How to Create and Import Presets in Adobe Lightroom

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Adobe Lightroom is an extremely powerful software tool for serious photographers. From their webpage:

Lightroom 5 makes digital photography easier, faster, and more amazing. Experiment without limits in a nondestructive editing environment. Perfect your shots with advanced controls for tone, contrast, color, and more. Efficiently organize all your photos and share them almost anywhere.

One of my favorite things about Lightroom is the ability to save adjustments that you make to your images as presets. These presets can be exported and shared. Over time you end up building a collection of Lightroom presets and it can really speed up your workflow. I have different presets that I like to use as a starting point when editing portraits, landscapes, and products. Most of the time I find that an image still needs some adjustment after you apply a preset, but they can definitely save you time when you find yourself making similar adjustments on a regular basis.

Creating Presets in Adobe Lightroom

To create a preset, simply start editing a photo in the develop tab of Lightroom. Make all the adjustments you want to be part of the preset. Then just click the “+” icon on the right side of the Presets drop-down panel that’s located on the left side of the interface.

You will then be presented with a dialog box where you can name your preset, select which folder to put it in, and select or deselect which attributes you want to be saved in the preset.

Make your selections and then hit “Create.” That’s it! You can now easily apply your new preset to any image in  your library. You can right click on your preset to export and share it.

Importing Presets in Adobe Lightroom

The internet is full of Adobe Lightroom presets that other photographers have created and made available. I’m even sharing my own collection of 100 Free Adobe Lightroom Presets right here.

To import a preset:

1. Presets are usually downloaded as a zip archive. Unzip the archive into a folder on your computer.

2. I like to create a folder for custom or downloaded presets to keep thinks organized. Right click anywhere inside the Presets panel and select “New Folder.”

3. Give your folder a descriptive name and then right click on the folder and select “Import…”

4. Navigate to the folder where you unzipped your presets and use shift + click to select them all.

5. Click import.

Your presets will load into the folder you created and will be available to apply to any image in your library.