Last Updated: February 15th, 2020
Signature Edit’s Clean & Classic Lightroom Preset pack is for photographers wanting to edit their images into a style that keeps the natural look of the original photos but gives them an extra pop!
While previous Signature Edit’s presets we’ve looked at like the Genesis Collection were designed to add some moodiness and a film vibe to the images, the Clean & Classic collection is for a different audience.
It’s for photographers who want to create images that still feel timeless and unaffected by changing photo editing trends, yet are more visually interesting than simple RAW camera files.
In our experience, it’s this kind of timeless photo editing style that has the most appeal for clients looking to hire a photographer. In the world of wedding photography, this is especially true as we regularly work with our own clients who come to us for this exact reason.
Having an excellent photo editing style that clients will love (+ their parents and grandparents if you’re shooting weddings like us!) is one of the keys to real success in the photo industry. Having some go-to presets like these is the way to get there without having to put in the hard work that comes with creating your own presets in Lightroom.
Let’s talk about why the Signature Edit’s Clean & Classic LR Preset pack is definitely worth it…
What you get with the SE Clean & Classic Lightroom Preset Pack Collection
This preset collection includes more than meets the eye!
1). Presets
First up – the actual Lightroom presets. In total, you receive 24 presets that can be quickly loaded up into Lightroom and work right after installation.
Many of these presets offer subtle differences from one another that make it easy to find a preset that works well with your particular image.
For example, if you have an engagement photo of a couple you took outside with a lot of green in the environment (grass, trees, etc.), you might want to use SE Clean & Classic – Green Desat to reduce the presence of the greens in the image while still getting that extra pop of color and contrast you got this pack for.
Signature Edit’s provides a great “core” preset, then simple variations that really take into account different shooting environments, different lighting, etc. allowing them to provide LR presets that get very close to one-click edits.
These presets do the heavy lifting, instead of serving as a mask that you then have to edit heavily anyways (like many other presets out there!).
The full list of presets included in this collection:
- SE Clean & Classic
- SE Clean & Classic – Skin
- SE Clean & Classic – High DR & Indoors
- SE Clean & Classic – Blue Desat
- SE Clean & Classic – Green Desat
- SE Clean & Classic – Green Skin Fix
- SE Clean & Classic – Green Warm
- SE Clean & Classic – More Earthy
- SE Clean & Classic – B&W
- SE Clean & Classic – B&W Warm
- SE Clean & Classic – B&W+
- SE Clean & Classic – B&W Night
- SE Clean & Classic – B&W Warm Night
- SE Clean & Classic – B&W+ Warm
- SE Clean & Classic – Indoors
- SE Clean & Classic – Night
- SE Clean & Classic – Night Alt/Skin Fix
- SE Clean & Classic – Night Green Skin Fix
- SE Clean & Classic – Night Desat
- SE Clean & Classic – Night Earthy
- SE Clean & Classic – Night Earthy-
- SE Clean & Classic – Sunset
- SE Noise Reduction
- SE Noise Reduction +
If you need help getting the presets installed on your computer, we have you covered with this article.
2). Training Materials
The Signature Edit’s Clean & Classic pack (like all of their other presets) include detailed instructions on how to effectively use the presets to get the look you want.
This is one of our favorite aspects about buying presets (or any other products) through SE compared to other options out there. They really put in the extra work to help you get the look you really want consistently and across all of your images (not just the perfectly lit Golden Hour photos!).
Currently – the training video is available for free to check out!
It is a 40 minute video where Ryan (the guy behind Signature Edit’s) walks you through editing a wide variety of images using these presets. If you’re thinking about picking up the Clean & Classic pack, this is a great inside view of what to expect!
3). 30+ Bonus Local Adjustment Presets for Retouching, Effects & Faster Workflows
As a collection, Signature Edit’s Clean & Classic offers more than just simple presets.
Making truly professional looking photos requires that you are able to maximize the control over the look of your images.
While presets are great to get a whole image looking good overall, retouching brushes and other additions can bring out the best in specific parts of your image.
For example, when editing our couple’s portraits for engagement sessions and wedding days, we will frequently use a Lightroom brush to enhance eyes, whiten teeth, and remove shadows from skin tones.
The included local adjustments presets in this collection will help you to achieve a great end result, too!
4). Custom Camera Profiles for Lightroom
Lightroom is quite the interesting photo editing software that seems to just keep expanding.
In one of the most recent updates, LR Classic CC version 7.3 introduced the ability to import custom camera profiles. This pack features 4 custom camera profiles to dial in the perfect look.
If you’re trying to wrap your head around Lightroom camera profiles and how they impact your images, this is a great post on the topic.
In short – all of our cameras include a software profile that basically tells the little computer in the camera what the resulting digital image should look like.
Every manufacturer like Canon, Nikon, Sony, etc. have different profiles – and the look will even vary depending on specific camera model (we saw a difference between the Canon 5D Mark III and Canon 5D Mark IV when we upgraded!).
It turns out, camera profiles can be used in Lightroom for more than just trying to emulate other camera brands. They can provide a baseline for how an image should look – and that is exactly how Signature Edit’s has decided to use them.
Pairing these SE profiles with the presets and adjustment brushes, you really have a trio of LR tools at your disposal to get the exact image edits you want!
The four camera profiles that come with this collection include:
- SE Clean & Classic
- SE Clean & Classic – Ice
- SE Clean & Classic – Pink
- SE Clean & Classic – Warmth
5). Top Notch Customer Support
Signature Edit’s provides a 30 day money back guarantee on your purchase – unlike 99% of other presets out there. This is honestly really incredible and customer focused because digital goods are rarely able to be purchased with this level of support.
In addition to this, Signature Edit’s is also very responsive to questions you may have to get the right look in your photo edits and make their products work for you.
We support their products because we’ve seen first hand the value they can provide, and we aim to show some transparency in what the products offer and can do for our readers. Other products we’ve reviewed include The Photo Marketing School (best value), Genesis Preset Collection, and Couple’s Candid Posing Guide.
How to Get a Great Edit With SE’s Clean & Classic Presets
To wrap up our review of Signature Edit’s Clean & Classic Preset Collection, we wanted to show off how it worked on our own images.
Below you will find a bunch of photos we took during recent engagement shoots and weddings, and we quickly edited these pictures using these presets.
We were honestly surprised at how quickly we were able to achieve great looking results that is actually pretty similar to our own editing style!
You can drag the slider left-and-right to see the before-and-after versions of our photos. 🙂
The unedited images are simple JPEG’s of our images as they looked straight out of camera, and the edited versions are the same pictures with Clean & Classic presets applied.
Have any questions about Signature Edit’s Clean & Classic Presets? Feel free to drop us a line in the comments below, or visit their website to see more details, testimonials, pricing, and more!