Lightroom Develop Presets

Class Handout by Barbara Rosner

I’m done because I use Develop Presets!

What are Lightroom Develop presets and why should you care?Develop presets are effects that you can apply to your photo with a single click of your mouse while in the Develop module. The effects can include changing colors, converting to B&W, accentuating highlights or shadows, applying vignettes, adding grain, etc. You can create your own or get free Develop presets from others.

Develop presets can provide a fast way to experiment with a wide range of effects. Want to see if your image will look good in B&W? Need a quick vignette? Want a more dynamic sky? Would you like a vintage effect? You can do these things with one click if you use Develop presets.

[You can set up other types of presets in Lightroom: import presets, adjustment brush presets, print module presets and more. This session will cover Develop presets only.]

How do you apply Develop presets?

Go to the Develop module in Lightroom. On the left side under the Navigator window, you will find the Pre-sets folder. Click on the arrow next to the word Presets to open your Presets folder. If you have not added any Develop presets, you will see the default two folders: Lightroom Presets and User Presets.

Open one of the folders in Presets. Make sure that you have one of your photos selected, then just click on one of the presets listed and it will be applied to your photo. If you do not like the result, Ctl-Z or Cmd-Z will undo it.

The best thing to do when experimenting with presets is to watch the Navigator window and then slowly move your mouse over the list of presets. You will get a preview of the effect in the Navigator window. When you see something you like, click on that preset. This way you are not applying and undoing multiple pre-sets.

You can modify the results of a preset. Once you’ve applied a preset, if there is something you’d like to change, just adjust the settings in the right hand panel of the Develop module.

What happens when you apply multiple Develop presets?Applying one Develop preset on top of another is perfectly fine. Just keep in mind that if the subsequent presets affect some of the same settings, exposure for example, the new setting will cancel out the exposure setting of the first one.

Making your own Develop presets.Suppose you’ve been working extensively on a photo in Lightroom and really like the look that you’ve got-ten. You can save those settings as a Develop preset. Go to the Presets folder. To the right of the word “Pre-sets” is a plus (+) sign.

Click on it and a screen pops up for “New Develop Preset.” Select the folder you want this preset to be saved in, give the preset a descriptive name and check or uncheck the settings that you want included or left out of the preset. Now you can apply these settings to other photos by just clicking on the name of your preset.

Organizing Your PresetsOnce you start creating your own presets or downloading presets from others, you’ll soon have a huge col-lection. Unless you set up folders, they will all end up in the folder called User Presets. This won’t make it easy to find what you want.

Set up folders for your presets to make them easy to find and use. I’ve set up folders for B&W, Color, Sepia, Image Correction, Vintage, Vignette, Special Effects and more. To create a new folder under the Develop pre-sets, click on Develop>New Preset Folder. Name your folder and click “Create.” Once the folder is created, you can drag presets from other folders into this one.

How to Install Barbara Rosner’s PresetsMy personal presets, some of which I’ve developed and others I’ve downloaded, are available on the ELCC website. They are already organized into the folders to make it easy to find and use. Follow these steps for the fastest way to load them into Lightroom:

Download my presets to your desktop (or wherever you can find them). They are zipped so you must first unzip them and then continue.

Locate the Develop Presets folder on your computer. To do that, go into Lightroom, go to the Develop mod-ule, and click on Edit>Preferences>Presets. About halfway down the screen you will see, “Show Lightroom Presets Folder.” Click on that and it will take you to the Lightroom folder on your computer.

Once there, you should open the Lightroom folder and find the “Develop Presets” folder.

In a separate window, navigate to the location where you stored Barbara Rosner’s Presets. Open that folder, highlight the entire contents and drag them into the Develop Presets folder in the other window. Close Lightroom and restart Lightroom. My presets will appear in your Presets folder in the Develop module.

Experiment freely with your photos in Lightroom! Enjoy your Develop presets!

Resourceshttp://lightroomkillertips.com/ (Select Presets under the Categories)

http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/exchange/ and select Lightroom Develop Presets

http://www.ononesoftware.com/products/perfect-presets-lightroom/

http://graphicalerts.com/best-free-download-adobe-lightroom-presets-photography/