Lightroom Brush Presets: How To Install Them

by Gavin Seim: With the introduction of Lightroom2, we got localized corrections with brushes for neat things like exposure, brightness, clarity etc. I made some pre-designed brushes for Burn, Dodge, Skin Soft and the like. Nothing fancy, just simple functional brushes.

Download Gavin’s FREE LR4 brush presets here –

– Watch an install video in the Elegance Brushes Demo

  • How to install LR Brushes…
    Adobe has not made a really simple way to import the brushes, but it’s not that hard. Just follow these directions. This is a bit of a workaround. I’ll update it when Adobe makes an easier way. I’m on a Mac, but it will be basically the same for you Win users. Shortcuts are in parenthesis, and remember you can click any image for a big view.

Step 1:
Go to your “Develop”  module (D) and open your presets panel on the left. Right click on one of your develop presets. This will bring up the contextual menu and from there click “Show In Finder” or on a Windows machine it should say something like “Show In My Computer”.

install-lr-brush-presets2.jpg

Alternatively, you can get to the presets storage folder by simply going to Lightroom Preferences (Settings) then to the preset tab. Click the button that says “Show Lightroom Presets Folder” (see image below).

Step 2:
Now you’ve brought up the folder that contains your develop presets. Now that we need to back out of that folder to it’s parent folder. In the parent folder you should find the “Local Adjustment Presets” folder. Simply drag, or paste your brush presets into the “Local Adjustment Presets” folder, then restart Lightroom.

install-lr-brush-presets3.jpg

install-lr-brush-presets4.jpg

Step 3:
When your back in Lightroom you can simply go to the “Develop”  module (D) and select the “Adjustment Brush” (K) Click the the “Effect:” menu/drop-down. You’ll get the brushes drop-down and inside you’ll see a few defaults, as well as the new brushes you just added.

install-lr-brush-presets5.jpg

install-lr-brush-presets6.jpg

It’s that simple, using this method you can download and install brush presets to your hearts content. You can also save your own brush presets from the same menu.

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  1. I followed the steps to install your LR Brush Presets and only Soften Skin showed up. It seems the others might be corrupted? Or, is it because I am using LR2.2?

  2. Well these are general install instructions for brush presets, but they work for the free presets I have on Seim Effects as well.

    I have 2.2 and the same presets are working fine. I would check the folder LR stores them in and make sure their in there. It’s also possible something went wrong unzipping and you corrupted them, but other than that you must have another bug and they seem to be working fine for people.

    Good luck getting it pinned down… Gav

  3. I had the same problem. Turned out the extension .lrtemplate was clipped on unzipping. So used file rename to complete the extension – lrtemplate

  4. I am haveing the same problem of getting only the soft skin preset for light room. I cannot find as to why. Any other Ideas. I am useing Light Room 2.3

  5. Downloaded and installed all the preset brushes perfectly. No problems at all! They’re great thanks!

  6. I like previous LR2 users have performed the download and install instructions numerous times and each time LR2 doesn’t recognize the brushes. I do notice that each brush file size is only 4KB so I suspect the complete file is not downloading. I’ve tried both Firefox and Safari and I have a new Mac Power Book laptop so I know it’s not the equipment.

  7. For people, who can`t see installed presets – just uncheck checkbox “Store presets with catalog”, like at 2-nd picture.

  8. I’m very new to the professional world, and new to light room. It’s other passionate entrepreneurs like yourself the I appreciate for helping people like myself who are new with whatever talent God have Blessed you with. Thank you so much for the presets, prayerfully I will have light room learned shortly and can put your brushes to work, check back on the site periodically and do comment and criticise I need all the help I can get if I want to be a full time pro photographer. Again thanks for allowing God to use you to help others. Many Blessings will continue to flow your way.

  9. i need to learn more about create in photo to do graphic or background on a photo, and i also want to learn more how to cropping out the part of face in the photo to another body ,like example i ask. thank you very much

  10. Hi,

    I have followed this instruction to do on my Macbook with lightroom 3.
    The presets are in the correct folder, quit lightroom, put back on, etc.
    I still can’t get brush presets.. above it says right click on brush to get effects, but right click (command key with bar) doesn’t do anything..

    Please advise.
    Debra

  11. I have lightroom 3, when I go into the program, under preference and find presets, it seems that all my pictures are in that location and none of my presets. How do I go about changing my mistake.

    1. Wayne it could be that you have “Store Presets With Catalog” checked in preferences/presets. If you do presets are catalog specific instead of being in any LR catalog you have open. If it’s checked try un-checking and it should fix the problem.

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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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