Are you looking to enhance your portrait photography but not sure where to start? Lightroom presets for portraits can take your photos to the next level. Whether you're a professional photographer or just starting out, the right presets can help you create beautiful, consistent edits while still giving you plenty of room to customize the finished look.
What Is Lightroom?
Lightroom is Adobe's photo editing software for photographers and creators. You can use Lightroom on mobile devices as well as desktop, making it easy to edit everything from everyday portraits to complete professional photo galleries.
What Are Portrait Lightroom Presets?
Lightroom presets are saved combinations of editing settings that you can apply to your photos with one click. They're a time-saving way to create consistent edits across your portrait photography while still allowing you to customize Exposure, White Balance, Preset Amount, and other settings for each individual image.
Portrait presets can be especially helpful when you want to create a cohesive editing style while keeping skin tones, lighting, background colors, and the overall mood of the photo in mind.
Best Portrait Lightroom Presets for 2026
We are always being asked by photographers what the best Lightroom presets are for editing portraits. That's why we put together this list of some of our favorite portrait editing styles for 2026.
When choosing a portrait preset, consider your subject's skin tone, the dominant colors in the image, overall lighting, background, and the editing style you want for the finished photo.
1. Kodak Portra
A clean film edit continues to be one of the most timeless choices for portrait photography. Our Kodak Portra Presets create soft film-inspired color, flattering skin tones, gentle warmth, and a polished finish that works beautifully across many different portrait styles.
The collection includes multiple strength variations, making it easy to create a softer edit for close-up portraits or a slightly stronger film look for wider shots that include more of the surrounding scene.
Edit Style: Clean, Natural Skin Tones, Soft Film Tones
Best Settings: Outdoor, Indoor, Year Round, Natural Light
Before & After Kodak Portra Presets
Shop: Kodak Portra Portrait Lightroom Presets
2. Soft Nostalgia Film Lightroom Presets
If you love soft, timeless portrait edits with a subtle vintage feel, the Soft Nostalgia Film Preset Collection is a beautiful choice. These presets create warm, storytelling edits with soft film tones, dreamy light, and a gentle faded glow that still feels natural and emotional.
With multiple warmth levels, lighting adjustments, and both grain and no-grain options, you can easily customize the look for different portraits while keeping your gallery cohesive.
Edit Style: Soft Film Tones, Warm Highlights, Gentle Fade, Natural Skin Tones, Light Grain Finish
Best Settings: Outdoor, Indoor, Year Round
Before & After Soft Nostalgia Presets
Shop: Soft Nostalgia Portrait Lightroom Presets
3. Golden Boho Lightroom Presets
That golden, warm, creamy edit is always one of our favorite styles for portrait photography. If you're shooting in late summer, fall, golden hour, or another warm setting, this collection helps bring out those beautiful earthy and golden tones.
The Golden Boho Preset Collection adds warmth while keeping the finished portrait soft and cohesive.
Edit Style: Dreamy, Moody Undertones, Golden Warm Tones
Best Settings: Outdoor, Indoor, Year Round, Especially Late Summer
Before & After Golden Boho Presets
Shop: Golden Boho Portrait Lightroom Presets
4. Moody Tones Lightroom Presets
If you photograph portraits in darker, woodsy, or richly colored settings, a moody edit can help enhance the background while bringing more attention to your subject.
The Moody Tones Preset Collection includes different levels of mood and depth, making it a versatile option for portraits throughout the year.
Edit Style: Rich, Deep Color, Moody Tones
Best Settings: Outdoor, Indoor, Year Round, Darker Settings
Before & After Moody Tones Presets
Shop: Moody Portrait Lightroom Presets
5. Colorful Clean Lightroom Presets
Who doesn't love a bright, clean portrait with a pop of color? The Colorful Clean Preset Collection is designed to brighten photos and enhance colorful, natural tones while keeping the finished edit crisp and polished.
This is a great portrait style when you want beautiful color without creating a heavily filtered look.
Edit Style: Clean, Natural, Colorful Tones
Best Settings: Outdoor, Indoor, Year Round
Before & After Colorful Clean Presets
Shop: Colorful Clean Portrait Lightroom Presets
6. Creamy Moody Lightroom Presets
Creamy portrait edits are beautiful when you want softer color while still keeping some depth and mood in the image.
The Creamy Moody Preset Collection combines creamy warmth with subtle moody undertones and soft contrast. It's especially beautiful for overcast days, natural-light portraits, outdoor sessions, and images where you want the background colors to feel softer and more cohesive.
Edit Style: Creamy, Warm, Mild Moody Tones
Best Settings: Outdoor, Indoor, Year Round, Especially Beautiful for Overcast Light
Before & After Creamy Moody Presets
Shop: Creamy Moody Portrait Lightroom Presets
7. Classic Black & White Lightroom Presets
Every portrait photographer needs a go-to black-and-white preset. Including a few black-and-white images in a portrait gallery can create more variety while also bringing attention to expression, light, texture, and emotion.
The Classic Black & White Preset Collection creates a clean, timeless monochrome edit that works beautifully for both indoor and outdoor portraits.
Edit Style: Natural, Clean, Classic Black & White
Best Settings: Outdoor, Indoor, Year Round
Before & After Classic B&W Presets
Shop: Black And White Portrait Lightroom Presets
8. Golden Hour Lightroom Presets
This collection gives serious golden-hour vibes. The Golden Hour Preset Collection creates gorgeous warm tones, soft airy light, and a touch of contrast for portraits that feel naturally sun-kissed.
It's perfect for enhancing photos already taken during golden hour or adding a warmer golden feeling to portraits photographed in softer light.
Edit Style: Natural, Soft, Golden Warm Tones
Best Settings: Outdoor, Indoor, Late Summer & Early Fall
Before & After Golden Hour Presets
Shop: Golden Hour Portrait Lightroom Presets
9. True Color Lightroom Presets
If you love clean, colorful edits and want to keep colors as true to life as possible, the True Color Preset Collection is a great portrait option.
This collection enhances the overall image while keeping the edit natural. It's especially helpful when your subjects have red hair, colorful clothing, flowers, or other important colors that you want to enhance rather than dramatically change.
Edit Style: Natural, Clean, True-to-Color Tones
Best Settings: Outdoor, Indoor, Year Round
Before & After True Color Presets
Shop: True Color Portrait Lightroom Presets
10. Moody Black & White Lightroom Presets
Moody black-and-white edits are especially beautiful for overcast light, woodsy settings, dramatic portraits, and images where you want more depth and emotion.
The Moody Black & White Collection creates rich monochrome tones, deeper contrast, and a moodier overall finish while keeping the focus on your subject.
Edit Style: Rich, Moody, Deep Black & White
Best Settings: Outdoor, Indoor, Year Round
Before & After Moody Black & White Presets
Shop: Moody Black And White Portrait Lightroom Presets
11. Light & Airy Lightroom Presets
Light and airy editing is one of the most timeless styles for portraits. The Light & Airy Preset Collection brightens images, softens shadows, and creates a clean, dreamy finish while keeping the portrait feeling natural.
This style works especially well for weddings, engagements, family sessions, maternity portraits, lifestyle photography, and portraits taken in bright natural light.
Edit Style: Bright, Airy, Soft Light, Clean, Dreamy
Best Settings: Outdoor, Indoor, Year Round, Natural Light
Before & After Light & Airy Presets
Shop: Light & Airy Portrait Lightroom Presets
12. Indoor Film Lightroom Presets
Indoor Film is one of our favorite editing options for indoor portraits. The collection adds richness and depth while keeping images soft and creating beautiful film-inspired color tones.
It's especially useful for portraits photographed indoors with window light or on gloomy days when natural indoor light feels a little flat.
Edit Style: Rich, Deep, Film-Inspired Color Tones
Best Settings: Indoor Portraits, Natural Window Light, Gloomy Days
Before & After Indoor Film Lightroom Presets
Shop: Indoor Film Portrait Lightroom Presets
How to Use Lightroom Presets
Using presets in Lightroom is easy. Simply import the presets into Lightroom, apply the preset you want to your photo, and use Lightroom's Amount control to make the effect stronger or softer.
With just a few adjustments, you can create a polished portrait edit while still customizing the finished result for your individual photo. If you are new to presets, our Lightroom Presets 101 Guide goes over everything in more detail.
Perfecting Your Edit
Let's go over how to get the best outcome when editing your portraits with Lightroom presets. Presets are designed to give you a finished starting point, and many photos may only need a few small adjustments after applying one.
If you encounter challenging lighting or strong dominant colors, you can easily customize the preset to fit your specific image. After applying your preset, pay special attention to Preset Amount, White Balance, and Exposure.
Adjusting the Strength of the Preset
Lightroom's Amount control allows you to increase or decrease the overall strength of a preset after you apply it. For close-up portraits, you may prefer to reduce the Amount slightly for a softer result.
On Lightroom Mobile, apply your preset and use the Amount control to make the effect softer or stronger.
On Lightroom Desktop, the Amount control is available with your preset editing controls after the preset is applied.
Finding the Perfect White Balance
White Balance is one of the most important adjustments for portrait editing. After applying your preset, adjust Temperature and Tint until skin tones and the overall color of the image feel balanced.
You can try Lightroom's Auto White Balance as a starting point or adjust it manually to your liking.
If you are using Lightroom Classic (LrC), you can also use the White Balance eyedropper to select a neutral tone in your image and use that as a starting point for your color.
Get Your Exposure Just Right
To adjust the brightness of your image after applying a preset, simply adjust Exposure. Portraits photographed in different lighting conditions will naturally need slightly different Exposure settings, even when you're using the same preset.
Batch Edit Your Portraits
One of Lightroom's most time-saving features is batch editing. If you photographed an entire portrait session in similar lighting, you can apply the same preset or edit to multiple images and then make small individual adjustments where needed.
In Lightroom Mobile, you can copy your edit settings from one photo and paste them onto additional images.
In Lightroom Desktop or Lightroom Classic, you can apply your edit to one image and then copy, paste, or sync those settings across additional photos. We have a full guide that goes more in depth on How to Batch Edit in Lightroom With Presets.
Don't be afraid to experiment with different presets and find the ones that work best for your photography style. The best Lightroom presets for portraits are the ones that complement your subjects, lighting, colors, and the overall feeling you want your finished gallery to have.
To use portrait presets on your phone, you can download Lightroom here: Lightroom for iPhone or Lightroom for Android.
Desktop users can learn more about Lightroom here: Adobe Lightroom.
Photoshop users can learn more here: Adobe Photoshop.
If you need any further help adjusting presets to suit your portraits, need help manually editing your portraits, or have questions about editing styles or choosing the right Lightroom presets for your portrait photography, please Fill Out The Contact Form.
