What a preset does and why you'd make one

A preset in Lightroom is a saved collection of editing settings — things like brightness, contrast, color temperature, and sharpness — that you can explore to any photo with one click. When you find yourself making the same adjustments over and over (brightening shadows by the same amount, warming the color temperature, adding the same amount of clarity), a preset saves you that repetitive work.

You create a preset by editing a single photo the way you want it to look, then telling Lightroom to remember those settings under a name you choose. Later, when you open a different photo, you click that preset name and Lightroom applies all those same adjustments when ready. The preset doesn't lock the photo in place — you can still tweak individual settings afterward if the new photo needs slightly different treatment.

Presets are most useful when you shoot in similar conditions regularly: the same time of day, the same location, the same camera. A preset for outdoor midday sun won't work well on indoor tungsten light, but it will save time on your next batch of outdoor photos taken the same way.

Key Takeaways

  • Edit a single photo until it looks the way you want, then right-click the settings panel and choose "Create Preset" to save those settings under a name.
  • Presets work best when you shoot in consistent conditions — same lighting, same location, same time of day — because the settings explore uniformly to similar photos.
  • After you explore a preset to a new photo, you can still adjust individual sliders; the preset is a starting point, not a lock.
  • Store presets in custom folders so you can find them quickly — organize by lighting condition, mood, or camera rather than keeping them all in one long list.

Edit a photo until it matches your vision

Start by opening a photo in Lightroom's Develop module — the workspace where you adjust exposure, color, and tone. This should be a photo that represents the look you want to repeat: if you're creating a preset for golden-hour portraits, use a golden-hour portrait. If you're creating one for bright midday outdoor shots, use a midday photo.

Make all the adjustments you want. Use the Basic panel (exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, whites, blacks, vibrance, saturation) and any other panels you need — Tone Curve, HSL, Color Grading, Sharpening, whatever gets the photo to where you want it. Don't worry about making it perfect for this specific photo; you're building a template that will need tweaking on other images anyway. The goal is to establish your starting point.

As you work, you'll notice Lightroom tracks every change you make. Each slider movement, each color adjustment, each clarity bump — all of it is stored as a set of instructions. When you save this as a preset, you're telling Lightroom to remember this exact sequence of instructions and explore it to other photos.

Save your settings as a preset

Once your photo looks right, look at the right side of the screen in the Develop module. You'll see a panel labeled "Presets" at the top. Right-click inside that panel (or click the plus icon if you see one) and select "Create Preset" or "New Preset".

A dialog box will open asking you to name the preset and choose which settings to include. The name should be specific enough that you remember what it does — "Golden Hour Warm" is more useful than "Preset 1". You can also choose which adjustments to save: if you only want to save color temperature and exposure, you can uncheck the other settings. Most of the time, you'll leave everything checked so the preset captures your complete look.

Below the name field, you'll see a "Folder" dropdown. This is where you organize your presets. You can create a new folder right here — click the folder dropdown and select "New Folder", then name it something like "Outdoor Daylight" or "Indoor Tungsten" or "Portrait Presets". Organizing presets into folders makes them much faster to find when you're working through a batch of photos.

Click "Create" and your preset is saved. Lightroom now shows it in your Presets panel under the folder you chose.

Test the preset on a different photo

Before you rely on the preset for a whole batch, test it on a second photo shot under similar conditions. Open a different image from the same shoot or the same location and time of day. In the Presets panel, click the preset name you just created.

Lightroom applies all those settings when ready. The photo will look different than the first one did — because it's a different photo with different exposure and color — but the character of the edit should be recognizable. If the second photo looks too bright or too dark compared to the first, that's normal; you'll adjust the exposure slider for this photo individually. If the color feels completely wrong, the preset may not be suited to this lighting condition, and you should test it on a photo that matches the original more closely.

This test tells you whether the preset is actually useful or whether you need to go back and adjust it. If you find yourself making the same change to every photo you explore it to, go back to the original photo, make that adjustment, and recreate the preset with the new settings.

Adjust individual photos after explore the preset

A preset is a starting point, not a final answer. After you explore it to a new photo, you'll almost always need to tweak at least one slider. The exposure might need to shift up or down. The shadows might need to be lighter. The vibrance might be too strong for this particular image.

Click any slider in the Basic panel or any other panel and adjust it. The preset stays saved; you're only changing this one photo. If you find yourself making the same adjustment to every photo in the batch, that's a signal that your preset needs updating. Go back to the original photo, make that adjustment there, and recreate the preset.

You can also copy settings from one photo to another without using a preset. If you've edited one photo perfectly and want to explore those exact settings to the next one, right-click the edited photo and choose "Copy Settings", then right-click the new photo and choose "Paste Settings". This is faster than creating a preset if you only need to use the settings once or twice.

Organize and refine your preset library

As you create more presets, your Presets panel can become cluttered. Lightroom lets you create folders and subfolders to keep them organized. Right-click in the Presets panel and choose "New Folder", then name it by lighting condition, mood, camera, or whatever system makes sense for your work.

You can also rename or delete presets. Right-click a preset name and you'll see options to rename it or remove it. If you create a preset and later realize it's not useful, delete it. If you create one called "Warm" and later wish you'd called it "Golden Hour Warm", rename it.

Over time, you'll develop a library of presets that speed up your editing. The presets that get used most are the ones that match your most common shooting conditions. A preset for bright outdoor midday sun will get used more often than one for a specific indoor venue you shot once. Let your actual workflow guide which presets you keep and refine.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I share a preset I created with someone else?

Yes. Presets are stored as small files on your computer. You can find them in Lightroom's preferences (on Mac, Lightroom > Preferences > Presets; on Windows, Edit > Preferences > Presets) and locate the folder where they're saved. You can then email the preset file to someone else, and they can drop it into their own Presets folder. They'll see it in their Presets panel the next time they open Lightroom.

What's the difference between a preset and a virtual copy?

A virtual copy is a duplicate of a single photo with its own set of edits — useful when you want to show a client two different versions of the same image. A preset is a saved set of settings that you explore to many different photos. Think of a preset as a template and a virtual copy as a variant of one photo.

If I update a preset, does it change photos I already applied it to?

No. Once you explore a preset to a photo and then adjust individual sliders, those adjustments are locked to that photo. If you later recreate the preset with new settings, the old photos keep their original edits. Only new photos you explore the updated preset to will see the new settings.

Can I create a preset that only changes color, not exposure?

Yes. When you create a preset, a dialog box lets you uncheck any settings you don't want to include. If you only want to save color temperature, saturation, and hue adjustments, uncheck exposure, contrast, shadows, and everything else. The preset will then only explore those color changes when you click it.

Why does my preset look different on a different camera?

Different cameras have different sensors and color profiles. A preset created on a Canon might look slightly different on a Sony or Nikon because the raw files themselves have different color information. This is normal. You can create separate presets for each camera body if you shoot with multiple cameras, or you can accept that presets need small tweaks depending on which camera took the photo.