What Are Lightroom Presets?
Lightroom presets are essentially pre-configured editing settings that can be applied to a photo with a single click. These settings can include adjustments to exposure, contrast, color balance, highlights, shadows, clarity, tone curves, and much more. Think of them as filters on steroids—highly customizable and often tailored to specific moods, aesthetics, or genres.
Presets are saved editing recipes that streamline your workflow. Instead of manually adjusting sliders for every photo, you can apply a preset to instantly achieve a specific look.
Why Use Presets?
1. Speed and Efficiency
Editing a large batch of photos can be time-consuming. Presets allow photographers to quickly apply consistent edits across multiple images, making them ideal for wedding photographers, event shooters, or anyone working with large photo sets.
2. Consistency in Style
Building a recognizable style is important for branding, especially for influencers, content creators, and professionals. Presets help maintain a consistent aesthetic across your portfolio, Instagram feed, or website.
3. Learning Tool for Beginners
Presets are not just shortcuts—they’re also educational. Beginners can reverse-engineer a preset to understand how certain looks are achieved and learn how to fine-tune settings to suit their own vision.
4. Creative Inspiration
Sometimes, you need a spark of inspiration. Trying out different presets can reveal creative directions you might not have considered, helping you discover new looks or refine your visual identity.
Types of Lightroom Presets
1. Color Presets – These focus on enhancing or stylizing the color grading of a photo. Think warm tones, teal and orange, film emulations, or moody desaturation.
2. Black and White Presets – For creating dramatic, timeless monochrome images.
3. Portrait Presets – Tailored for skin tones and facial features, often used for beauty or fashion photography.
4. Landscape Presets – Designed to enhance skies, greenery, and natural lighting, perfect for outdoor and travel shots.
5. Mobile Presets – Optimized for Lightroom Mobile, these allow users to edit photos on the go using the same powerful settings available on desktop.
How to Install and Use Lightroom Presets
On Desktop:
- Download your preset file (usually .XMP or older .LRTemplate format).
- Open Lightroom and go to the Develop module.
- In the left panel, right-click on “Presets” and choose “Import.”
- Select the preset files and they will appear in your library.
On Mobile:
- Import the preset (often a DNG file).
- Open the photo in Lightroom Mobile.
- Tap the three-dot menu > “Copy Settings” from the DNG preset image.
- Paste the settings onto any photo.
Where to Get Lightroom Presets
- Adobe Creative Cloud offers some basic built-in presets.
- Professional photographers often sell custom preset packs on their websites or platforms like Etsy, Creative Market, and FilterGrade.
- Free preset libraries are available online, although quality varies.
- Create Your Own: Once you’ve developed a favorite editing style, save your settings as a custom preset.
Tips for Using Presets Effectively
- Tweak After Applying: Presets are starting points, not finish lines. Lighting and color in your original photo may require you to adjust exposure, white balance, or shadows after applying.
- Avoid Overediting: Subtlety often creates the most polished look. Don’t crank up clarity or saturation unless it serves a creative purpose.
- Organize Your Presets: Too many presets can clutter your workflow. Group your favorites and delete the ones you don’t use.
Final Thoughts
Lightroom presets are a powerful ally in any photographer’s toolkit. Whether you’re striving for a cohesive brand, saving time in post-production, or simply experimenting with different looks, presets make the editing process smoother and more creative. Used thoughtfully, they don’t just enhance photos—they elevate your storytelling.