How to use Mobile Presets

Mobile presets are one of my favorite things ever, because they enhance a form of photography almost anyone can learn and use every day – which is cell phone imagery.

The only things you absolutely need to be able to use mobile presets are:

• a cell phone
• beautiful images taken with said phone
• mobile presets, like my new mobile pack “Clean”
• and Lightroom Mobile, which is a free app

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To me, cell phone imagery is highly underrated. And mobile presets allow you to elevate this convenient type of photography even more.

I take nearly all of the photos of my family during our day to day life with my phone. And by that I mean every holiday gathering, every birthday party, and even my son’s birth photos, were all taken on my cell phone and edited with my mobile presets.

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The first step to using mobile presets is to have the best phone you can afford. I have an iPhone 13 ProMax now, and I can’t say enough great things about the camera quality.

Many times one of my friends, or a hobbyist photographer, will ask me what kind of camera I recommend for parents or travelers to use on vacations or trips, and they’re almost always shocked when I advise them to skip a camera purchase and upgrade their phone if they can instead. But, I say this because a cell phone is so easy to use when taking pictures, and because mobile presets do so much to enhance our most precious moments.

Mobile presets, especially mine, are most often very close to one click edits. In the image below, for example, I used my newest mobile pack “Clean,” and as you can see the goal of the mobile preset is not to alter the image – but merely to add a touch of golden brightness and timeless glow. This was a one click edit:

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If any adjustments are ever needed at all, it’s often to exposure or temperature. But again, most often all you have to do is simply apply the preset to your mobile image via Lightroom mobile.

When using mobile presets, the image itself being shot well makes a huge impact. I could write a whole other blog post on tips for taking great cell phone images, and maybe I will, but for now here are just a few recommendations:

• Make sure your the lens on your phone camera is clean. VERY often I see people post cell phone images that look like they’ve been rubbed with vaseline, because the lens is dirty. Our fingers carry a lot of grime and so, always do a quick wipe of your cell phone camera’s lens before taking pictures.
• Look for the light, it’s your friend! For instance, in this photo of my daughter at a petting zoo, notice how her face is illuminated softly? I had her stand toward the direction of the open window, so that the natural light was working with me. Had I turned her around, the closed garage door you can see behind her wouldn’t have allowed any light to hit her face, and would’ve dimmed the overall image quality and final result.
• Look for shade if you’re in direct sunlight. No one likes photos of themselves with squinty eyes, and harsh lighting is very hard to edit as well. If you’re at a sporting event, or even a guest at a wedding, and you’re looking to take a great cell phone photo, look for an awning or a tree for some shade.

Using any mobile presets requires installation and a basic understanding of Lightroom Mobile.

Lightroom Mobile is a free app that you’ll add your purchased mobile presets into to be able to use and edit your cell phone images. You will add your cell phone images into your Lightroom camera roll, and edit from there.

This is a screen shot of what it will look like inside Lightroom while you’re using your mobile presets. You’ll note that once you purchase mobile presets and install them into Lightroom, you’ll be able to very easily click through your edit options within the pack you’ve purchased. This is a before and after of a mobile preset application:

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After applying the mobile preset in Lightroom mobile, you can also make other adjustments within Lightroom that the preset may not include built-in, like going into the “effects” category and adding grain for a film photo vibe.

Once you finish your editing within Lightroom mobile you’ll simply export your image into your camera roll and share or print however you normally do.

I plan to share more on this topic very soon, but for now, let me know if you have any pertinent questions or comments down below!

Hugs and happy shooting and editing,

Ashley