Photo presets

Photo presets: one-click editing settings for photographers

A photo preset stores a group of editing adjustments and applies them to an image in one action. The adjustments are the same ones available manually: exposure, contrast, tone curve, color balance, saturation, sharpening and grain. The preset only moves them to predetermined positions, and all of them remain editable afterwards.

This distinguishes a preset from a filter. A filter processes the image and returns a modified version. A preset changes parameters in a non-destructive editing pipeline, where the original file is untouched and every value can be adjusted or reset. In Adobe's tools these are XMP files for desktop and DNG files for mobile, readable by Lightroom Classic, Lightroom CC, Camera Raw and the Lightroom mobile app.

Presets also differ from Photoshop actions. An action replays a recorded sequence of operations, often creating layers, running filters and applying textures, and parts of that sequence can be irreversible. Presets handle color and tone; actions handle construction.

Categories in this collection

• Color grading sets: complete looks built on curve and HSL, including cinematic and teal-orange treatments.
• Film and analog: emulations of print and slide stock, with grain and characteristic color shifts.
• Monochrome: black-and-white conversions with per-channel control over how colors translate to grey.
• Portrait grades: adjustments that leave the orange-to-red range intact while shifting the rest.
• Landscape and nature: green and blue separation, haze reduction, muted or saturated depending on the set.
• Low light and dark grades: shadow-weighted treatments for interiors and evening work.

Choosing and adjusting a preset

Correct exposure and white balance before applying anything. A preset assumes a reasonable starting point, and applying one to an underexposed or color-cast file compounds the problem instead of fixing it. Presets improve flat images but cannot restore detail that was never recorded, so blown highlights and blocked shadows stay lost.

After applying, expect to adjust. Exposure and white balance almost always need a second pass, and the strength of the preset itself can be reduced by moving its individual sliders back toward neutral. In the mobile app the amount slider does this globally.

Subject matters when choosing. A grade built for landscapes typically pushes greens and teals, and the same values turn skin green or grey. Portrait presets protect that range specifically, which is why the two categories are kept separate.

Where presets are used

• Client photography: consistent delivery across large galleries.
• E-commerce: product shots that match across batches photographed on different days.
• Social media: a repeatable color treatment across a feed.
• Blogs and editorial: image sets that need to read as one body of work.
• Personal archives: large volumes of images processed quickly to a usable standard.