Comparing Our Warm & Earthy Presets
Timeless warmth, natural beauty, and grounded colors are features we think of when describing warm and earthy presets. This popular aesthetic can create images that feel inviting, cozy, nostalgic, and emotive. Let’s take a deep dive into Quest Presets and Archipelago Presets that bring warmth and earthy tones to your photos!
What characterizes Warm & Earthy edits?
The warm and earthy style has evolved a lot over the years, and we’ve all been scarred by the viral “Sepia Bride” fiasco from TikTok a couple of years ago! Warm photo edits don’t mean “sepia”— they evoke the golden glow of golden hour, the earthy olive greens of desert plants, and more.
Key Elements:
🎨 Colors: Warm highlights and midtones dominate the style, with golden yellows, rich ambers, and soft creamy highlights. Think olive greens and desaturated blues that reflect natural environments and earthy shadows with lots of browns and rust tones.
⛰️ Mood and Feeling: Cozy, grounded, and organic. The style emphasizes a connection to nature, with warm light and timeless nostalgia, with a modern aesthetic (as opposed to vintage and retro vibes).
☀️ Contrast and Light: Often softer in contrast with slightly lifted, matte shadows and velvety highlights, but not always. Aims for the look of golden hour or overcast, “softbox skies” weather.
Image by Séan Ryan Bennetts
Edited with Quest 05 Gemtones
Why Choose a Warm & Earthy Edit?
Evokes emotion and warmth, with tones that feel inviting and comforting.
Earthy color palettes reflect the natural world and give your images a timeless, grounded feel that doesn’t go out of style.
Minimizes distractions by toning down overly bright, unnatural hues and bringing focus to your subject and the story you’re telling.
Image by Madison Miles
Edited with Quest 26 ZIA
Our Core Warm & Earthy Preset Collection
If you want a warm and earthy preset collection with a robust toolset, look no further!
Available in the Archipelago Presets Shop
Image by Flora Gibson
Light & Ochre is the quintessential earthy preset collection, with tones and hues inspired by the natural pigments of the painter's palette. Each preset gives you a base edit with colors ranging from golden sand dunes and red desert rocks to distant stormy purple mountains and verdant forests and fields. Expand and customize your edit with 6 veneers named after paint color pigments found in nature. Each veneer applies an adjustable mask layer to your image designed to tinge the background while maintaining subject and skintone color accuracy. Use the Preset Amount Slider to amplify the effect or reduce it based on your desired outcome.
Light & Ochre Presets include 5 color presets and 1 black and white preset, with corresponding color and black and white creative profiles (profiles only included with Desktop Presets). When increased, the profiles add intensity to contrast and warm ochre tonality, and when decreased reduce contrast and bring tonality towards neutral. The preset collection also includes 6 color veneers: Australian Vivianite, Burnt Sienna, Iron Oxide Pigment, Italian Green Earth, French Red Ochre, and Italian Yellow Ochre. Basic editing tools for removing the included Grain Mask, adding Lens Correction, and tool reset are also included.
Quintessential Warm & Earthy Presets
The following presets offer the classic warm & earthy aesthetic, with lots of warm rust tones.
Image by Natalia Swiader
Nomad is a collection of presets and creative profiles inspired by the 80's and 90's fashion editorials, with evocative hues reminiscent of summer fields, nautical journeys, and a starlit sky. Think warm bronzes, pale greens, pastel pinks, oceanic blues, and bold black and whites.
With 7 color presets and 1 black and white, you will love the versatility of this set. Texture, grain, and toning tools also included. Customize the aesthetic of your images with creative profiles--the warmth of Summer fields, the cool of Nautica, and North Star, a black and white profile ranging from high contrast to matte.
Quest 05 Gemtones
Available in the Quest Archive
Inspired by the sacred minerals (Rose Quartz, Citrine, Jasper, and Obsidian). Q5 reflects these beautiful tones from nature, transforming and enhancing your images. Each profile acting like a dynamic gem-tone veil of color and contrast.
AQ05i // Rose Quartz - Matte highlights with a subtle warm rose undertone. The accompanying Rose Quartz Profile allows for an increase in richness and deepening of contrast and rose hues.
AQ05ii // Citrine - A soft golden warmth throughout the tonal range. The Citrine Profile adds a tawny-citrus undertone, while adding dynamic contrast.
AQ05iii // Jasper - An opaque earthy bronze color palette with deep emerald greens and peach highlights. The Jasper profile adds color depth and mood.
AQ05iv // Obsidian - Inspired by the Flowering Obsidian, this preset/profile emulates both the jet black and light gray of this igneous rock. Decrease the profile to add lightness and increase the profile to add contrast.
Quest 25 Fable
Available in the Quest Archive and Quest Public Shop
Pages of old books: well-loved, full of texture and warmth, and a little wear and tear here and there. Familiar as childhood tales told at bedtime, each chapter is like a worn-in pair of corduroys. Fable Presets elicit memories of your favorite tales, brought to life in 3 distinct Chapters, each telling a different story, but part of the same anthology.
Fable Chapter 01 - Rosy and romantic overall tone with olive greens, desaturated icy blues, and even, flattering skin tones
Fable Chapter 02 - Gilded variation with tea stained overtones, Pacific blues, spring greens, and lightly crushed highlights and shadows
Fable Chapter 03 - Neutral variation with muted highlights and subtly lifted shadows. True skin tones, robin's egg blues, verdant greens
FABLE - SETTING Profile - Increase the profile for extra rich depth with deepened shadows and blacks. Decrease the profile for added airiness, with less contrast and lifted shadows.
Drama - Uses Adobe AI background detection to deepen the background and draw attention to the protagonist(s) of your image
Aged Paper - Tone - Gives your image the faded quality of old paper, slightly sun-bleached and worn
Aged Paper - Dust & Scratches - Adds white dust & scratches to the image, reminiscent of sunlight catching particles of dust in a library
Aged Paper - Torn Edge - Adds a torn edge to the bottom of the image, like a page ripped from your favorite storybook
Aged Paper - Water Stains I & II - Water spots throughout the image, with extra water damage look around the edges of the "page"
Fable Presets also include other tools that adds to the drama, texture, and tone of folktales and stories. The included grain mimics the texture of book paper, subtle from afar yet tangible upon inspection.
SEE FABLE IN ACTION
Available in the Quest Archive and Quest Public Shop
Falena was crafted to evoke an atmosphere of warmth and tranquillity—like that perfect moment when you wrap yourself in a blanket, cradling a hot drink, as the gentle flicker of firelight dances across the room. Outside, the wind howls and rain pelts against the windows, but inside, you’re cocooned in comfort, shielded from the storm. It’s an invitation to pause, breathe, and let the world slow down. These presets are imbued with deep, inviting tones, offering a rich warmth balanced by subtly muted colors and a delicate, soft glow.
Falena 01 - Soft, warm look with moderately desaturated colors and a balanced dynamic.
Falena 02 - Variation that delivers more contrast and richer tonality.
Falena 03 - Variation with dramatic crushed shadows and lowered white point.
Background Glow - Adds a glowing area into the background of your photo. Use the masking panel to place the glow behind your subject and set the intensity.
Glimmers 1-3 - Add glimmering light elements into the frame giving depth and dimension. Use the masking panel to move each element and set the intensity.
SEE FALENA IN ACTION
Golden Hour Glow
These presets evoke the tones and contrast of the glowing, warm sun at golden hour.
Available in the Quest Archive and Quest Public Shop
ZIA was developed with golden sun-kissed imagery as a top priority. Each color-graded preset variation lends itself to honey amber skintones with slight variations in tonality, giving you perfect grade for every scene under the sun you may encounter. Also included are 3 sun burst presets, both horizontal and vertical variations, designed to create or enhance an already existing light source for a one-of-a-kind dramatic effect. Lastly, be sure to use the Dorado preset for that extra dose of warmth your imagery has been missing!
ZIA 01: Honey brown earth tones paired with lush greens for a neutral palette with a healthy boost in warmth. Muted highlights and deep blacks for a soft yet striking appearance.
ZIA 02: A variation with a push in amber and a decrease in green saturation, along with a slight boost in warmth.
ZIA 03: A desaturated variation with a heavy push in warmth for a copper sepia feel.
Dorado: Hazy golden hues meant to blend with the existing preset.
Background Temp: Manipulated your background hue while retaining golden skintones.
Sun H & V: Use this to emulate the setting sun in your scene.
Burst 01 H & V: A subtle yet effective sun burst bringing a bit more drama to your scene.
Burst 02 H & V: A more pronounced variant with striking rays bursting from all sides.
SEE ZIA IN ACTION
Earthy Greens
These presets offer beautiful earthy greens for lush landscapes.
Available in the Quest Archive and Quest Public Shop
Image by Mike Meller
Forge new paths with Frontier—where deep, grounding shadows anchor your imagery and gently muted highlights soften the light with a nostalgic feel. A delicate haze throughout the frame brings cinematic softness and a quiet sense of atmosphere. Subtle, intentional grain adds texture and soul—inviting viewers deeper into the story.
Designed for the explorers at heart, Frontier evokes the untamed spirit of open landscapes, rugged beauty, and stories waiting just beyond the horizon. Whether capturing windswept portraits, golden-hour wilderness, or moody still lifes, this collection delivers bold, emotive tones with depth.
Includes two color presets, one black and white preset, two custom creative profiles, and tools such as Background Crush—designed to deepen background tones and enhance the overall moody feel.
Available in the Archipelago Archive
Image by Marcella Laine
There’s a place where the ocean meets land in a constant chorus of waves, where deep blue-green gives way to white, brown and slate. A place where the beaches are punctured with towers of rock and strewn with the trunks of old trees and where the saline air drifts slowly inland, mixing with fog that quiets the earth. In this place, of lush green and burnt orange hues, stand giants - majestic and ancient, breathing in mist and soaking up sunlight.
Redwood Presets capture the very essence of the Pacific Northwest coast, distilling it into a diverse collection of presets and tools designed for those looking to bring depth, mood and emotive hues to their work. This set includes 6 color and 2 BW presets along with 2 creative profiles and 8 unique tools.
Quest Earthy Bundle
The Earthy Bundle of Quest Presets is available in the Quest Archive and Quest Public Shop
If you’re looking for the best combination of our earthy Quest sets to try, shop the bundle and get Quest 25 Fable, Quest 05 Gemtones, Quest 26 ZIA, and Quest 30 Autumnal.
Each of the above mentioned presets applied to one photo:
Image by The Tinsley Co
Edits in order: Before, Light & Ochre, Nomad, Halcyon, Redwood, Quest 05 Gemtones, Quest 25 Fable, Quest 26 ZIA, Quest 42 Falena, Quest 47 Frontier
What is your favorite earthy preset? Tell us in the comments!