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"I'm quite pleased with this collection. I own presets from several other companies and these are my new favorites! Well done." - John R.

New to Lightroom: Tone Curve for Video Editing

Are you a photographer or content creator tired of juggling multiple apps for photo and video content to not even match? Did you know that you could be using your favorite photo preset to edit your images in Lightroom? June 2022 saw video editing added to the cloud-based Lightroom and the first steps toward using your favorite photo preset on video for seamless content creation. We're so excited to share that the big May 2024 update brought the tone curve to video editing! 

Editing Video with Your Favorite Preset

Yes! You read that right - tone curve for video editing has finally hit Lightroom! While you will only be able to adjust the curve on video in Lightroom (CC) for desktop, you WILL be able to apply presets to video on mobile and the curve will apply! The main points of difference between your Luxe preset workflow and editing for video: 

  • Presets will still show as "Partially Incompatible" upon application 
  • AI Adaptive presets and Effects tools won't work for video
  • Film grain won't transfer well to video and you will need to adjust
  • Edits will appear "stronger" with some noticeable differences to things like overall contrast and white balance
  • Reds/oranges may be bolder, especially visible on skin

To illustrate these things, we're going to walk through an video edit in Lightroom (CC) for desktop. 

Here's how the DigiFilm Portraits 2.0 "Clean - Emberglow 2.0" preset looks applied to a small JPG still image:


This is just a one-click edit on a still captured from the video we'll be editing with no additional adjustments.

Here's how that same preset looks applied to the MP4 video:

Notice that the grain is much larger and the overall "look" is stronger.

Here's how it looks with that grain removed: 

You can remove the grain entirely or tone it down with the grain slider under "Effects". We removed it here entirely to clarify toning for this example. 

And Here's how it looks with the curve toggled off:

This is how the same preset would have looked prior to this update! Crazy, right!? 

Want to tone it down?

If you want something closer to your photo edit, the amount slider is a great quick help for adjusting preset strength:

We also recommend manually adjusting color settings by pulling down vibrance a few points, and dialing in reds/oranges via the Color Mixer settings for skin tones until you are happy with the look: 



You can also adjust the Parametric curve slightly to adjust for overall lights/dark contrast differences:


Once adjusted to taste, and you feel like the look matches your image edits well, we recommend saving the preset with a new name like "Emberglow 2.0 - Video" to avoid having to make these same changes again! 

This exciting update is a huge win in the age of content creation! While you'll still need a separate app to edit videos together (Lightroom CC will only allow you to trim, crop and tone) you can now edit photo and video in the same app with the same presets and we couldn't be more thrilled! 

Example used above features a video captured by Olia Danilevich

Want to see this process in action? 

A phenomenal educator, Dorte Kjaerulff (@capture_life_academy) shared the process for editing video in Lightroom Classic with her favorite Luxe presets via Quick Develop and was quick to also demonstrate the process in Lightroom (CC) beautifully here: