Basketball – Hardwood

Basketball lives in warm colours. The orange of the ball, the red of the jerseys, the gold of the hardwood. Hardwood picks up on that warmth and turns it up just a little. Not overdone, not artificial. Just the sports hall the way it feels when you are standing right in the middle of it.

The preset selectively boosts saturation in the orange and red tones, so the ball and the jerseys jump out without skin tones turning orange. Contrast is firm but not harsh. The dark floor gains depth, and the highlights on the parquet keep their shine. Shadows are slightly compressed, which keeps the frame filled without losing detail in the darker corners of the hall. The overall colour tone is warm, leaning towards gold in the midtones.

This preset works best on photos shot on a wooden floor, ideally with visible court lines or reflections from the overhead lighting. Action shots with the ball in frame benefit immediately from the stronger orange. But more portrait-like images of a player pausing, pointing or looking into the lens also work well. The warm tone brings calm to the image, even when the moment was full of movement.

Choose Hardwood when you want a basketball photo to feel like basketball. Not like a generic sports photo in blue or grey, but something with colour and character. The preset also suits other indoor sports played on parquet, such as handball or indoor hockey, as long as the floor plays a role in the composition.

One practical tip: indoor lighting is often mixed and can introduce a yellow or green colour cast fairly quickly. Before applying the preset, correct your white balance manually in Lightroom to around 4500 to 5000 K. After that, Hardwood behaves as intended and you will need very little fine-tuning from there.