The perturbation of a light field might affect preheating and hence generate a contribution to the spectrum and non-gaussianity of the curvature perturbation ζ. The field might appear directly in the preheating model (curvaton-type preheating) or indirectly through its effect on a mass or coupling (modulated preheating). We give general expressions for ζbased on the δN formula, and apply them to the cases of quadratic and quartic chaotic inflation. For the quadratic case, curvaton-type preheating is ineffective in contributing to ζ, but modulated preheating can be effective. For quartic inflation, curvaton-type preheating may be effective but the usual δN formalism has to be modified. We see under what circumstances the recent numerical simulation of Bond et al. [0903.3407] may be enough to provide a rough estimate for this case. This paper is dedicated to the memory of Lev Kofman who died on 12th November 2009