How to Install & Manage Lightroom Presets

Awhile back I made a video on installing and managing presets in Lightroom. But I’ve been itching to make a better one because it was outdated, dry and low quality. This new HD video looks at installing and managing all kinds of presets in Lightroom, how to find them, back up and more. Enjoy… Gav

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  1. Hi Gavin: Silver Shadows2: another masterpiece by the master of pre-sets and photography. I live in NE Ohio so the Wedding “season” is slowing down which will allow me more time to work with them. Great artistic product, tremendous time saver while creating stunning photographs. Thanks

  2. Gavin,

    I just purchased both your Aperture and Lightroom presets and love them. I am torn between Aperture and LR3 but am leaning toward the latter. I shoot a lot of aviation (nikon d700, D800 coming and nikkor pro glass) and am wondering if you could devise a one stop aviation, noise reduction and sharpening workflow. The biggest problem I find getting published is how noise, sharpening and reducing image size come together. I currently use an archaic method utilizing both LR3 and Elements 10 but wondered if you could streamline the process somewhat. I’d pay for a workflow that I can ALWAYS count on.

    Thanks and great work on the presets.

    Angelo Bufalino

    1. Hey Angelo, thank. Glad you enjoy them. I concur on Lightroom personally. Aperture is powerful but it’s too slow for me and I find it a little less intuitive.

      As for customizing an effect. I would suggest you play in PW3 with the detail presets and see if there’s one you like. But feel free to send me an email with some further details on what you need and I’ll see what I can do.

      Gav

  3. Hi Gavin
    I’ve just purchased your Elegance Brushes preset collection and have followed your video How to Install & Manage Lightroom Presets.
    However, after rebooting Lr4, although the folders I created for Elegance Brushes has appeared, none of the presets themselves show.
    I guess there’s something I’m missing, but I don’t know what!
    Hope you can help.
    Thanks
    David

    1. Hey David. Did you watch the video on the Elegance Brushes page? It deals with installing them as discussed in the PDF that comes weth the download. The common mistake is that brushes go into the “Develop Presets Folder”. They are not actually Develop presets but “Local Adjustment Presets” and must go in that folder. Other than that the installing process is nearly identical to Develop Presets.

      The process is descried in the demo video on the Elegance page… seimeffects.com/brushes.

      If you still have problem shoot me an email… Gav

  4. As with David, I just purchased your Elegance Brushes preset collection. I too followed your video, and the PDF instructions. After rebooting Lr4, the 3. Elegance Brushes folder appears but none of the subfolders / presets appear when the arrow is clicked (like it is empty). I verify that all the files are there, but I can’t get to them through LR4. Reading your email response to David, I tried loading the Elegant Brushes folder in the “Local Adjustments Presets” folder, but on reload, the folder doesn’t appear at all under Presets.

    I’m not sure what I’m missing. Seems simple enough in the video.

    1. Don bear in mind that with brush presets folder/presets will not appear under the “Presets” module. Those are Develop Presets. These are “Brush Presets”. Did you watch the video up to the point where I showed the use of brushes panel. The local presets reside in there. Sound’s like your putting them in the right spot, but you may be looking in the wrong spot.

      Take a peek and give me a ring if you have further problems… Gav

  5. I found you by accident. What a GREAT accident. I am new to Lightroom. I just got LR4. This video was extremely informative and helpful. Thanks and keep up the good work.

  6. Thank you for a great video.One thing I am stil doubtful:should I chek or not «store presets with catalog« because I use the LR4 in the laptop and in the external drives( I export as a catalog). It was very helpful learning how to manage the presets. Thanks again.

    1. As a rule I would say don’t store with catalog. It will mean that every new catalog you make will “not” include presets you’ve added. If you leave it unchecked it will store presets with LR itself (as shown in the video) rather than with the catalog.

  7. Hi Gavin,

    I am new to LR4, in fact, all the versions of the LR software. & have just purchased your highly appraised PowerWorkFlow3 presets. I have followed your excellent installation video carefully & managed to install your presets into the “Developed Presets” in a folder labelled as “PowerWorkFlow3”. I have checked that the presets content was in the folder & restarted the LR4. Yes, after that, I could see the folder in the “Presets” of the LR4. However, I cannot expand it to view “PowerWorkFlow3″‘s presets. May I know what happened ?

    Please kindly help & advise.

    Many thanks !
    Regards,
    Victor Ho

  8. Thanks. I appreciate your help. I’m working on my site and looking to improve my skills, so I appreciate your considerable knowledge and experience. Cheers.

  9. I am following your video and in my version of LR I don’t have all of the user presets. I am specifically looking for color pop, soft glow, vintage and the Artistic color editing. Do you have any suggestions for me? I have used LR 3.6 before when I worked in a portrait studio and now I want to edit my own photos. I have LR 3.6 and 4.0.

    Thanks for any advice you have.

    Kelly

    1. I a little confused what you’re missing. You’re welcome to email me with more details. All version of LR have the presets folder that we look at in the video.

      Gav

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About the Author

Glad you're here.

I'm from WA State USA and started studying photography in 97. I started work as a pro (using that word loosely because I sucked) using film at age 16. I learned fast but was not as easy to find training then. Sometimes I beat my head against the wall until I figured stuff out.

As digital dawned I went all in and got to study with masters like Ken Whitmire. In 09 I founded the Pro Photo Show podcast. I started promoting tone-focused editing. When Lightroom arrived, I started developing tools to make editing and workflow better.

20 years of study and photography around the country earned me a Master of Photography (M.Photog) from PPA. I got to see my workshops and tools featured in publications across the industry. Once I even won the prestigious HotOne award for my "EXposed" light and tone workshop.

Wanting something calmer, I moved to Mexico in 2017. It's a land of magical light. I'm here now exploring light and trying to master my weak areas. I make videos of that for my Youtube channel, sharing what I learn. I hope you'll stick around and be part of Light Hunters Tribe... Gavin

Gavin Seim

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