100 Free Lightroom Presets (And How to Make Your Own)

Lightroom presets are like magic: with one click, you can apply your favorite styles to any image. In this article, we are going to look at how to create a Lightroom preset and then sample some of the web's best free preset offerings.

As Lightroom's popularity has increased, so too 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 images.

How to Make Your Own Lightroom Presets

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.

Lightrooms Develop module — Develop options include all of the image tweaks you'll need to adjust your images to perfection.

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.

New preset dialog box — Tick every setting you want to include in 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.

How to Install Lightroom Presets

If you've downloaded other presets, you will need to install them in Lightroom in order to use them. 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.

Import dialog box — After choosing to import images, point Lightroom to the folder with the presets you wish to

Click Import to confirm and that's all that there is to it! Your downloaded presets are now ready to use.

Premium Lightroom Presets

If you want professional level presets, Envato Elements has popular, affordable preset packs in every style. There are preset packs for everything from wedding photography presets to cinematic film style presets.

Here are just a handful of the Lightroom Presets available for sale on our digital marketplace:

1. 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.

2. Night Sky Lightroom Presets

Night Sky Lightroom Presets includes 11 unique presets that are ideal for processing the Milky Way and other starry photos.

Presets included:

“Baseline” for an excellent starting point when processing night sky photos.
“Boost Shadows” can help recover foreground areas in your night photos.
“Cool a Warm Milky Way” will apply cooler tones to your scene.
“High Contrast” is perfect for creating a dramatic photo with lots of pop.
“Raise Highlights” is great for making the Milky Way pop in darker photos.
“Reduce Light Pollution” will help reduce pollution from lights in your photo.
“Sharp Black and White” creates a dramatic scene with pinpoint stars.
“Smooth Dream” gives a wispy, ethereal look to your photo.
“Vibrant Milky Way” creates punchy colors that really stand out.
“Warm a Cold Milky Way” will apply warmer tones to your scene.
“Washed Out” creates an aged, antique look.

3. 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!

4. 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.

5. Monocrom B/W Lightroom Presets

This package contains 16 premium Lightroom 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.

If you aren't ready to pay for Lightroom presets, no problem; check out the free alternatives below.

100 Free Lightroom Presets

1) WhiteSnow

2) Cross Processed Look

3) Trey Ratcliff's Lightroom Presets (pack of 7)

Email address required.

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 this tutorial, you'll learn one of my favorite Lightroom workflow tips: mapping my most common adjustments to one click presets.

Andrew Childress
29 Dec 2016

Adobe Lightroom
In Defence of Presets: 5 Reasons to Automate Your Post-Production Workflow
Presets get a bad rap, but they should have a place in every digital photographer's workflow. In this tutorial I look at where those places are and identify...

Harry Guinness
27 Nov 2015

Presets
How to Make Creative Color Adjustments in Adobe Lightroom
Learn hue, saturation and luminance controls in Adobe Lightroom to build your own custom style.

Andrew Childress
13 Apr 2018

Adobe Lightroom
How to Split-Tone Process Black and White Photos in Adobe Lightroom
Split toning is the process of adding different colours to the shadows and the highlights of an image. In this screencast I'll show you how to use Lightroom...

Harry Guinness
30 Mar 2015

Photography

What are your favorite Lightroom presets? Let me know in the comments.