August

August smells like heather. That specific purple glow that moves across the Veluwe in late summer, across the Hautes Fagnes, across the Scottish moors. This preset captures exactly that feeling: warm, soft, almost dreamy. Not sentimental, but with a clear sense of atmosphere. It is the colour of a late summer afternoon when the light is just starting to shift.

The preset lifts purple and lavender tones without letting them shout. Highlights get a soft, creamy warmth. Shadows stay open, they do not collapse into black but hold detail and colour. There is contrast, but it does not bite. Skin tones stay neutral to lightly warm, so portraits shot in this kind of light work well too. The tone curve is gently shaped, not forced.

August works best with scenes that have plenty of organic material and soft, diffuse light. Think heather fields, late-summer forests, lavender or yellowing grass. But also city photography in evening light, or a portrait on a terrace when the sun is already low. Wherever warm tones and lilac shadows are naturally present, this preset adds depth without looking processed.

You reach for August when you want a photo that breathes. When sharpness and clarity are not the point, but mood is. It fits well with travel photography, landscapes, outdoor portraits and street photography during golden hour. It is not the right choice for hard, cold light or sharp blue skies. In those conditions the colour balance will drift in the wrong direction.

A practical tip: the preset is calibrated for RAW files with a standard exposure. If your shot is about half a stop underexposed, raise the exposure before applying the preset. That way you keep the soft rolloff in the highlights intact. From there, use the HSL colour sliders to fine-tune. The purple and red values are particularly responsive and give you a lot of control over the final mood.