Insta 1 And Insta 2 Lightroom Presets: A Review

Posted on Jan 21, 2013 | 2 comments

If you are a bottom-line kind of person I won’t keep you in suspense. Really Nice Images (the company) makes presets for Lightroom that reproduce the look you get in Instagram. If you are an Instagram fan you are going to really like Insta 1 (the original Instagram looks) and Insta 2 (the later versions). If you didn’t like the Instagram look at all you aren’t going to like these presets (and should forget the rest of this review). If you are sitting on the fence or don’t know what the heck Instagram even is, then read on, McDuff.

A favorite image of mine, taken in the ghost town of Bodie, CA.

Here is the same image with an instant transformation, courtesy of Insta 1 (from Really Nice Images):

I like the effect and I like the fact that it is a preset.

So, what do you think? There 16 Lightroom presets, all Instagram clones, in the Insta 1 collection and 17 more in the Insta 2 collection. Each sells for $19.99 (buy the two sets together and pay only $29.98; you save ten dollars). They work with Lightroom 3; they work with Lightroom 4. The download and installation is easy-breezy. Everything works just as advertised. Again, if you are an Instagram fan, this is a decent deal for the two collections and your permanent preset library. If you are not a fan, forgetta ’bout it. If you want to see more, click here to check out the preset thumbnails for both collections (and read the Really Nice Images’ description and fine print). What you see is what you are going to get.

So, are these presets worth the money? To me, yes. I dislike re-inventing the wheel. If I can use presets and textures and filters and shortcuts of all kinds to get the styles and looks I want in an image with the click of a key or two, I am all in. I figure these aids are capital investments: the cost of doing business in the digital processing world. Even if you are sitting at home working on your photos just for yourself you want to have an efficient, repeatable workflow. All these various tools allow you to do just that. Insta 1 and Insta 2 work as advertised. They look and function just like the thumbnails on the maker’s website. I own them and I am using them (no promotional discount or kickback of any kind). I like them because I can keep up with current looks and styles. I do an awful lot of my processing in Lightroom anymore, and these presets are going to allow me to do even more there. They function as shortcuts even if I go on to tweak the look a bit in Lightroom with its sliders. These presets work.

Okay, purchased together it is about 30 bucks for 33 presets, approximately a dollar a preset. onOne Software and others sell presets, textures and backgrounds on their websites (add-ons to complement their basic software packages). And they run about a buck apiece. I like the textures from Flypaper a lot … they run about the same. So if you think the price is a bit high – it isn’t. It’s just what the market is charging right now. Many times in this photo world of ours we have to pay a bit more than we might like for the products we want. Darn it!

Okay, my verdict is this is a decent set of Lightroom presets. If you like the Instagram look I recommend the two sets to you. They are worth adding to your workflow.