What exacty does a preset do?

[stefans75088081]

Hi,

I just got Lightroom an I have a question regarding the presets included.

Where can I see how a preset changes the picture?

For example Lightroom includes a preset "Lightroom General Presets/Medium Contrast Curve". Where can I see which settings are affected by using this preset?

Thank you for your help.

[ManiacJoe]

The easiest way to see exactly what is being done is to open the preset file in your favorite text editor (not word processor). You will then see all the settings and the values they are getting set to.

Visually, if you hover the mouse pointer over the preset name in the preset panel, the Navigation/zoom preview image in the upper left corner will temporarily show the effect.

[johnrellis · Accepted solution]

The easiest way to see exactly what is being done is to open the preset file in your favorite text editor

Unfortunately, that doesn't work for the presets supplied with LR -- they are built-in and don't appear as files in the filesystem.

There are two ways to see the actual settings of a LR preset:

1. Open a sample photo in Develop.  Click Reset in the lower-right corner to reset all of its develop settings. Apply the preset.  Examine all the Develop panels on the right to see which settings have changed.

2. Use the Any Preset plugin, which concisely displays the setting for any preset.

[ManiacJoe]

johnrellis wrote:

The easiest way to see exactly what is being done is to open the preset file in your favorite text editor

Unfortunately, that doesn't work for the presets supplied with LR -- they are built-in and don't appear as files in the filesystem.

Wow. Correct, the system presets are not there. (My hard drive folders suggest they used to be.)

It has been a long time since I went looking for them or even used them.

[johnrellis]

My hard drive folders suggest they used to be.

Yeah, it's pretty strange that at some point years ago Adobe decided to include those presets hardwired into the program, rather than simply installed in the presets folder. That decision annoys a fair number of users who want to delete or hide the presets, since they only clutter up the screen: Lightroom: Ability to delete the default develop presets | Photoshop Family Customer Community

That thread reminded me that on Mac, you can view the .lrtemplate files in this folder:

/Applications/Adobe Lightroom/Adobe Lightroom.app/Contents/PlugIns/Develop.lrmodule/Contents/Resources/templates

On Windows, they're encoded inside the file Develop.lrmodule and not easily extracted.