Of the plethora of cool shizzle available to us in Adobe Lightroom, nothing speeds up your editing workflow like Presets! In this short article, i’ll show you how to find, manage and add to your Lightroom Presets collection.

What are Lightroom Presets?

Put simply; a preset in Adobe Lightroom is a small file which contains a bunch of edit settings. Select a preset, and the settings from within that preset file are applied to your image.



Photographers whether beginner or pro, use presets regularly. Making images look like they were shot on film, or changing them to black and white, or maybe a matte look. The possibilities with presets are almost endless. If you can produce an edit which gives similar results across a wide variety of images, then you can even save these settings to create your own presets.

Where do i find my Presets Located in Lightroom?

Enter the Develop module (Keyboard shortcut ‘D’), and you’ll see your Presets located in the left Panel.

Click the Presets tab to open the list of available Presets.

Hover your mouse pointed over a preset - you’ll see your image with the preset changes previewed. To select the preset, simply click.

How to Add Presets

If you’ve purchased some of my presets, you need to locate the download folder containing the presets, and unzip it’s contents. 

You can move the unzipped folder containing the .xmp preset files to any location on your computer: they don’t have to be directly stored within the Lightroom system folder.

From the Develop module, click the + sign on the Presets tab located in the left panel.

From the dropdown menu you can Create, Import or Manage your preset collection.

When selecting Import, you’ll be able to then navigate to the folder containing your downloaded .xmp files. 

After importing presets, it’s always a good idea to quit and re-open Lightroom, so that the new presets can be stored to Lightrooms library cache.

Once re-opened, your new presets will be lister und ‘User Presets’ in the left panel of the Develop module.

Selecting ‘Manage Presets’ will open up the preset folder within the Adobe system folder. Here you can move delete and add preset .xmp files.

Adding Presets in Adobe Lightroom CC

If you’re using the cloud version of Adobe Lightroom CC, then you’ll be pleased to hear that you can also import present. And what’s more, the presets you import will also be available to you when using Adobe Lightroom CC Mobile.

To Import presets in Lightroom CC; enter the Develop module, and at the bottom of the right adjustments panel you will find a button labelled ‘Presets’. Clicking this button will open up the presets panel. Simply click the three-points menu button, and select import presets.

Managing presets in Lightroom CC is the same as in Lightroom CC Classic. You can add, move or delete preset .xmp files as desired.

BOOM! It’s as easy as that! Don’t forget to check out my Lightroom presets by clicking here!