9 Top Websites For The Best Free Lightroom Presets
New / Noteworthy
Lightroom is the most popular photo editing application among photographers and 95% of photographers can get the job done without using Photoshop.
With Lightroom, you can process hundreds of photos to perfection within minutes. You can start editing photos in Lightroom from scratch or you can save your time and energy by using Lightroom presets. Lightroom presets make the editing process faster and help you save countless hours during post-production.
What are Lightroom Presets?
As the name suggests, a preset has predetermined settings that apply the specific effect to photos. They are like Instagram filters but a preset can be modified according to your editing style during post-production. That makes a preset versatile and handy during photo editing workflow.
There are a lot of websites that sell presets and it is worth buying preset collections to save time. The goal of this article is to list some of the best websites that provide both free and paid presets so you can get started with presets quickly.
Also, I know it can be frustrating to trawl the internet for presets, and sometimes we just want a collection of presets rather than downloading presets one by one. Keeping that in mind, we are only including those websites that provide at least 10 or more presets in a single download.
It’s worth remembering that there is no such thing as “one-click-preset” – you will need to make changes after applying a preset to get best results.
Let’s get started without any further ado!
Contrastly is one of the most popular photography learning websites on the internet. They provide helpful articles so people can improve their photography and have been helping the photography community for years. They have tons of articles on photography and a lot of great products to master Lightroom and photography.
Their free presets are designed for professional photographers and they provide a free starter pack of 25 presets. To get the presets, you can visit their website homepage, fill in your details and you’ll be on your way to receiving a starter pack of 25 presets. Don’t forget to check out their best-seller, The Complete Preset Bundle, that includes 1400+ presets collection neatly arranged so you can find that preset that you are looking for.
PSD stack is another great website that deals in selling presets and Photoshop actions. They are mainly focused on post-production using Photoshop and Lightroom. On their website, you’ll find a lot of Photoshop and Lightroom tutorials.
Apart from providing free tutorials, they also provide free Photoshop actions and Lightroom presets. The best part is you can use their presets on Mobile, Classic & Old Lightroom. There is a free preset bundle that includes 40 Lightroom presets that you can grab by visiting their free lightroom presets post. Scroll down on the page, fill the form and you’ll get the preset bundle that includes dark & moody, landscape, light & airy and some retro presets.
Greater Than Gatsby is known for premium quality presets, actions and overlays. They mostly target professional photographers but recently they have introduced presets for casual users as well. You can visit their website if you are looking for paid premium, paid presets.
If you are not sure about their paid presets, they also provide a free sample of 12 presets that you can try and then decide. The sample includes presets that are perfect for wedding and family shoots.
Beart presets is a team of professional photographers and they have been selling presets for quite a while. Their free presets are great if you are looking for some dynamic effects such as moody, Insta, wedding, retro and much more. Currently, they provide a free collection of 20 presets that are compatible with Lightroom Mobile & Classic.
ON1 is a photo editing program much like Lightroom but it is more affordable as you can get it with just a one-time fee compared to Lightroom’s subscription-based pricing. It’s a familiar name among photographers and provides a great collection of plugins for Photoshop and Lightroom. They are partnered with many popular websites and photographers so they can provide the best free presets. You can visit the link above to get their presets.
Much like PSD Stack, Phlearn are heavily focused on providing premium video tutorials on Photoshop & Lightroom. While most of the sites mentioned in this article are exclusively focused on presets, Phlearn has a more diverse portfolio.
Most of their presets come with their pro subscription but they have a free sample pack of ten presets. It includes presets for family, bloggers, and every day photo.
Northern Landscape is run by Ian Erik Waider and his presets are popular for dark & moody effects. Erik has a great selection of fine-art landscape photos, and on his website, you’ll find many mysterious and moody photos of landscapes.
Erik also provides premium preset collections and all of them are created for landscape & travel photography. Currently, Erik provides 10 free dark & moody presets. If you are a landscape photographer and your style is to produce moody landscapes to perfection, you can give Erik’s presets a try.
If you aren’t already familiar with the company, let me tell you that they are a leading name in selling presets, actions and overlays. Their presets are more expensive than on any site on this list and they don’t provide free presets but you can’t go wrong with their presets.
Their Dark & Moody collection is one of the most popular collections on their website that provides 9 premium moody presets. If you are a photographer specializing in family shoots, it’s worth checking it out.
Yep, you read it right. Adobe has a selection of presets that can be downloaded for free. Their download page can look a bit confusing as there isn’t a clear download button. Visit the page linked above and click on the before/after imagery to get the presets. You’ll find portrait, food, pet, and architecture presets.
I hope the list above has given you a good idea of where to get the best presets. Do check out the links, grab the free ones to get started and maybe even check out the premium ones if you feel like it.
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