Import/Export

Did you recently download or buy a set of presets? Or maybe you want to back up your library? Importing/exporting presets is a great way to add more creative looks or share them with your colleagues and friends, and is very simple.

1. Import – to import a single or multiple presets into your Lightroom environment, you first need to right-click (Windows) anywhere in the Presets Tab. A menu will appear – choose “Import…” option, which should be at the very bottom of it. “Import Presets” window will pop up – find presets you want to import (normally *.lrtemplate files), select them and click “Open”. Done! You should now find the imported preset/s somewhere in the Presets Tab. You may find Lightroom has already applied the imported presets to your selected photograph on import – don’t worry if it does, just click “Reset” on the bottom of the right-hand panel to get back to where you were if you don’t want that preset applied yet.
2. Export – exporting presets is just as simple as importing them into Lightroom. To export a preset, first right-click (Windows) on it and choose “Export…” in the menu, which should be second option from the bottom. Choose where you want to export your preset and name it, then click “Save” and you are done! A *.lrtemplate preset file should be easily found at the destination you chose.

You can’t export multiple presets at a time in Lightroom – if that is what you want to do, you’ll have to find where they are located and manually copy them to a new location. By default, they should be located (Windows 7) in C:\Users\your_user_name\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom\Develop Presets. You may need to enable “Show hidden files, folders, and drives” in Folder Options menu, “View” tab.