A bright and vibrant photo of a man standing at the beach

Hot Tamale


Hot Tamale is a free Lightroom preset that optimizes a photo’s tones to produce vibrant and colorful landscapes. It is ideal for travel photos like beaches and dynamic urban scenes. Its rich warm hues also illuminate the scenery like sunlight.

This preset is designed for outdoor photography. It enhances colors and tones without making them look artificial. So if you are looking for a preset that would add polish and refinement to your shots, this is the one to go for. It is also ideal as an Instagram filter that would give your feed a professional and cohesive look.

Optimizes Tones for Landscapes

A vibrant photo of a lake with a mountain range behind it

Vivid Tones. The preset optimizes its tones for landscapes and other outdoor scenery. It sets most of it in the tone curve and uses the sliders for refinement. Hot Tamale generally brightens whites but lowers highlights so that no area looks overblown. It also applies similar adjustments to dark regions, making them look vivid without being harsh.

In the After photo above, you can easily notice the result by observing the rocks, trees, and mountains in the background. They all look crisply defined.

Amplifies Tones

A vibrant photo of a coast

Clear and Vibrant. Hot Tamale further improves its depth and definition by increasing clarity, vibrance, and saturation levels. These three attributes all intensify tones: clarity and vibrance focus on midtones, while saturation affects all colors.

The preset saturates hues sparingly to keep the photo looking natural. It, instead, tweaks vibrance more to preserve the image’s natural look. You can examine the bolder colors in the After photo above. See how the improvement in clarity also draws out the smaller details of the landscape.

Refines Color Saturation and Luminance

A vibrant photo of a landscapes with lush green fields

Colorful Scenes. The preset more finely adjusts color saturation and luminance levels in Lightroom’s HSL panel. This section allows it to set the intensity and brilliance of each color at varying degrees. As it is optimized for landscapes, it mostly amplifies the common colors of nature: orange, yellow, and green. Orange hues mostly affect earth tones and the rest of the terrain, as you can see in the example above. Just look at the vivid hues in the After photo.

A vibrant photo of a landscape full of trees

Deep Blues. Finally, to produce vibrant blue skies and waters, Hot Tamale lowers the color luminance of blue. It extracts more of the color this way. After all, the more light is added to a color, the lighter it becomes. You can examine the stunning result of this simple adjustment in the After photo above.

Enhances Texture and Detail

A vibrant photo of a woman walking on a path paved with planks of wood

Crisp Details. As with most landscape presets, Hot Tamale also refines textures by increasing sharpening and reducing noise. After all, in outdoor photography, it is important to emphasize details. Try to examine the coarser-looking path in the After photo, along with the plants that line it.

Hot Tamale is for Lightroom Mobile, Desktop and…

Like all our presets, you can absolutely use Hot Tamale preset as is, right out of the box. With any preset, you might need to make adjustments to accommodate your specific camera, settings, lighting, and subject matter.

  • Entirely Adjustable
  • Compatible with Lightroom 4, 5, 6 and CC
  • Performs with both PC, Mac, and Mobile
  • Applicable to both RAW and JPG images
  • 100% Free

Free Lightroom Presets


Free Lightroom Preset by Rachel Carter

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