What Are Lightroom Presets? (+ 10 Useful Examples)
If you’re looking for a shortcut to help speed up your photo editing workflows, Adobe Lightroom presets could be the answer. We’re covering what a Lightroom preset is, how they work, and featuring some of our favorite examples!
Adobe Lightroom Presets can help you perform certain effects and edits with one click. It can be a great way to apply the same edits repeatedly and save time with mundane editing tasks.
Here’s everything you need to know about Lightroom presets work with some cool examples you can download and use.
19+ Million Lightroom Presets, Add-Ons, Actions + More
Download thousands of Lightroom presets, Photoshop actions, and thousands of design assets with an Envato membership. It starts at $16 per month, and gives you unlimited access to a growing library of over 19+ million presets, add-ons, templates, fonts, photos, graphics, and more.
What Are Lightroom Presets?
The easiest way to describe a Lightroom preset is as a saved combination of sliders to get the desired photo effect. Once the sliders are set in the way you like, they can be saved for later use so you can reuse them on other images. (Hence the term “preset.”)
You might use a preset for a number of different reasons:
- To speed up batch editing
- To create a consistent visual theme for a project
- To simplify the editing process
- To customize the style of images
- To experiment with different looks for the same images
You can create your own Lightroom presets, share them with others, or download presets that create just the look you are going for.
How to Download Lightroom Presets
Downloading and using Adobe Lightroom presets is pretty easy. Most presets work with just one click, making the hardest part finding the one you actually want to download and use.
This is a great way to get more comfortable with editing tools in Lightroom as well. If you are a beginner, using presets can help you learn the software and how the tools work.
Here’s how you download lightroom presets:
- Find a preset you want to use online (we suggest browsing Envato Elements)
- Click the download button and save the file somewhere easy to find on your computer
- Unzip the file
- Presets often end with the file extension .lrtemplate (and many downloads will include multiple presets)
- Open Adobe Lightroom
- Navigate to the Presets tab in the left sidebar
- Click +
- Click Import Preset
- Navigate to where you saved the downloaded presets and import
- Presets will now appear in the tab and are ready for use
Where Are Lightroom Presets Stored?
To keep files organized, you may want to save downloaded Lightroom presets in a common location. The best location is where presets get saved by default.
While locations can vary somewhat by software and OS version, the path is similar. Here how you find it with Lightroom CC and the most common operating systems.
- Mac OS: /Users/[your-user-name]/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom/Develop Presets
- Windows 10/8/7: C:\Users\[your-user-name]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom\Develop Presets
5 Lightroom Presets We Love
All of the presets featured in this post are from Envato Elements. Here are five more that we love, and think you will, too.
Blue Lights
Add a natural blue tone to images to enhance the quality of natural light. Great for use with portraits or landscapes.
Monochromatic Vol. 1
This set of presets helps you create a cool monotone palette with plenty of different styles for the perfect black and white photo.
Sunny Landscape
Sunny Landscape includes plenty of presets to help you make the most of outdoor photos.
Selfie Filters
This Lightroom preset is packed with filters that will make your selfies look amazing. Use it to get just the right style before you post images online.
HDR Studio Vol. 1
Amp up images with this preset that reproduces a dynamic range of luminosity with stunning results.
Conclusion
Adobe Lightroom presets are one of those tools that once you learn to use, you won’t know how you ever worked without them. Presets can save time, help you create amazing projects, speed up photo and design workflows, and even improve your editing skills.
Lightroom presets can save you time and help create stunning images. Even for beginners, this is a great tool. For more advanced photo editors, finding new presets can mix up a stale project or workflow.
With so many options available – many at low- or no-cost – it’s worth giving Lightroom presets a try.