Still Pool

Still Pool is a preset for photographs that breathe. The tones are neutral, slightly cooled, with a softness that communicates calm without making the image feel hazy. There is no drama here, no heavy vignetting or pushed contrast. What you get is a picture that seems to hold still. As if time paused for a moment at the exact second you pressed the shutter.

The preset lowers the colour temperature slightly, pulls back the highlights and lifts the shadows just enough to preserve depth without crushing to black. Contrast is subtle, more present in the midtones than at the extremes. Colours are not stripped away, but they are quieted. Warm tones like orange and yellow shift cooler. Greens move toward a muted blue-green. The result is a colour palette that feels consistently calm, from one frame to the next.

Still Pool works best with scenes that already carry some stillness: reflective water surfaces, misty mornings in a forest, an overcast sky above a flat landscape. But portraits taken in soft shade or under cloudy daylight also respond well. Skin tones stay recognisable, just quieter. Street photographs in unhurried environments, abstract architecture, minimalist compositions: Still Pool gives all of them the same measured cohesion.

You reach for Still Pool when you want a series that carries a single feeling. Not the photograph that demands attention, but the one that stays with you. The preset suits photographers who work slowly on purpose, who wait for the right light and the right silence. It also suits editors who prefer to do too little rather than too much.

A practical note: the preset is calibrated for RAW files with correct exposure. Frames that are one to one and a half stops underexposed can look slightly flat after applying it. If that happens, add exposure before applying the preset, or increase it by no more than 0.5 stops afterwards. That way the preset keeps its character without clipping the highlights.