How to do it, step by step
- Unzip the download Preset packs arrive as ZIP files. In the Files app, long press the ZIP and choose Uncompress, which leaves a folder next to it. Lightroom can also take some ZIPs directly, but unzipping first removes the guesswork.
- Import XMP presets In Lightroom, open a photo, tap Presets at the bottom, tap the three dots at the top of the panel and choose Import Presets. Select every XMP at once. They appear in a new group named after the pack.
- Import DNG presets DNGs are photos, so add them to Lightroom the way you would add any image. Open one, tap the three dots at the top right, choose Create Preset, name it and pick a group. Repeat for each DNG.
- Fix the photo before the preset Crop, then set exposure, then correct white balance. A preset applied to a photo that is half a stop dark will always look muddy, and you will blame the preset.
- Apply, then fade Tap a preset to apply it, then tap its thumbnail again to reveal the Amount slider. Pull it back toward halfway. Most presets are built louder than any real photo needs.
- Copy the result across the set With the finished photo open, use Copy Settings, then open the next photo and use Paste Settings. Untick white balance in the copy dialogue so each photo keeps its own.
The only two file types you will be handed
Every preset pack you download is one of two things, and the route into the app is different for each.
| File type | What it actually is | How it goes in | Works on free mobile |
|---|---|---|---|
| XMP | A small settings-only file. No image inside it | Presets panel, three dots, Import Presets. Many at once | Yes |
| DNG | A photo with the settings baked into it, usually a blank or sample frame | Add as a photo, open it, Create Preset from the options menu, one at a time | Yes |
| ZIP | A container holding one of the two above | Uncompress in Files first, then follow the matching route | Yes |
| LRTEMPLATE | An old desktop format from before 2018 | Not supported on mobile. Ask the seller for XMP | No |
The DNG route is the older one and it is the reason so many tutorials are twice as long as they need to be. If a seller offers both formats, take the XMP: one import brings in the whole pack, and you are not left with a folder of grey sample photos in your library afterwards.
Presets you import stay on the device you imported them on. Signing in with a free Adobe account and letting the app sync will carry them to your other devices, which is worth doing once and then forgetting about.
Getting the file into Lightroom
The step people get stuck on is not inside Lightroom at all, it is in the Files app. A preset pack downloaded in Safari lands in Downloads as a ZIP, and tapping it only previews the contents. Long press it and choose Uncompress, which creates a folder in the same place. Now the XMP files exist as real files that a picker can see.
From there, open any photo in Lightroom, tap Presets along the bottom bar, then the three dots at the top of that panel, then Import Presets. The file picker opens, you navigate to the unzipped folder and select all of the XMP files in one go. They arrive as a group with the pack's name on it.
For DNG packs, the files go into Lightroom as if they were photographs, either by adding them from Files or by saving them to your camera roll and importing. Open one, and from the three dots at the top right choose Create Preset. Name it something you will recognise later, and put it in a group of your own rather than leaving it loose. Then delete the sample DNG from your library, because it is not a photo you took and it will clutter every grid you scroll.
Three things to fix before you tap a preset
A preset is the fourth move, not the first. Three corrections come before it, and doing them in this order is the difference between a preset that works and a preset you delete.
Crop first. Cropping changes how much bright sky and dark corner are in the frame, which changes what a correct exposure even means. Crop to the shape you intend to post at, so that the rest of the edit is judged on the real photograph.
Exposure second. Most photos that look dull are simply a little dark. Lift exposure until the brightest part of the subject's face reads as properly lit, and watch that the sky does not go to flat white while you do it.
White balance third. Warm indoor bulbs turn skin orange and an overcast sky turns it grey, and neither is something a preset should be asked to fix. Use the eyedropper on something that ought to be neutral grey or white, then adjust temperature by eye until skin looks like skin. There is a whole page on this at fixing orange skin tone.
Only now does the preset have a fair photograph to work on, and you will find that half the presets you had written off suddenly behave.
Applying a preset without wrecking the photo
Tap a preset once and it applies. Tap the applied preset's thumbnail again and the Amount slider appears, which scales the whole thing up or down. This slider is the single most useful control in the preset panel and a surprising number of people have never seen it.
Start at halfway. Preset makers build loud, because a subtle preset does not sell in a grid of before and after squares, and because they are demonstrating on a photo chosen to take it. On your kitchen photo, fifty to seventy percent is usually where the look sits without announcing itself.
After fading, check two things. Skin, because a preset that shifts skin hue will do it to everyone you photograph and it is the tell that a filter is present. And the brightest area, because presets frequently add contrast, and contrast added to an already bright sky simply removes the clouds.
If the preset is close but one thing is off, you are allowed to overrule it. Adjusting temperature or pulling highlights back down afterwards does not undo the preset, it finishes it. Presets are starting points, and treating them as finished edits is why so many feeds look like a filter rather than like a person.
Doing a whole set at once
Editing twenty holiday photos one at a time is what makes people give up on editing. The shortcut is Copy Settings and Paste Settings, which is free and hidden behind the same three dot menu.
Finish one photo properly. Then choose Copy Settings, and in the dialogue that appears, untick white balance and untick crop before you copy. Those two are specific to each frame, and copying them across is the most common reason a batch comes out looking worse than the photos did before. Everything else, the tone moves and the colour and the grain, can travel.
Then select the rest of the set in the grid and paste. Go through them afterwards and nudge exposure on the two or three that are noticeably off, which takes seconds because the colour work is already done.
The result is a set that hangs together, which matters far more on a carousel than any individual photo does. If that is the actual goal, make your photos look consistent covers the order in more detail, including what to do when the photos came from two different phones.
When a preset simply will not work
Some photos reject every preset in the library, and it is worth recognising them rather than scrolling for twenty minutes.
- Mixed light. A cool window on one side of a face and a warm bulb on the other cannot be corrected by one white balance, so no preset built on one will help. Turn the bulbs off and reshoot if you can.
- Badly underexposed. Lifting two stops out of a phone JPEG brings noise and colour blotching with it, and a preset then sits on top of that mess. Presets are cosmetic, not restorative.
- Heavy night mode. The phone has already made big decisions about noise and tone. Film-style presets in particular land strangely on a night mode frame, because the smoothing has removed the texture the grain is supposed to sit in.
- Screenshots and re-saved images. Compression artefacts get amplified by contrast, so a preset makes them worse rather than hiding them.
If a preset fails on a good photo in good light, it is the preset. If it fails on everything, look at the order you are editing in before you go looking for another pack.
Questions people ask
How to use Lightroom presets on phone?
Download the pack, unzip it in the Files app, then in Lightroom open a photo, tap Presets, tap the three dots and choose Import Presets. Select the XMP files. For DNG packs, add them as photos instead, open one and choose Create Preset.
Do I need a Lightroom subscription to install presets?
No. The free mobile app imports both XMP and DNG presets and applies them with no subscription. A paid plan adds masking, healing and cloud sync, none of which is needed to use a preset.
Why do my imported presets not appear in the list?
They import into a group named after the pack rather than into the main list, so scroll the group selector at the top of the Presets panel. If nothing arrived at all, the files were probably still inside a ZIP when you picked them.
Can I edit a preset after installing it?
Yes. Apply it, change whatever is wrong, then use Create Preset again to save your version. You can also delete the original so you are not scrolling past a preset you never use.
How do I apply one preset to all my photos at once?
Finish one photo, use Copy Settings with white balance and crop unticked, then select the rest in the grid and use Paste Settings. Adjust exposure individually on the few that need it.