Use Presets to change the look of your photo in an instant.

Introduction

You can think of Presets like applying a filter on a mobile app—but unlike filters, presets are editable. A preset is nothing more than a predetermined position of one or more of the control sliders, so you can always adjust them to fit your needs. To follow along with this tutorial, select the Open in Lightroom button on this page.

Use your own photo or one of ours.

Download sample files

Apply a preset

Click the Edit icon to go into the Edit panel, then click the three dots to disable single-panel mode. Next, open the Light, Color, and Effects panels. Then, click Presets. To review how a preset will look on the selected photo, hover over the preset without clicking.

Understanding editing sliders and panels

As you hover over presets, the sliders and panels change. When you hover over the Aged Photo preset in the Creative category, the Whites slider is set to positive 40, which brightens the highlights. The Blacks slider is set to negative 40 to darken the shadows. This creates contrast. In the Color panel, the vibrance and saturation sliders have both been reduced to desaturate the image and make it look older.

Modify a preset

Go to the Color category and select High Contrast & Detail. Next, we will modify this preset by dragging the Contrast slider to the left. You can also apply multiple presets. Go to the Grain category and select Light to add that additional preset. We’ll also add a vignette. Open the Vignette category. Select Heavy to add a strong vignette.

Create multiple versions of a photo

If you would like multiple versions of your photo with different presets, select Edit > Duplicate from the navigation bar. Then, click the filmstrip icon and select the copy on the far left of the filmstrip. Remove the presets we've applied by clicking the three dots and selecting Reset to Original. Apply a different preset and now we have the same photo with two different presets.