IDCO Presets: How the Presets Work

Last week, we launched the IDCO Presets – a total of 16 bright, crisp, and natural look presets for use on your mobile phone. The IDCO Presets were a long time collaboration with our amazing photographer, Madeline Harper. She’s been a part of the IDCO family for over four years, shooting everything from my personal home, to Design Camp, flat lays and headshots. There has never been a task I through at her she couldn’t handle.

 

Since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the states, I’ve been brainstorming ways to help our design community. I launched IDCO Sessions via email to guide interior designers through marketing ideas. We chatted in our private Facebook group about how to pivot our businesses and better serve our clients. The next step was to provide a physical, tangible tool for interior designers.

 

These IDCO Presets are that tool. They are an immense gift from Madeline, who selflessly agreed to share her 10+ years of photography expertise and professional, proprietary information. Together, we’ve evolved the look of IDCO over the years. Today, I’m so excited to share with you, first hand, how Madeline created the mobile presets for the free Lightroom app, directly from the source herself. Xo – Stass

 

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WHY WE CREATED MOBILE PRESETS FOR INTERIORS

 

As a photographer, it’s the dream to have a working relationship with a client who has an appreciation for creating original content and a love for a light infused editing style. I’ve been shooting for The Identité Collective for four years now and through that time our businesses have both evolved. Throughout our collaboration, we have retained cohesive visual marketing which has led to a solid brand voice and exponential growth. We’ve been asked over the years about the editing style I use for her imaging and if we’d considered creating presets. About a year ago we began to really explore the concept, started developing mobile presets, and finally launched them during a time that felt like it would truly be making a difference!

During this uncharted time while creative teams are at a distance, many interior designers can’t showcase their work or produce their normal content to share project updates. The IDCO Presets have been a work in progress over the past year and are something I am so proud of, based off the light infused editing style honed over the years for The Identité Collective. They are created with interiors in mind and make it easier than ever to edit on the go.

 

 

 

HOW WE CREATED THE #IDCOPRESETS

 

While Anastasia’s house gets great light on sunny days, it can still come off on camera as shadowy. After 3 years shooting in the space, we’ve perfected the editing adjustments to get those crisp white walls while not losing any depth or detail in the details of the space. Depending on the time of day the rooms can read either warm or cool, so we’ve included options that can be used to balance the temperature while still looking natural and bright.

 

One of the most important adjustments we made while developing these was the way different wood tones and greens read in an image! Anastasia has a lot of natural elements in her home- wooden floors, bowls, and styling accents. She also uses a ton of fresh greenery in photoshoots which always brings a welcome element of life to shots! In editing, we want those to look as true to life as possible, not orange wood or oversaturated leaves. So in order to do that, each preset was tested on dozens of images from throughout the years of shooting together to get the correct color mix on each detail.

 

 

 

THE BRIGHT + BALANCED PRESETS

 

The Balanced + Bright package of mobile presets contains eight presets that are crisp and light and feel like a sun bathed room! In a single click you can turn your iPhone image into a photo that feels professional. Each of the presets have unique personalities and can be used in different lighting situations:

 

• The Sawyer – Best used in spaces that need a little warming up and has a softer contrast, it brightens up the overall exposure without loosing any of the color in an image.
• The Scout – A bit cooler, has a touch more contrast, and balances highlights in shadows in a realistic way.
• The Olivia – The IDCO go-to preset with a touch of warmth, a good amount of depth, and a pop of shadows!
• The Harper –  More bold preset with crisp lines, even saturation, and contrast to make the image really stand out.
• The Kennedy + The Madeleine – Two of the presets with more emphasis on the highlights and less on the shadows and contrast. They are perfect for rooms that need quite a bit of brightening but you still want to feel organic and a bit softer.
• The Miller – Bright and true to life but has a warmth to it that pairs perfectly in a room filled with greenery.
• The Margot – even toned preset that will bring life into the most shadowed room.

 

 

THE WARM + WELCOMING PRESETS PACKAGE

 

The Warm + Welcoming package contains six presets that are more cozy, natural, and have a deeper contrast:

 

• The Quinn + The Sutton – The presets with the least amount of brightening but the most depth. They are best used in a room that feels bright on it’s own but you want the details to stand out!
• The Quinn – brings warmer wood tones while the Sutton tones down the highlights.
• The Kingston – a cooler, perfect for when you want a crisp bright wall and depth of shadow.
• The Piper – less shadowy while still bringing richness to styling details.
• The Brinkley – great for bringing out pure white without sacrificing depth of colors.
• The Jameson – the preset with softer contrast, balanced light, and gorgeous warm tones.
  

 

 

 

HOW TO INSTALL THE PRESETS ON YOUR PHONE

 

We’ve made downloading easy to do on the go or while multitasking! Simply download the Dropbox app and the free Lightroom editing app to your phone. Upon purchasing the IDCO Presets, you’ll receive a link to the presets and can save each image, complete with the preset name and description, to your camera roll on your phone. Then, upload those images into Lightroom and click the triple dot image in the upper righthand corner to “save as preset.” Name the image with the corresponding name and file under User Presets. Repeat until you have all your new presets saved. From there you simply upload your images to your Lightroom gallery, find your favorite preset to apply, and watch the magic unfold!

 

 

 

 

ADDITIONAL TIPS + TRICKS FOR USING THE PRESETS, FROM A PRO

 

Every person captures light uniquely, and so does each phone. The easiest way to find you favorite preset for the image is to make sure the white tones are where you want them and the colors are reading true to life. Easy adjustments to make are exposure and room temperature. Make sure you shoot your space with all lights off – even if it feels dark. The presets will do the work for you!

 

I live in a rental home with my husband that has yellow walls so I always cool the temperature down a bit to make the walls more white! I like an image with a bit more contrast so my go to presets are The Brinkley, The Margot, and The Harper. Each room in Anastasia’s house looks best with a different preset depending on the shadows the day we shoot and the styling details.

Feel free to reach out to me at presets@madelineharper.com with preset and editing questions, I love helping find what preset package t is the best fit to showcase your work!

We want your images to reflect your brand and the ways you can transform a room. Included in the preset bundles are instructions and tips for taking the best iPhone images possible. I hope these tools let you share content you’re proud of, let us get a behind the scenes look at your spaces in progress, and let your brand shine with even more confidence. We want to give you peace of mind in knowing that although normal feels far away, you have these presets in your pocket to keep your business thriving.