Professional Lightroom presets are the secret sauce to speed up your photo editing workflow. In this short guide, I will cover how to install Lightroom presets on your windows or mac computer.

Before we cover the installation process, it is important to mention that Adobe Lightroom currently has two different versions for desktop computers, which is slightly confusing. To make matters worse Adobe is constantly changing their naming for these products. Currently, as of 2020, Adobe names the two desktop versions as Lightroom Classic and Lightroom (previously Lightroom CC).

Lightroom Classic is the original software and also the most powerful for professional photographers. Lightroom is a stripped down version of the original Lightroom that is lighter and has been designed from the ground up to work on the cloud. To compare the main differences between these two versions, you can easily check Adobe's official comparison. This guide will cover how to install Lightroom presets on both versions.

How to Install Lightroom Presets on Lightroom Classic (version 7.3 or later)

The way to install Adobe Lightroom Presets on Lightroom Classic has changed over time. These instructions apply to version 7.3 and later, which have been available since mid 2018. The process is quite easy and straightforward.

1. Save your Presets to a Folder of your Choice. Usually Desktop Lightroom Presets are offered in ZIP file, so you will need to extract this file into a folder of your choice. 

2. Open your Lightroom Classic and go to the Develop Module. You can do this by using a shortcut D or by clicking on the Develop Module on the top right corner of your screen.

3. On the left side, you will see a section called Presets, where standard presets will show up.

4. Click on the icon + (see screenshot below).

5. Select Import Presets from the dropdown menu.

6. Go to the Folder you copied your Lightroom Presets files and select all the relevant files.

7. Voila, your presets will now be showing on the Presets section on the left and you can easily apply them to any photo. 

 

How to Install Lightroom Presets on Lightroom (previously Lightroom CC) 

1. Save your Presets to a Folder of your Choice. Usually Desktop Lightroom Presets are offered in ZIP file, so you will need to extract this file into a folder of your choice. 

2. Click on any image to edit it. 

3. Once you are in edit mode, you need to click in the edit icon on the top right (see number 1 in the image below). Then you need to Click Presets at the bottom (number 2 in the image below). Next you need to click on the 3 dots (see number 3 on the image below).

 4. After that just click import presets and select the presets from the location on your computer where you saved them.

5. Voila, all the presets will now be listed on your presets panel and you can apply them easily. The great thing about installing your presets on Lightroom (not classic) Desktop is that your presets will sync automatically with your Lightroom Mobile Presets. This saves a lot of time and is much easier that installing large amounts of presets on mobile. However, if you do not have the desktop version of Lightroom and would like to know how to add presets to the Lightroom App, just check our quick guide here.

How to Use Lightroom Presets

After installing your Lightroom Presets, you can truly let your creativity fly and start using the presets on your photos.

My favourite thing about using Lightroom presets on the desktop is that you don't even need to apply the presets to see how they will impact a photo. You can just quickly scroll over each preset and you will see the photo changing accordingly. This is a fantastic feature as you can quickly see the possibilities of a photo and then choose the most appropriate preset to match your vision for a particular photo. This saves so much time in the editing process because you can quickly scroll through your favorite presets and see all the possibilities before choosing to do more custom adjustments to your photo. Once you know the possibilities, it is easier to start adjusting the photo further.

You can see in the video below how brilliant it is to quickly go through a large number of presets and see their impact on a photo. This saves a lot of time as applying each individual preset would certainly 

 

Finding New Lightroom Presets to Spark Your Creativity

Once you have installed your Lightroom Presets, you can easily buy new lightroom preset packs and this can truly allow you to expand your photo editing skills and transform your photos in new and exciting aways. We have a vast range of of Lightroom Presets pack for different photo situations, check it out here if you would like to get some new inspiration. 

Using presets is one of the secrets to take your social media efforts to the next level. Once you have a range of favorite presets, you can start to obtain more consistent Instagram photos, which will help you to develop a more consistent and attractive Instagram feed. Obviously, the benefits can go far beyond Instagram and apply to other popular social media channels such as Facebook, Pinterest, TikTok, etc. Once you master your photo editing workflow, the entire process of obtaining great photos becomes much easier. Have fun and let your creativity run wild 😊