Every photographer eventually notices a pattern in their editing. You reach for the same white balance adjustment, apply a similar tone curve, and nudge the same HSL sliders on image after image. This is your editing style emerging, and Lightroom presets are how you capture it. A preset saves a specific combination of settings so you can apply them to any photo with a single click.
Presets are one of the most misunderstood tools in Lightroom. Some photographers dismiss them as cheating or lazy shortcuts. Others treat them as magic buttons that transform any photo into a masterpiece. The truth is somewhere in between. A well-crafted preset is a starting point that applies your baseline creative decisions instantly, freeing you to focus on the adjustments that make each individual photo shine. It is a workflow tool, not a replacement for knowing how to edit.
This guide covers everything you need to know about Lightroom presets: how they work, how to create your own, how to install presets from other sources, how to organize a growing preset library, and how to use them effectively in your photography workflow. Whether you are building your first preset or managing a library of hundreds, the principles here will help you get more from this powerful feature.
What Exactly Is a Lightroom Preset?
A Lightroom preset is a saved collection of Develop module settings. When you apply a preset, it adjusts the corresponding sliders and tools to the values stored in the preset file. Think of it as a recipe card for an edit. The recipe says “set Exposure to +0.3, Highlights to -40, Shadows to +25, Temp to 5800, and apply this specific tone curve.” Lightroom reads the recipe and sets all those values at once.
Presets can include any combination of settings from the Develop module: Basic panel adjustments, Tone Curve, HSL, Color Grading, Sharpening, Lens Corrections, and more. They can also be partial, meaning they only adjust certain settings while leaving others untouched. This is an important concept that we will explore in detail later.
Preset files are small text files (with .lrtemplate or .xmp extensions depending on your Lightroom version) stored in specific folders on your hard drive. They are not image files and contain no pixel data. They are simply instructions for Lightroom to follow.
How to Create Your Own Presets
Creating your own presets is more valuable than downloading someone else’s. Your presets reflect your eye, your style, and the specific editing decisions that define your work. Here is the process.
Step 1: Edit a Photo to Your Satisfaction
Start by editing a photo the way you normally would. Work through the editing process until the image looks the way you want it. Pay attention to which adjustments you make, because these are the settings your preset will save. For a good general-purpose preset, work with a photo that represents a common shooting scenario for you, whether that is outdoor portraits, landscapes, street photography, or whatever you shoot most often.
Step 2: Open the Create Preset Dialog
In the Develop module, click the “+” icon at the top of the Presets panel on the left side, then choose “Create Preset.” In Lightroom Classic, you can also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+N (Cmd+Shift+N on Mac). A dialog box appears with a list of all the settings that can be included in the preset.
Step 3: Choose Which Settings to Include
This is the most important step and where many photographers go wrong. You do not need to include every setting. In fact, including settings that should vary from photo to photo will make your preset less useful.
Settings to include: Tone Curve, HSL adjustments, Color Grading, Sharpening defaults, and Lens Corrections are usually safe to include because they tend to be consistent across your style. The Presence sliders (Texture, Clarity, Vibrance) can be included if you have a consistent preference.
Settings to think carefully about: White Balance, Exposure, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, and Blacks are highly dependent on the individual photo. Including them means the preset will override whatever the original exposure was, which rarely works across different images. If you include these, understand that you will need to readjust them for every photo.
Settings to usually exclude: Crop, Spot Removal, and local adjustments (Graduated Filters, Radial Filters, Adjustment Brush) are specific to individual images and should almost never be included in a preset.
Step 4: Name and Organize
Give your preset a descriptive name that tells you what it does at a glance. “Warm Film Look,” “Moody Desaturated,” or “Clean Portrait Base” are much more useful than “Preset 1” or “My Favorite.” Choose or create a group (folder) to keep your presets organized. A good naming convention pays dividends when your preset library grows beyond a handful.
The Art of Partial Presets
Partial presets, those that only modify certain settings while leaving others untouched, are far more flexible than presets that change everything. Understanding this concept transforms presets from clumsy one-click effects into precise workflow tools.
Consider building a system of partial presets that you stack on top of each other:
Base presets that set your overall tone and color style (tone curve, HSL, color grading). These define your general look.
Adjustment presets that modify specific settings like sharpening amount, noise reduction level, or lens correction preferences. These handle technical defaults.
Effect presets that add specific creative effects like grain, split toning, or vignettes. These are optional finishing touches.
By building small, focused presets rather than all-encompassing ones, you can mix and match to create different looks without starting from scratch each time. Apply your “Warm Film Base” preset, then stack your “Medium Grain” preset on top, then add your “Subtle Vignette” preset. Each one adjusts only its specific settings, leaving the others intact.
How to Install Presets from Other Sources
Whether you download free presets, purchase a premium pack, or receive presets from a fellow photographer, installing them is straightforward.
Installing in Lightroom Classic
In the Develop module, right-click anywhere in the Presets panel on the left side and choose “Import Presets.” Navigate to the preset files (.xmp or .lrtemplate) on your hard drive and select them. Lightroom will copy them into its preset folder and they will appear in the panel immediately. If you received a .zip file, extract it first before importing.
You can also manually place preset files in Lightroom’s preset folder. Go to Preferences > Presets > Show Lightroom Develop Presets, which opens the folder in your file manager. Copy the preset files into this folder (or into a subfolder for organization), then restart Lightroom.
Installing in Lightroom (Cloud Version)
Open the Edit panel, scroll to the Presets section, click the three-dot menu, and choose “Import Presets.” Navigate to your files and select them. The cloud version also supports .xmp and .lrtemplate formats. Imported presets sync across all your devices through Adobe’s cloud, so installing once makes them available everywhere.
Installing on Mobile
The Lightroom mobile app supports presets as well. If you use the cloud-based Lightroom, presets installed on your desktop automatically sync to mobile. For Lightroom Classic presets, you can import .dng preset files directly on your phone. Many preset creators distribute mobile-compatible DNG files specifically for this purpose.
Evaluating Downloaded Presets
The internet is flooded with Lightroom presets, from free packs to premium collections costing hundreds of dollars. Not all presets are created equal. Here is how to evaluate them.
Test on multiple images. A good preset works reasonably well across a range of photos with different exposures, lighting conditions, and color palettes. A preset that looks amazing on the creator’s sample photos but terrible on yours is not useful. Apply any new preset to at least 10 to 15 diverse images from your own library before judging its value.
Check what settings they change. After applying a downloaded preset, look at which sliders moved. Some presets make sensible, balanced adjustments. Others push sliders to extreme values that only work for a very narrow range of images. Presets that set Exposure, Highlights, and Shadows to specific values are inherently less versatile than those that focus on color grading and tone curves.
Consider the source. Presets created by working photographers who use them in their own professional workflow tend to be more practical and versatile than presets created purely as a product to sell. Look for presets from photographers whose actual work you admire.
Free is fine to start. There is nothing wrong with free presets for learning and experimentation. Many excellent photographers share free preset packs. Use them to understand how different settings affect your images, then create your own presets based on what you learn.
Using Presets Effectively in Your Workflow
The real power of presets emerges when you integrate them thoughtfully into your editing workflow rather than treating them as standalone solutions.
Apply Presets on Import
During the import process, you can assign a Develop preset to all incoming photos. This means every photo starts with your baseline adjustments already applied. If you have a standard look that you apply to most images, this saves you from applying it manually every time. Choose a subtle, versatile preset for this purpose, one that makes good default adjustments without dramatic creative effects.
Use Presets as Starting Points, Not Endpoints
This is the most important principle of preset usage. Apply a preset, then refine every setting for the specific image. Adjust the white balance to match the actual scene. Tweak the exposure for the specific brightness of this photo. Fine-tune the color grading to complement this particular subject. A preset should get you 60% to 80% of the way to a finished edit. Your manual refinement covers the remaining 20% to 40%.
Photographers who apply a preset and call the image “done” are missing the point. Every photo has unique characteristics that a generic preset cannot anticipate. The real editing skill is in the refinement.
Batch Editing with Presets
When you have a series of photos shot in similar conditions (a portrait session, a set of landscape photos from the same location, an event), presets enable efficient batch editing. Edit one photo until it looks perfect, save the settings as a preset (or copy the settings with Ctrl+Shift+C / Cmd+Shift+C), then apply those settings to the entire batch. Go through each image and make minor individual adjustments to account for slight differences in exposure and composition.
This batch approach can reduce editing time from hours to minutes for large sets. Wedding and event photographers routinely use this technique to process hundreds of images efficiently while maintaining a consistent look.
Preview Before Applying
In Lightroom Classic, hovering over a preset in the panel shows a preview of how it will look on the current image in the Navigator panel. In newer versions, the preview appears directly on the main image. Use this hover preview to quickly audition different presets without actually applying them. This lets you browse through dozens of options in seconds.
Building a Personal Preset Library
Over time, you will develop a collection of presets that reflect your personal style and common editing patterns. Here is how to build and maintain a useful library.
Start with Your Most Common Scenarios
Create presets for the situations you encounter most frequently. If you primarily shoot portraits outdoors, create a base preset for that scenario. If you shoot landscapes at golden hour, create one for those warm, dramatic conditions. If you shoot events in mixed lighting, create a preset that handles the typical challenges of that environment. Starting with three to five scenario-specific presets gives you a practical foundation.
Create Variations
Once you have a base preset you like, create variations. A “Warm Portrait Base” preset might spawn a “Warm Portrait, Soft” variation with reduced clarity and a subtle fade, and a “Warm Portrait, Vivid” variation with boosted vibrance and a stronger S-curve. Having two or three variations of each base preset gives you flexibility without overwhelming choice.
Organize with Groups and Naming
Lightroom lets you create preset groups (folders) to keep things organized. A practical structure might look like this:
Base Looks: Your core creative presets that define your overall style.
Portraits: Presets tuned specifically for portrait work, including skin tone adjustments.
Landscapes: Presets designed for outdoor and nature scenes.
B&W: Black-and-white conversion presets with different tonal qualities.
Effects: Grain, fade, vignette, and other creative finishing presets.
Technical: Sharpening, noise reduction, and lens correction presets.
Use consistent naming within each group. Prefix related presets with the same term so they sort together. “Film Warm Soft,” “Film Warm Vivid,” and “Film Cool Matte” all share the “Film” prefix, making them easy to find.
Review and Prune Regularly
A preset library that grows without pruning becomes bloated and counterproductive. Every few months, scroll through your presets and delete the ones you never use. If you have not applied a preset in six months, it is probably not earning its place. A lean library of 20 presets you actually use is far more valuable than a bloated library of 200 that you have to scroll past every time.
Creating Presets for Specific Photography Genres
Different types of photography benefit from different preset approaches. Here are guidelines for building genre-specific presets.
Portrait Presets
Good portrait presets prioritize flattering skin tones and a clean overall look. Reduce the Orange Saturation slightly in HSL to prevent skin from appearing overly vivid. Add a gentle lift to the shadows on the tone curve to soften dark areas. Include moderate sharpening with a high masking value to keep skin smooth while keeping eyes and hair sharp. Avoid including Exposure and White Balance, since these vary dramatically between indoor and outdoor portraits.
Landscape Presets
Landscape presets can afford to include more settings because landscape shooting conditions are often more predictable. Include a tone curve that adds richness, HSL adjustments that deepen sky blues and warm vegetation tones, moderate Texture and Clarity for detail enhancement, and lens corrections enabled by default. Consider creating separate presets for golden hour (warmer), blue hour (cooler), and overcast conditions. For more on landscape-specific editing, see our guide to editing landscape photos in Lightroom.
Black and White Presets
Black-and-white presets offer wide creative range because color is completely removed from the equation. The B&W Mix panel (which controls how each color translates to a gray tone) is the heart of a B&W preset. A preset that darkens blues and cyans while brightening oranges and yellows creates the dramatic dark-sky, bright-skin look reminiscent of using a red filter with film. Another preset might brighten greens and yellows for airy, high-key landscapes. Creating three or four B&W presets with distinctly different tonal characters gives you versatile options.
Film Emulation Presets
Film-look presets are popular for good reason: analog film has aesthetic qualities that many photographers find appealing. The characteristic elements of film include lifted shadows (the tone curve’s bottom-left point raised), slightly muted highlights, reduced overall saturation, and visible grain. Different film stocks have different color signatures. Fuji films tend toward greens and blues, Kodak films lean warm with rich oranges and yellows. Study reference images shot on the specific film stock you want to emulate, then try to match the color response through the HSL panel, tone curve, and Color Grading tool.
Advanced Preset Techniques
Once you are comfortable with basic preset creation, these advanced techniques will expand your capabilities.
Amount Slider
Newer versions of Lightroom include an Amount slider when you apply a preset. This lets you dial back (or increase) the intensity of the preset’s adjustments. If a preset looks slightly too strong, drag the Amount slider to 70% or 80% instead of manually tweaking every setting. This is especially useful with downloaded presets that may be designed for a more dramatic look than you prefer.
Adaptive Presets
Recent Lightroom versions support adaptive presets that include AI-based masking. These presets can automatically detect and adjust specific subjects like the sky, the main subject, or background elements. An adaptive preset might darken the sky, warm the subject, and add a vignette to the background, all automatically adapting to whatever image you apply it to. Creating adaptive presets requires more thought about what adjustments apply to which mask type, but the results are remarkably versatile.
Syncing and Sharing Presets
If you use Lightroom on multiple computers, you need your presets available everywhere. The cloud-based Lightroom handles this automatically through sync. For Lightroom Classic, you can manually copy preset files between machines using cloud storage, a USB drive, or any file transfer method. Presets are small files, so syncing them is fast and easy.
Sharing presets with other photographers is equally straightforward. Export your preset from within Lightroom (right-click > Export) to create a standalone .xmp file that anyone can import. This makes presets easy to share with friends, workshop students, or as part of a preset pack you create for others.
Updating and Evolving Presets
Your editing style will evolve over time, and your presets should evolve with it. Rather than keeping outdated presets, update them periodically. Edit a photo using your current preferred approach, then right-click on the existing preset and choose “Update with Current Settings.” Select the settings to include (using the same judgment you applied when creating it), and the preset is now updated. Your old preset is gone and the new one takes its place.
A good practice is to date your presets when you make major updates. “Clean Portrait Base v2” tells you it is the second iteration, and when you create v3, you can confidently delete v2.
Presets and Consistency Across a Project
One of the most valuable uses of presets is maintaining visual consistency across a body of work. A portrait session, a wedding album, a travel series, or a portfolio page all benefit from a cohesive look where images feel like they belong together.
Without presets, maintaining this consistency across dozens or hundreds of images is tedious and error-prone. With a well-designed base preset, every image starts from the same foundation. Your manual refinements then focus on exposure matching and image-specific adjustments rather than trying to recreate a look from scratch each time.
Professional photographers often create project-specific presets. Before a wedding, they might create a preset that defines the color palette and tonal style for that event. Before a landscape trip, they might refine a preset to match the specific conditions they expect to encounter. This preparation means editing thousands of images after the event goes smoothly because the creative foundation is already established.
Common Mistakes
These are the most common mistakes photographers make with Lightroom presets. Avoiding them will save you time and frustration.
Treating presets as a finished edit. Applying a preset and doing nothing else is like buying a suit off the rack without getting it tailored. It might look okay, but it will not look great. Every photo needs individual attention after the preset is applied. White balance, exposure, and local adjustments all need to be refined for the specific image.
Collecting hundreds of presets you never use. Downloading every free preset pack you find creates a cluttered, overwhelming preset panel. A smaller library of presets you know well and use regularly is far more efficient than a massive collection you have to scroll through and test every time. Quality over quantity.
Including too many settings in a preset. The most common preset creation mistake is checking every box in the settings list. This means your preset overrides exposure, white balance, and other image-specific settings, forcing you to readjust them for every photo. Be selective. Include only the settings that represent your consistent creative choices.
Using presets designed for a different genre. A preset designed for bright, airy wedding photography will not work well on moody landscape images. A gritty street photography preset will not flatter portrait skin tones. Match the preset to the genre and conditions of your images. This is why creating your own genre-specific presets is more practical than relying entirely on downloaded ones.
Not testing on diverse images. When creating a preset, test it on at least 10 different photos before saving it. Test on overexposed and underexposed images. Test on warm light and cool light. Test on high-contrast and low-contrast scenes. A preset that only works on one type of image is too fragile to be useful.
Forgetting to back up presets. Custom presets represent significant creative investment. If your computer crashes and you have not backed up your preset folder, that work is gone. Include your Lightroom presets folder in your backup routine alongside your photos and catalog.
Expecting presets to fix fundamental problems. No preset can save a badly exposed, out-of-focus, or poorly composed image. Presets work best on technically sound images that need a creative direction. Focus on getting things right in camera first. Understanding the exposure triangle and composition will always matter more than any preset.
Try This: Preset Building Exercises
These exercises will develop your preset creation skills and help you build a functional preset library.
Exercise 1: Your First Base Preset. Edit five different photos from a recent shoot to a consistent look that you love. Identify which settings are the same across all five (this is your preset) and which settings differ (these should be excluded). Save the consistent settings as a preset. Apply it to 10 more photos and see how well it works as a starting point. Refine as needed.
Exercise 2: The Partial Preset Stack. Create three small, focused presets: one that only affects the Tone Curve, one that only affects HSL, and one that only affects Color Grading. Practice applying them in different combinations to see how they interact. This builds your understanding of partial presets and how they layer together.
Exercise 3: Reverse-Engineer a Look. Find a photograph by another photographer whose editing style you admire. Using only Lightroom’s Develop tools, try to recreate their look on one of your own photos. Once you get close, save it as a preset. This is an excellent way to study editing techniques and expand your creative range. The goal is not to copy their style permanently but to learn from the process.
Exercise 4: The B&W Challenge. Create three distinctly different black-and-white presets. One should be high-contrast and dramatic. One should be soft and low-contrast. One should aim for a classic film look with visible grain and lifted shadows. Apply all three to the same color image and compare. This teaches you how much creative control the B&W Mix panel, Tone Curve, and Effects settings provide.
Exercise 5: The Preset Audit. Go through every preset in your library, both custom and downloaded. Apply each one to a test image and honestly evaluate it. Delete any preset that you have not used in the last three months or that produces results you do not like. Organize the survivors into logical groups with clear names. A clean, curated library is far more useful than a cluttered one.
FAQ
Do presets work the same on every photo?
No. A preset applies the same settings, but those settings interact differently with different images depending on the original exposure, lighting, color palette, and white balance. A preset that makes a golden-hour landscape look stunning might make an overcast forest scene look terrible. This is why refining after applying a preset is always necessary. The preset gets you to a starting point, not a destination.
Are expensive presets worth the money?
It depends entirely on the quality and your needs. Some premium presets are carefully crafted by experienced photographers and offer genuinely useful, well-designed starting points. Others are overpriced collections of basic adjustments you could create yourself in five minutes. Before buying, look for sample images edited with the presets, check reviews from other photographers, and consider whether the style matches the type of photography you do. Start with free presets to learn what you like before investing money.
Can I use the same presets in Lightroom Classic and Lightroom (cloud version)?
Yes. Both versions use the same .xmp preset format and the same editing engine. A preset created in Lightroom Classic can be imported into the cloud version and vice versa. Older .lrtemplate files from much earlier Lightroom Classic versions may need to be converted, which Lightroom Classic handles automatically when you import them. The converted .xmp files then work in both applications.
How many presets should I have?
There is no right number, but most working photographers actively use somewhere between 10 and 30 presets. If you find yourself scrolling endlessly through presets trying to find the right one, you have too many. If you are constantly creating the same adjustments from scratch because no preset matches, you need to create more. The goal is a lean library where every preset earns its place through regular use.
Can presets be applied to video in Lightroom?
Lightroom has limited video support. In Lightroom Classic, you can apply Quick Develop adjustments and some presets to video clips, but the full Develop module is not available for video. The cloud-based Lightroom has similar limitations. If you need serious video color grading, a dedicated video editing application will serve you much better. However, for quick adjustments to video clips, presets can provide a basic level of color consistency.
Will presets created today still work in future Lightroom versions?
Adobe has maintained strong backward compatibility with presets. Presets created in older versions continue to work in newer versions, though they may need to be converted to the current format (Lightroom handles this automatically). Presets based on fundamental editing tools like the tone curve, HSL, and basic adjustments are especially stable because these tools rarely change. Presets that rely on newer features like adaptive AI masks will only work in versions that support those features.
Making Presets Part of Your Creative Growth
Presets are not a shortcut around learning to edit. They are a tool that becomes more powerful as your editing knowledge grows. A beginner using presets learns what different slider combinations look like and starts to develop preferences. An intermediate photographer uses presets to maintain consistency and speed up batch editing. An advanced photographer creates presets that precisely encode their creative vision and evolve alongside their style.
The best approach is to invest time in both. Learn the fundamentals of photo editing: understand what the histogram tells you, learn how the tone curve works, and develop your eye for color. Simultaneously, build and refine your preset library. These two efforts reinforce each other. Understanding the underlying tools makes you a better preset creator, and using presets exposes you to editing combinations you might not have tried otherwise.
Whether you create all your own presets, curate a collection from other sources, or mix both approaches, the goal is the same: spend less time recreating the same adjustments and more time on the creative decisions that make each individual photo its best. That is what a good preset library delivers.
On a phone, the preset workflow has its own quirks: DNG-import distribution, cross-app incompatibility, and screen-only previews. See our mobile presets guide.