Are you a night photography lover who has more photos on the computer than time to process them?
Well, I used to be like that…
But soon I realized that most of the night photo processing is actually a two step process, that can be automated.
So I created a workflow with which I can have a photo ready by applying two or three Develop Presets and that’s it!
Instead of having a one-click preset, I like to use 2-3 presets that are applied on top of each other.
Let me show you how it works in a real example!
This is the unedited RAW shot of hungarian Parliament:

In night photography, white balance setting can make or break a shot.
So in the first step I get the White Balance right
I created a set of Develop Presets just for White Balance only, and I’m going to apply the Nighttime WB preset:

Then, when I have the WB right, I tweak the levels.
When shooting cities, this usually means brightening the shadows, and pulling back the Highlights.
So I’ve created another set of Develop Presets just for the levels, and apply the Extend dynamic range ++

Then, I may choose to add some coloring or tone – that’s why I’ve created a set of toning Presets.
Here, I’d like to add some blue, to prevent those very deep blacks:

And that’s it!
So with just 3 clicks, I got this:

So here’s the workflow:

Introducing my Lightroom Preset Pack for Night Photography
A set of Develop Presets and Brushes that make editing night photos a breeze.
I’ve been taking night photos 4 years for a living, and these are Presets that I actually use!

Example photos processed with the Lightroom Preset package





What’s in the package?
1. White Balance Develop Presets
When editing night photos, setting the correct color temperature is key. Therefore, it’s best to start with this one.
In my Preset Pack, there are white balance settings for the most common night situations.

2. Level Adjustment presets
Night photos are often extreme: the details are in the highlights, while the shadows are very dark.
That’s why extending the dynamic range is needed. Basically we push shadows up, and pull the highlights down.
I have 6 different level adjustments in my Preset Pack.
Five levels of dynamic range expansion:

and one Milky Way / star pop-out preset.

3. Color adjustment presets
Blue Hour Look
My favourite is definitely the Blue Hour look preset.
This gives a nice blueish touch to the blacks, so you’ll have a little bit of Blue Hour impression, even it was completely dark.

B&W Night
I didn’t really like the film simulation preset for BW in Lightroom, so I came up with my own one, that suits better for the dark sky and yellow lights

Muted Landscape
Quite an interesting one: gives an image a bit soft, tender look – without losing any sharpness. No it’s not using Clarity, or Texture, it’s using some Curves adjustments.

Tip from Miklós: use the Muted Landscape preset combined with the BW Night Preset for a great black-and-white look!
Brushes and Graduated filters
I think that Brushes and Grad filters deserve a lot more attention, they are extremely powerful features of Lightroom, with which you can achieve things a lot more easier than in Photoshop.
Here are my most used ones, included in the package.
The Orange Sunset Brush
This brush is excellent to make the sunset orange color for shots taken in the Blue Hour:

The Astrolandscape Foreground brightener brush
If you use my Milky Way enhance develop preset, the foreground will probably be quite dark.
But if you use my brush, and you can see the details coming back:

The Milky Way enhancer brush
With this brush, you can make the Milky Way to pop out a little bit more. But be careful with this, don’t overdo it.

You can buy and download the whole pack here.
Important – my Preset Pack works together only with:
– Lightroom Classic 7.3 or newer,
– Lightroom CC
It is NOT compatible with Lightroom Classic 7.2 or older versions
straightforward editing process
for night photos
- White Balance Presets
- Dynamic Range Presets
- Milky Way enhance presets
- Coloring / Toning Presets
- Custom Brushes / Grad filters
- Installation and using tutorial
VAT is automatically applied, so the price may change slightly according to your residence
What happens after you click on the Buy button?
You will be taken to Gumroad.com, where you can pay with your card through a secure payment gateway.
After the payment is done, you’ll be able to download the package.
How to install the preset pack?
You can find detailed instructions on this page, but I will email those to you as well following your purchase.
How to use the Preset pack? Real life examples
My Preset pack is organized into 3 groups:
- White Balance Presets
- Level adjustment (Shadow, Highlights) Presets
- Color/toning presets

I organized them by the order of using them.
So let me show you on a few examples…
Night photo of the Chain Bridge
The original photo doesn’t have the WB right (too warm), and as I exposed for the highlights, I had to drag the shadows up while maintaining detail in the highlights too.

This is the final result:

Night photo of the Hungarian Parliament
A very straightforward shot: again the WB had to be adjusted, followed by extending the dynamic range.
After those, I also applied the Blue Hour curve Preset which gives any night photo a pleasant touch of blue in the blacks.

This is the final shot:

Milky Way shot
Milky Way and the stars require some special treatment in order to make them pop out from the dark sky.
That’s why I created the Milky Way enhance Preset.
This makes the stars pop out, but at the same time, makes the shadows in the foreground very dark.
So that’s why I created the Astrolandscape foreground brightener brush, which I applied on the foreground (make sure that the Auto Mask is enabled there)

This is the final result:
Blue Hour photo of Buda Castle
In the Blue Hour the White Balance changes quite fast. That’s why I have 3 different WB presets for Blue Hour.
Here I liked the look of Blue Hour late Preset – it made the buildings to the same color as seen in real life.
But unfortunately, it made the sky very blue, so that’s why I applied the Orange sunset brush on the sky:Image

This is the final result (I deliberately went for a bit darker look here):

– Lightroom Classic 7.3 or newer,
– Lightroom CC
straightforward editing process
for night photos
- White Balance Presets
- Dynamic Range Presets
- Milky Way enhance presets
- Coloring / Toning Presets
- Custom Brushes / Grad filters
- Installation and using tutorial
VAT is automatically applied, so the price may change slightly according to your residence
Do you have questions, or something is not working? Let me know in the comments!
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