexus, Quest 33 Trouvaille, Quest 20 Orphic, Quest 43 Llŷr, and Quest 31 Mythos.
What is your favorite cinematic preset? Tell us in the comments!