How to Make Your iPhone Photos Look Better (Using Presets)

Big Ben and Victoria Tower seen down a London street lined with lamp posts and trees

You know those iPhone photos that look way too good to be from a phone?

A preset can help create a consistent look, alongside good light, composition and exposure.

Presets are the quickest way to make your iPhone photos look better.

Apply a preset, then check whether the photo needs exposure or white-balance adjustments.

Palm trees silhouetted against a bright blue sky with scattered white clouds

What’s a preset?

Think of it like a saved edit.

Someone already adjusted the brightness, colours, contrast and everything else, then bundled it up so you can apply it to your own photos.

A preset saves editing adjustments that you can inspect and change.

The word “filter” covers many kinds of image processing; it does not always mean a simple overlay.

What matters is having control over the result and exporting at the quality you need.

Lightroom Mobile is free to download. Some workflows, including RAW editing and cloud sync, require a paid Adobe plan.

Once they’re imported, it’s one tap.

One of the Brooklyn Bridge's stone towers with an American flag flying on top

Why Presets Help So Much

Editing from scratch takes time.

You move sliders around.

You guess.

You try again.

And sometimes the photo still doesn’t look right.

Presets remove a lot of that guesswork.

They help you:

make colours look more natural
brighten dark photos without blowing everything out
add depth and contrast
keep a consistent look across your photos
save a lot of time

It’s basically like starting your edit from a good place instead of from zero.

You can still tweak things if you want — but you don’t have to.

Home office desk with a pink desk mat, keyboard and a vase of pampas grass

Why iPhone-Specific Presets Matter

A lot of presets online are made for big cameras.

Those files behave differently than iPhone photos, so when you apply those presets on your phone, things can easily look off:

too warm, too flat, too sharp.

That’s why the presets inside the iPhone Creator Kit are built specifically for iPhone files — with how the iPhone handles colour, detail, and light in mind.

Your photos still look like iPhone photos.

They just look cleaner and more polished.

Aerial view of waves breaking along a black sand coastline under a darkened sky

Presets vs Instagram filters

Different editing tools offer different levels of control.

Instagram filters and Lightroom presets can both change the look of an image.

A Lightroom preset does not guarantee that every detail will be preserved: check sharpening, noise and highlights after applying it.

Export settings and the platform you share to also affect the final quality.

You can still tweak them after if you need to.

Silhouette of the Dubai skyline at sunset with a small red hot air balloon in an orange sky

Do You Need Experience?

No — and that’s the point.

You don’t need to know editing, colour grading, or photography terms.

You need Lightroom and the features required by your chosen files. Check Adobe’s current requirements for RAW editing, preset imports and sync.

Install your presets once.

After that, they’re always there:

open a photo → tap a preset → done.

That’s usually enough for most people.

But like we mentioned, you can always adjust it further to suit your style and needs.

Before-and-after of Big Ben on a London street, the 'after' side warmer in tone

Before-and-after of a red sports car at a night crosswalk, the 'after' side richer in colour

Different styles

The presets cover different looks depending on what you’re shooting.

Neutral tones for everyday stuff.

Warmer colours for landscapes.

More contrast for street photography.

Makes it easy to keep a consistent style without manually editing every single photo.

Which iPhone Creator Kit Makes Sense?

If you’re just getting started, the Basic Kit is the easiest entry point.

You get:

20 iPhone photo presets
Apple LOG video LUTs
14+ lessons (video + written)
an iPhone camera settings cheat sheet

It’s simple and easy to follow. No complicated setup.

If you want more options, the Ultimate Kit builds on that.

The Ultimate Kit expands the preset collection. Use the current kit comparison below for the included files, bundle contents and price rather than relying on an older preset count.

It’s the same setup we use ourselves.

One-time purchase, no subscriptions, and updates included when new presets and lessons are added.

If you’re serious about improving your iPhone photos, the Ultimate Kit gives you the most flexibility.

Grid of small preset thumbnail previews spanning coastal, city and car photography styles

That’s it

Presets don’t magically fix bad photos.

They just give you a better starting point.

The iPhone camera is already capable — presets make it easier to get a consistent look without spending ages editing.

That’s what the iPhone Creator Kit is designed for: simple tools that help your photos look cleaner and more balanced, without extra effort.

Once you get used to working with presets, they just become part of your normal workflow.

Compare iPhone presets, formats, examples and current kit prices

Start with the recommended iPhone camera settings

Check Adobe’s Lightroom mobile premium features