Lightroom presetsLightroom presets can be used to help speed up your workflow. For those of you who aren’t familiar with presets this article will give you an overview of what they are and how to create them. A preset in Lightroom is basically just a pre-created list of actions to apply to an image. I think actions can be a great time saver but always advise people to use them with caution. Sometimes you can over apply an effect to your work that takes away from the original image so it’s always good to still take your time when doing post production and make sure the image really has the feel you are going for. I also use an action as a starting point and usually still fine tune the image from there.

Here are the steps to create your own presets:

  1. Choose an edited photo that you have already “stylized”.
  2. Go to Lightroom’s Develop Module
  3. On the left hand side of the screen look for the Presets menu. Lightroom comes with a set of presets for you to start with that will be titled “Lightroom Presets”
  4. Click the “+” button.
  5. A dialog box will pop up, asking you to pick the settings you want to include in the action. Normally I check all of the boxes here.
  6. Name the preset (something you will remember like vintage sepia that describes the effect of the action)
  7. Choose the folder you want to save the preset in. Once you have a lot of presets it’s usually best to group them into different folders. To create a new folder just choose “Add new” at the top of the options in this drop down box.
  8. Click create and your done!

Now to use the action just click on the action name in your list and the photo you currently have up will have all the settings applied.

What’s your favorite actions you use? Any good free ones you have found or paid ones that are really worth it? Share with us by leaving a comment.

Also you can download some free lightroom presets from a collection we posted awhile back here: Free lightroom presets

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