How to Use Lightroom Presets: Everything to Know
Having great brand photography is critical, no matter the business you’re in. Whether you’re selling products or providing services, your brand photography can help sell you and your business itself. But editing photos can be tricky if you’re not used to it and time-intensive even if you are. If you feel like your editing skills aren’t up to par or that you just really don’t have the time to put into editing each photo individually, Lightroom presets might be just the hack you need in your life.
Lightroom presets can help you make each of your photos look more professionally edited without having to become an editing expert. They’re great for social media managers, founders, content creators, and more—even professional photographers can get some use out of them. Here, we’re sharing more about what Lightroom presets are, how they work, and where you can find them.
What Are Lightroom Presets?
First things first: what even are Lightroom presets? The term “Lightroom presets” refers to the Adobe program Lightroom, a photo editing tool. With presets, your preferred editing settings are pre-saved in Adobe Lightroom, making it quick and easy for you to edit your photos in just one click.
Lightroom presets can set the exposure, contrast, color balance, and other photo editing settings that you may otherwise need to adjust by hand. They’re great for giving your photos a cohesive look and aesthetic, which is exactly what you want when you’re working with professional photos, and an easy way to take your photo editing skills to the next level. You can get presets for both Lightroom & Photoshop, making editing easier than ever.
The Benefits to Using Lightroom Presets
Lightroom presets can be a hugely helpful tool for photo pros and overstretched business owners alike. Here’s how they can help you:
They can save you time
Manually editing every photo you take can eat up an awful lot of time, even if you know exactly what you’re doing. Lightroom presets make the editing process simple, letting you adjust the settings you need to adjust in no time at all. When you’re batch editing, you’ll appreciate presets even more. You’ll have a full gallery or plenty of social content that’s perfectly edited in just a few minutes.
They keep things consistent
If you’re editing photos for a brand, you want to make sure that the overall look of each photo is generally the same. Consistency is key. Lightroom presets are the best way to make photos consistent and take the guesswork out of your tiny setting adjustments, making sure you have a social media feed or website that looks professional.
They can inspire you
While it might seem that presets will take the creativity and inspiration out of editing, they can actually help you figure out how to branch out and give your photos a brand-new look. They're such a versatile tool! You’re starting from settings you already know you like, so it’s low-risk to make further adjustments and try new things that could give your photos a slightly different look and feel.
They’re easy to use
You don’t have to be a photo editing pro to use presets to get gorgeously edited photos, but professionals can definitely put them to work for them as well. Beginners will love how easy presets make editing as they learn new skills and experts can use them as a baseline for further experimentation.
How to Use Presets in Lightroom
Now that you know why you should use Lightroom presets, it’s time to learn a bit more about how you can make them work for you. Here’s a step-by-step guide:
Upload Your Presets: After you download your presets, you’ll need to install them in Lightroom. Import the preset files into Lightroom and they’ll be ready to use. Preset files are usually .xmp or .lrtemplate files. Some Lightroom presets are available for free, while others are paid resources.
Put the Presets to Use: When you’re ready to edit your photos with your presets, select your photo, click on the preset you want to use, and watch it apply to the photo. Once you’ve used the preset to get you most of the way there, you can make any minor adjustments to individual settings like brightness or saturation.
Edit Batches of Photos At Once: Want to give all of your photos the same look in just seconds? Choose the photos you want to edit, apply the preset, and you’re ready to put your edited photos to use. Because Lightroom lets you synchronize your editing, all of your photos can have the same cohesive look without hours spent tweaking settings.
Where to Find the Best Lightroom Presets
There are so many places to find preset packs. Here are a few of our favorites:
Etsy: You can find so many different preset options on Etsy, many for a super reasonable price.
Creative Market: Creative Market presets are professionally created and super high-quality.
The Marketing Greenhouse: That’s right - we offer our own Lightroom presets. Our presets are great for professional-quality lifestyle images.
Free Resources: Lots of people offer free or very low-cost Lightroom presets, which is great if you’re not exactly sure how you want your brand photos to look. You can try a variety of options before taking the plunge with the ones you like best.
How to Make Your Own Presets in Lightroom
Now that you understand how useful presets can be, you may be interested in creating your own. Whether you’re not able to find the presets that match the style you’re looking for or you just want to give it a try, creating your own Lightroom presets is easy. Once you’ve edited a photo, save the settings as a new preset in Lightroom. Then, you’ll be able to use those settings over and over again to make your future photos look as great as this one.
FAQS
-
You definitely can! Free presets generally won’t be quite as advanced as the paid options, however, so if you’re looking for something more specific, you may need to purchase them.
-
Yes they do! Your Lightroom presets work on your phone as well, so you can quickly edit no matter where you are.
-
You’ll get the best results when editing using presets if the raw images are well lit and composed. If needed, you can start with the preset settings and then make some adjustments until you get the look you’re after.
Lightroom presets are such a helpful tool when you’re editing photos, no matter how experienced you are with photo editing. Save time, keep the style cohesive, and take creative risks with either free or paid Lightroom presets.