Comparing Editorial Lightroom Presets
The modern editorial photography trend has really gained momentum over the past year, especially in luxury wedding photography. Drawing inspiration from high-fashion photo editorials in magazines or online outlets like Vogue and Vanity Fair, photographers are now infusing those high-fashion elements into their photoshoots and weddings. We’ve seen many editorial edits that stay true to color, highlighting film-style tones and hues. Imagine Italian villas with subtly desaturated colors, pastels, crisp whites, and velvety shadows.
Let’s take a deep dive into the Lightroom presets from Quest Presets and Archipelago Presets that offer polished, modern, magazine-quality hues and tones for that editorial vibe!
What characterizes ediTORIal edits?
Modern editorial editing in Lightroom is characterized by a clean, polished, and intentional look that bridges the gap between fine art and commercial photography. It emphasizes refined color grading, balanced contrast, and natural but elevated tones, creating images that feel both timeless and contemporary. The look is popular for luxury wedding photography editing, as well as destination wedding photographers.
Key Elements:
🎨 Colors: True to color hues with subtle refinement, with natural and consistent skin tones and gentle warmth or cool tones added for mood.
☀️ Contrast and Light: Soft contrast with shadows that retain their depth and detail, controlled highlights that are smoothed to avoid any harshness. The soft contrast creates a luxurious, professional feel.
Visual Consistency: Each image feels like it’s part of a curated story or brand, edited similarly with cohesive color tones and magazine-style compositions.
Image by Vivid Symphony
Edited with Quest 50 Pathfinder
Why Choose an Editorial Edit?
The editorial editing style oozes luxury and high-end culture. If you’re trying to attract more luxury wedding photography clients or destination wedding clients, you might want to try this polished look.
Flattering and versatile across most conditions, the editorial style works well to bring consistency to a portfolio with lots of variety in color, lighting, and scenery.
Image by Mariola Zoladz
Edited with Quest 27 Serenus
Image by Corissa Fir Photography
Edited with Veritas
Quintessential Editorial Lightroom Preset Collections
These Lightroom presets offer color accuracy, soft contrast options, and subtle, sophisticated hues.
Available in the Archipelago Presets Shop
Image by Vivid Symphony
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.
Image by Anna Jung-Hwa
Light & Truth is a preset collection that effortlessly elevates your images to their full potential. These presets have been meticulously crafted to enhance your photos with true-to-life colors, crisp, bright whites, and natural skin tones, all while preserving the authenticity of the captured scene. Whether you’re shooting weddings, portraits, or product images, these presets provide the perfect balance of subtlety and style, allowing you to achieve a polished look with just a few clicks.
This set features five color presets, each offering a distinct dynamic while maintaining the natural hues of your photos. You can choose between balanced, contrasty, bright, filmic, or muted tones. Also included is a clean and natural black-and-white preset with a versatile, timeless look. With the Light & Truth creative profiles you can dial your edit further by adjusting the midtones and bringing in a soft glow, with one simple slider. (profiles only included with the Desktop Presets).
The included Light & Truth Toolset offers a range of tools to help fine-tune your edits, including the Picture Perfect tool, which enhances multiple elements within your image with a single click.
Quest 27 Serenus
Available in the Quest Archive and Quest Public Shop
Serenus is designed to give your images a refined and polished look while maintaining absolute color accuracy across all hues. Each preset gently lifts the shadows and adds a soft contrast, bringing a flattering dynamic to your subject without straying from the essence of what you captured.
The Serenus Creative Profile brings a subtle filmic edge by adding a soft peachy overtone and (for the first time in a creative profile) adding a subtle grain texture.
Perfect for wedding photography, product imagery, lifestyle, journalistic work, and any instances where color accuracy is a top priority.
Quest 45 Atelier
Available in the Quest Archive and Quest Public Shop
Atelier is a refined Lightroom preset collection designed for photographers who blend the worlds of studio portraiture and editorial storytelling. Crafted with accuracy in mind, these presets enhance skin tones while maintaining a bold yet natural look, ensuring your work stands out with a polished yet effortless finish. Beyond color refinement, Atelier includes specialized lighting tools that shape and sculpt light, emulating the nuanced effects of professional modifiers. Whether you’re working with soft, diffused tones or crisp, directional highlights, this set provides the control needed to craft dynamic, high-impact imagery straight from your edits.
Perfect for photographers who demand precision and artistry in their studio work, Atelier delivers the finishing touch that transforms portraits into timeless editorial pieces.
Quest 50 Pathfinder
Available in the Quest Archive and Quest Public Shop
Image by Corissa Fir Photography
Pathfinder marks our 50th Quest set, returning to the heart of creative exploration — putting the power fully in your hands. Pathfinder is a landmark collection inspired by choose-your-own-adventure books, built for photographers ready to chart their own visual journey.
This modular set is designed to help you shape your aesthetic — piece by piece, step by step. With 4 distinct tonal bases, dynamics adjusters, 4 curve modifiers, and 10 finishing tools, the possibilities are limitless. Whether your destination is bold and characterful, soft and organic, or something uniquely your own, Pathfinder gives you the compass — and lets you choose the direction.
Pastel & Filmic Leaning Editorial Edits
These Lightroom presets bring out film emulation editing and pastel colors.
Quest 24 Floresce
Available in the Quest Preset Archive and Quest Public Shop
Floresce brings you an ethereal collection of presets and AI tools, aimed at helping you achieve a stunning light & airy aesthetic with just a few clicks. The 3 color graded presets provide a strong base to work from, offering multiple dynamic options. You can customize your look further from there with the included AI presets. Among the 7 included tools, Ethereal gives you a transformative look by lifting brightness while retaining contrast & exposure levels. Be sure to use the Skin Tone modifiers to perfectly dial in your subject. Lastly, the Pastelize tools allow you to filter tonality into your background while maintaining subject & skin tone accuracy.
Quest 46 Camellia
Available in the Quest Archive and Quest Public Shop
Drawing inspiration from the delicate color palettes of spring, Camellia bathes your images in soft pastels and warm peach undertones. Designed to enhance natural colors with glowing tonality, this preset collection infuses your photos with a dreamy, luminous aesthetic.
Adjusting the Camellia creative profile lets you fine-tune the look—lifting shadows and midtones while adding a gentle peach warmth, or dialling it back to restore depth and mood. The included Pastel Background tool increases luminance in background colors, creating a light, ethereal backdrop. Additionally, the two Light Leak tools introduce a soft, organic glow that enhances depth and ambiance.
Editorial Presets with more Mood
These presets offer a bit more contrast, mood, drama, and atmospheric Lighroom edits, perfect for emotive editorial imagery.
Quest 48 LXCV
Available in the Quest Archive and Quest Public Shop
LXCV is a modern evolution of the beloved LXC aesthetic — a refined take on classic tonality, reimagined for today’s creative workflow. This set brings a more natural, true-to-life rendering of tones while maintaining the rich palette and depth that defined the original LXC. Creamy highlights and velvet shadows bring a softness and polish that make this collection ideal for both editorial and lifestyle work.
The set includes 3 color presets and 4 toolkit modifiers designed to enhance and adapt your edits with ease. Whether you’re looking to infuse subtle creaminess into your highlights or gently lift shadow density, LXCV gives you the tools to create cohesive, luminous imagery with signature Archipelago character.
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.
Each of the above mentioned presets applied to one photo:
Image by Vivid Symphony
Edits in order: Before, Light & Truth, Veritas, Quest 24 Floresce, Quest 50 Pathfinder, Quest 46 Camellia, Quest 33 Trouvaille, Quest 48 LXCV, Quest 45 Atelier, and Quest 27 Serenus
What is your favorite editorial preset? Tell us in the comments!