Inspiring

Answered

Importing presets in Photoshop?

Forum|Forum|10 months ago
May 12, 2025
4 replies
1303 views

Hi.

This may be a silly question, but can I import presets into photoshop, the same as I can into LR?

This is things like B&W , Landscape, Portrait adjustments etc.

And if so, how do I do it?

Cheers.

Steve.

Correct answer Trevor.Dennis

I've mentioned the Michael Nimmess Photoshop Power Shortcuts from MAX somewhere about 2014. He did a big section on Camera RAW presets that would have been perfect if I am understanding @SteveJM 's intent here. Michael's video sadly became outdated after a big ACR update, and Adobe took down the entire video. I do very little photography nowadays, so have lost interest in those aspects, but I imagine there is still similar capability in today's Camera RAW, and that appears to be what @Conrad_C referred to in his post.

I remember an amazing portrait in NATEX (New Zealand's premiere photo exhibition) about 15 years ago. It had a gritty atmospheric quality that set it appart. When I met the photographer asked about his workflow, it turned out to be entirely done with a Lightroom preset.

SteveJMAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks everyone, very very helpful.

I shall keep all this info for future use.

Cheers.

Steve.

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

Conrad has given you a good answer. Adding to that there are presests you can use, and bring into Photoshop, to change the look of an image or layer.

Styles is one, although they generally do more than change the look.

You can twirl open the Styles panel groups to see what they do.

Actions can change the look of an image, and the recently introduced new Actions panel has a bunch of presests.

This will be expanded going forward I am sure.

Stephen Marsh

Community Expert

Further to the reply from @Trevor.Dennis there are other presets in addition to .atn files for actions, for example @SteveJM asked about brushes, which are in .abr format (Brushes window menu, import brushes). Then there are (Colour) Swatches in .aco format, Gradients, Patterns and even presets for adjustments/adjustment layers such as curves or levels or channel mixer etc.

Trevor.Dennis

Correct answer

Community Expert

I've mentioned the Michael Nimmess Photoshop Power Shortcuts from MAX somewhere about 2014. He did a big section on Camera RAW presets that would have been perfect if I am understanding @SteveJM 's intent here. Michael's video sadly became outdated after a big ACR update, and Adobe took down the entire video. I do very little photography nowadays, so have lost interest in those aspects, but I imagine there is still similar capability in today's Camera RAW, and that appears to be what @Conrad_C referred to in his post.

I remember an amazing portrait in NATEX (New Zealand's premiere photo exhibition) about 15 years ago. It had a gritty atmospheric quality that set it appart. When I met the photographer asked about his workflow, it turned out to be entirely done with a Lightroom preset.

Conrad_C

Community Expert

…can I import presets into photoshop, the same as I can into LR?
This is things like B&W , Landscape, Portrait adjustments etc.…I was wondering if it's possible to import third party presets, the same as I can in Lightroom.

Also how to import new brush presets etc etc.
By @SteveJM

Those types of presets are based on the specific nondestructive (and raw-oriented) edit adjustments in Lightroom, which do not match up with Photoshop editing options, so those presets aren’t directly compatible with Photoshop itself, since Photoshop does not directly apply nondestructive raw-oriented edits. (Photoshop presets apply to specific tools or panels, such as Adjustment Layer or Rectangular Marquee tool presets.)

Photoshop uses Camera Raw to apply nondestructive raw-oriented edits like Lightroom, and that leads you to the answer to your question: Camera Raw does share the same editing controls as Lightroom, and so Camera Raw also uses the same presets as Lightroom. Edit presets you have loaded into Lightroom should already be available in the Presets panel and options menu in Camera Raw, as shown in the picture below. In other words, Camera Raw and Lightroom look in the same folder of presets on your computer. If a preset is installed in that folder, it shows up in both Camera Raw and Lightroom.

So if you want to apply a Lightroom preset in Photoshop, select the layer, choose Filter > Camera Raw Filter, click the Presets icon in the Camera Raw toolbar, and apply the preset. Or, if it’s a raw file, open the raw file directly into Photoshop and use the full Camera Raw (not just the limited Camera Raw filter) to apply a preset.

And remember that presets are not raw profiles, but Lightroom and Camera Raw also share the same profiles (such as Adaptive Color or Adobe Landscape).

Srishti Bali

Community Manager

Hi @SteveJM

Thanks for reaching out! You can find guidance on migrating presets from earlier versions of Photoshop in this help page: https://adobe.ly/3F5J2xR

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Srishti

SteveJMAuthor

Inspiring

Hi Srishti,

Thanks for that, quite helpful.

However, I don't have a previous version of Photoshop installed as My computer crashed big time and I had to get a new one, so all of my Photoshop/Lightroom etc are new installs.

I was wondering if it's possible to import third party presets, the same as I can in Lightroom.

Also how to import new brush presets etc etc.

It's been a long time since I tried to do this, and just can't remember.

Cheers.

Steve.

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