Lightroom preset: with one click, you can apply your favorite styles to any image. In this article we look at how to create a Lightroom preset and then showcase some of the web's best free preset offerings.
How to Use Lightroom Presets
As Lightroom's popularity has increased, so has the quality of presets to modify and enhance images. Because Lightroom is a "non-destructive" image editor, we can easily try out all types of presets and not change the original image file. This makes it easier than ever to experiment with applying effects to your photos.
If you're new to Adobe Lightroom Presets, watch this quick tutorial about how to use Lightroom presets.
Top Lightroom Presets on Envato Elements
If you want professional-level presets, Envato Elements has popular, affordable Lightroom preset packs in every style. There are preset packs for everything from wedding Lightroom presets to Lightroom film presets.
And you can now take advantage of a free month of unlimited downloads when you sign up using this special link. Download Lightroom presets, Photoshop actions, stock photos, video footage, and much more. It's everything you need to take your photography to the next level—completely free.
Top Lightroom Presets From Envato Elements
Here are just a handful of the Adobe Lightroom Presets available from Envato Elements.
1. Lightroom Presets For Portraits
If you're a portrait photographer, you've got to have the best Lightroom presets for portraits in your toolkit. And this Lightroom presets pack is a great option. The Essential Beauty Portrait Collection includes 14 unique effects that add color and depth to your portraits. Don't hesitate to try these non-destructive Lightroom presets for portraits.
2. 100 Lightroom Film Presets
This film presets pack is one of the most complete sets we've seen to give your photos a film look in a few clicks. This Lightroom preset bundle includes 100 desktop presets, 100 mobile presets, 100 Adobe Camera Raw presets and 100 universal LUTs.
3. 50 Light and Airy Lightroom Presets and LUTs
The light and airy Lightroom presets bundle is ideal for portrait, wedding and travel photography. You'll get 50 mobile presets, 50 classic Lightroom presets, 50 Adobe Camera Raw presets and Light and Airy LUTs.
4. 50 Premium Food Photography Lightroom Presets
This is a comprehensive suite of Lightroom presets that will give your food photos a professional, faded, and stylish finish. This food collection is a must-have for food photographers, wedding photographers, and food bloggers. With this collection, you will be able to quickly and easily add a professional finish to your food images.
5. Night Sky Lightroom Presets
Night Sky Lightroom Presets includes 11 unique presets that are ideal for processing the Milky Way and other starry photos.
6. Winterchrome Lightroom Presets
Add a winter holiday feel to your photography with this set of family, lifestyle and portrait presets for Lightroom. Beautiful skin-tones, warm and cold variations, and a special analog touch will make your images stand out!
7. Light Leaks Vol. 2: 20 Lightroom Presets
This is a set of presets for Adobe Lightroom that helps photographers to easily add a particular light effect typical of some vintage photos. All of the presets have been lovingly researched to ensure your photos look instantly amazing. They are all 100% non-destructive and work on photos with any style of lighting.
8. Monocrom Lightroom Black and White Presets
This Lightroom black and white presets package contains 16 premium effects that are perfect for photographers and graphic designers. They have all been created with precise calibration adjustments to bring your images to life using powerful tools and professional methods.
9. Editorial / Magazine Lightroom Presets
Editorial photography often has that high key, bright style to make it stand out. This package of presets helps you recreate that style. Add those presets to bring a publication-ready style to your images.
10. Night Photo Lightroom Presets
Ever spend a night out capturing photos as blurry as your memories? These photos capture the spirit of night photography perfectly. Use the 20 styles for your late-night photography escapades.
11. Manhattan Mobile & Desktop Lightroom Presets
As the preview images show, the focus of the Manhattan Lightroom preset pack is modern and fashionable styles. These would feel right at home on any of the most popular Instagram accounts. Use them for a fresh and modern photo look.
12. PRO Lightroom Landscape Presets
For photographers, half the fun of travel is capturing images on the trip. There's a certain style that brings travel photography to life, and these Lightroom landscape presets have that style. Use them to rapidly edit the countless images you shoot.
How to Install Lightroom Presets
If you've downloaded other presets, you will need to install them in Lightroom in order to use them. Here, you'll see how to install Lightroom presets. Often times, presets will come in packs in zip archives. The first step will be to extract the zip files to a folder on your computer.
Keep Your Presets Organized
After extracting the presets, the first thing that I like to do is right-click in the Preset panel and create a new folder for my downloaded presets. I like putting all of my custom presets in their own folder to keep things organized.
After we've created your folder for presets, all that we need to do is right-click the folder you created and then choose Import.
A window will pop up to allow us to browse to the folder with the presets we downloaded. Point it to the folder of you want to install, and then select the presets to add to Lightroom. You can select multiple presets by holding shift and clicking to select a range of presets.
Click Import to confirm and that's all that there is to it! Your downloaded presets are now ready to use.
How to Make a Preset in Lightroom
Don't worry if you don't know how to make a preset in Lightroom. Creating presets in Lightroom is a breeze! It takes just a few steps to create your own custom preset. The first step is to enter the Develop module by pressing "D" on the keyboard, or by clicking on Develop at top right.
Make Changes and Adjustments
Next, use the settings on the panel on the right to apply some settings to an image. You can tweak exposure, adjust curves and black levels, and even apply custom color effects. Additional options such as lens corrections are also available.
Develop options include all of the image tweaks you'll need to adjust your images to perfection.
Now that you have applied some settings to the image, you've laid the groundwork laid to create a preset with. Any settings applied to the image are now slated to be added to the preset.
Save Your Preset
On the left side, you'll see the panel that features presets. To create a new preset, all that you need to do is press the "+" button. Now, a new window appears that allows us to customize the settings to include in the preset. Each portion of the effects we applied can be either checked or unchecked to include within the preset.
After you press the "+", a list of options comes up. This window uses the settings you've applied to the active image as the basis for the new preset. Unchecking each individual option allows us to exclude that adjustment from the preset.
After choosing what parts of the edit that you want to include on the edit, make sure to give it a name and then press "Save." That's it! You now have presets, ready to apply to your images.
Settings like exposure, white balance, and noise reduction typically aren't included in presets; it's better to adjust these on a case-by-case basis.
Top Free Lightroom Presets
Not ready to pay for premium Adobe Lightroom presets? Check out the Lightroom presets free downloads from around the web.
1) WhiteSnow Free Lightroom Presets
2) Cross Processed Look
3) Trey Ratcliff's Lightroom Presets (pack of 7)
Email address required.
4) Color Cream Wash Free Lightroom Presets
Email address required. Included in pack of 5.
5) Float
6) Nicolesy Matte Free Lightroom Presets
Email address required.
7) Cinema Stock 1
8) Soft Pastel
9) Guava Jelly
Email address required.
10) TVK Free Lightroom Presets
11) Grainy Matte
12) Touch of Drama
Email address required. Included in pack of 5.
13) Drama Queen
14) Chic Vixen Free Lightroom Presets
15) BeArt HDR
Email address required. Included in pack of 20.
16) Vintage HDR
17) Favorite Film Free Lightroom Presets
18) Binnian
Requires email address.
19) Vintage Free Lightroom Presets
20) Cherry Blossom
Email address required.
21) Autumn Road
Facebook page like required.
22) Romantic Matte Free Lightroom Presets
Email address required. Included in pack of 20.
23) Soft Blue
24) Film-Inspired Preset
25) BeArt Kodak Free Lightroom Presets
Email address required. Included in pack of 20.
26) Free HDR III
27) Turquoise
28) B&W Romance
Included in pack of 5.
29) Film Landscape
30) Vintage Eye Candy
31) Silver Lining
Included in pack of 5.
32) Pink Velvet
33) BeArt Green Film Free Lightroom Presets
Email address required. Included in pack of 20.
34) Old Brownie
35) Vibrant Color
36) Boost
37) Summertime - HDR Time
Email address required. Included in pack of 12.
38) Soft Enhance
39) Zen Portrait Free Lightroom Presets
Email address required.
40) Somber HDR
Email address required. Included in pack of 20.
41) Fuji Film Portrait Style
42) Rustic Vintage
43) BeArt High Contrast
Email address required. Included in pack of 20.
44) Soft Matte
45) Pastel Haze Free Lightroom Presets
46) Shadow Crusher
47) Realistic HDR
48) Iceland Winter Edition
Pack of 10. Email address required.
49) Film Portrait
50) Soft Dreams
Email address required. Included in pack of 12.
51) Silky SnowOverlay
Email address required.
52) Vintage Landscapes
Pack of 10. Email address required.
53) Sweet Tea
Email address required.
54) Color Love Free Lightroom Presets
55) BeArt Old Cinema
Email address required. Included in pack of 20.
56) Graphic Tee
57) BeArt Dominic
Email address required. Included in pack of 20.
58) High Contrast B&W
59) Tempo Free Lightroom Presets
Email address required. Included in pack of 12.
60) Forest Colors
Pack of 10. Email address required.
61) Detailed Matte
62) Soft Newborn Free Lightroom Presets
63) BeArt BW Film
64) Warm B&W
65) Milky
66) Elegant Fade
67) August Sunset
68) Warmth Right Free Lightroom Presets
Email address required. Included in pack of 20.
69) Butterflies
Email address required. Included in pack of 12.
70) Zen Film 1
71) Beach Vintage
Included in pack of 4.
72) Clean Face Free Lightroom Presets
73) Sun Glare
Included in pack of 4.
74) Marshmallow Softness - Original
Included in pack of 4.
75) Instant Hipster - Amaro
Included in free pack of 6; download link is in sidebar.
76) Underwater Moments
77) Moody Free Lightroom Presets
Download link is in the sidebar.
78) Pop Portrait
79) Instant Hipster - Nashville
Included in free pack of 6; download link is in sidebar.
80) PG Vintage Free Lightroom Presets
81) Soft Wash
Email address required. Included in pack of 20.
82) Vintage Garden
83) Gobustan
Download link in the sidebar.
84) Amroco Free Lightroom Presets
85) Cheap B&W Film
86) Summer Memories
Email address required. Included in pack of 12.
87) Blue Enhance
88) Free Dragan Style Preset
Download link is in the description.
89) Wet Plate Chocolate Shadows
Email address required. Included in pack of 5.
90) Matte Film
Pack of 2. Download link is in the sidebar.
91) Marshmallow Softness - Vivid
Pack of 4. Download link is in the sidebar.
92) Zen Film B&W
93) Mysterious Preset
94) Horns Free Lightroom Presets
Download link is in the sidebar.
95) Light Leak
Download link is in the sidebar.
96) Purple Nature
97) Instant Hipster - Inkwell
Pack of 4. Download link is in the sidebar.
98) Junior Preset
Download link is in the sidebar.
99) Sepia Vintage
100) Instant B&W
Improve You Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Skills
If you're interested in Lightroom presets, these tutorials will feed your preset habit:
- Many of the presets in this tutorial are stylistic presets that style the entire image. Check out my tutorial on Toolkit presets to learn about presets that speed up your workflow.
- Harry Guinness has a great tutorial, "In Defence of Presets" where he shares his own reasons for using presets.
- Learn how to make Creative Color Adjustments in Adobe Lightroom, and then save them as presets.
How to Create Toolkit Presets in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
In Defence of Presets: 5 Reasons to Automate Your Post-Production Workflow
How to Make Creative Color Adjustments in Adobe Lightroom
How to Split-Tone Process Black and White Photos in Adobe Lightroom
What are your favorite Lightroom presets? Let me know in the comments.
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