How to Create Your Own Lightroom Presets
Whether you’re a seasoned Adobe Lightroom user or just starting out, knowing how to use and save presets has the capability to make your workflow much smoother!
Before we dive into the step-by-step process behind creating your own Lightroom presets, we must answer the essential questions; “What is Lightroom? What is a Lightroom preset? And how can either help me?”
Lightroom is a photo editing software available for both desktop and mobile. It is simple to use once you know how to navigate each tool, and is a great way to make your photos look more professional!
In Lightroom you can create your own filters — these are called presets. A preset is, essentially, a bundle of saved photo editing settings that can easily create a uniform look across all of your photos, as well as speed up the editing process.
Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s dive into how to make your own for both desktop and mobile!
Step 1: Determine What Editing Styles you Like and What Kind of Preset to Create!
When you’re on social media, do you typically gravitate toward the feeds that are dark and moody? Light and airy? Warm or cold? Vintage or modern? Black and white or colorful? Or perhaps, you have your own colors and theme already decided for your brand’s social presence! Regardless, there is a way to develop whichever look you’re going for in a preset – this is your starting point!
Every day you should be sharing some type of content with your audience. In general, we suggest posting only one post per day to your Instagram feed. Why? Anything more than at most two posts per day will start to bombard your followers.
In addition, your daily posts will be in competition with each other. It’s better to draw all of the attention you can to one post than pull attention away from it with another.
If you want to share more, show up on Instagram Stories! This is a great way to share content in a more free-flowing way. Bonus: Instagram Stories are a great way to increase engagement with your followers — especially if you use fun features like polls, quizzes, and question boxes.
Step 2: Edit a Photo
The next step after determining your preferred style is to begin editing your photos! Import your photos into Lightroom and begin exploring all of the different tools Lightroom has to offer. Edit all of these controls in detail view on the right side of your screen using the Profile, Light, Color, Effects, Detail, Optics, and Geometry panels.
Explore the following settings under each control:
– Basic settings: Exposure, contrast, shadows, highlights, etc.
– Tone curve: Adjust how the light looks!
– Color: Hue, saturation, luminance.
– Split toning: Incorporate different color tones into the highlights or shadows in a photo!
– Effects: This includes settings to adjust grain, add a vignette look, etc.
– Camera calibration: Adjust the optics or geometry of the photo!
#Protip: Presets are not always a one-size-fits-all solution for every photo — the settings you choose may look different on one image versus the next! Adjusting a few of the basic settings within the preset to make an individual photo look its best will be the best approach!
Step 3: Create Your Preset!
Once you’ve explored your editing process and feel you’ve come up with the perfect mixture of settings, it’s time to save your adjustments and create your first preset! Here’s how:
Select the photo that has your desired preset settings.
Click on the three dots in the top right-hand section of the Presets Panel.
Select the ‘Create Preset’ option.
Choose a preset name. This could be your brand’s name or something specific to the preset, i.e “Warm” or “Grainy” to help you remember what type of preset it is.
Click save! From there, you can access it in the User Presets area!
Voila! You’re ready to use your brand new preset for your photos! Let’s test it out. Open a new picture you want to edit, apply the preset, and adjust accordingly!
Use on the Lightroom Mobile App!
If you developed your preset on desktop, you can easily log in to your account on the mobile app, and the preset you’ve created will be available to use there as well! If you are only using the mobile app, follow the above instructions but use the mobile app instead!
It may take a while to develop your skills in Adobe Lightroom and create the perfect presets for your brand or client, but once you do, it can be a handy and effective tool for your photo editing workflow!
Happy creating! We can’t wait to see what you come up with!