What Are the Best Lightroom Presets and How Do They Work?
Lightroom presets are one of our favorite ways to create beautiful, consistent photo edits without starting every image from scratch. In 2026, photographers and everyday creators are using presets for everything from portraits and weddings to travel, lifestyle, family, product, interior, and social media photography.
A Lightroom preset is a saved combination of editing settings that you can apply to a photo with one click. Instead of adjusting every Lightroom slider individually, a preset gives you a finished starting point that you can easily customize for your photo, lighting, and personal style.
Presets can also make it much easier to create a cohesive look across an entire gallery. Whether you love soft nostalgic film tones, true-to-color edits, warm golden color, or bright and airy photos, the right preset can help you find your editing style and save so much time along the way.
New to Lightroom? Start with our Lightroom Presets 101 Guide to learn what presets are, how to install them, and how they work.
10 Best Lightroom Presets for Photographers in 2026
Editing styles are always changing, so we updated this list for September 2026 with the Lou & Marks collections photographers and creators are loving right now. From soft nostalgic film edits to clean natural color, these are our current top Lightroom preset styles for 2026.
1. Soft Nostalgia Film Lightroom Presets
If you love photos that feel warm, emotional, and a little nostalgic, Soft Nostalgia is our #1 pick for 2026. This collection creates soft film tones, dreamy light, warm highlights, and a gentle faded glow while keeping skin tones looking natural.
Soft Nostalgia is especially beautiful for portraits, family photos, lifestyle photography, travel, everyday moments, and storytelling images. The collection includes multiple warmth levels, lighting adjustments, and both grain and no-grain options, making it easy to adjust the look for different photos while keeping your gallery cohesive.
Preset Style: Soft Film Tones • Warm Highlights • Gentle Fade • Natural Skin Tones • Light Grain Finish
Shop: Soft Nostalgia Film Lightroom Presets
2. True Color Lightroom Presets
Sometimes you don't want your photos to look heavily edited — you just want them to look better. That's exactly why True Color continues to be one of our most-loved Lightroom preset collections in 2026.
True Color creates bright, polished images while keeping colors accurate and skin tones natural. It's especially helpful for photographers who need the colors in their images to stay close to real life, including portrait, product, jewelry, interior, real estate, family, and everyday photography.
Preset Style: True-to-Color • Natural Skin Tones • Clean Light • Bright & Polished
Shop: True Color Lightroom Presets
3. Natural Light Lightroom Presets
Soft, natural photo editing is still one of the biggest looks in photography in 2026, and Natural Light is perfect when you want your photos to feel polished without looking overly filtered.
These presets focus on soft warmth, balanced tones, flattering skin, and beautiful natural light rather than heavy saturation or dramatic contrast. They're a great everyday choice for portraits, lifestyle sessions, family photography, weddings, and creators who want a clean and timeless edit.
Preset Style: Natural • Soft Warmth • Balanced Color • Dreamy Skin Tones
Shop: Natural Light Lightroom Presets
4. Golden Boho Lightroom Presets
If warm, earthy edits are more your style, Golden Boho is one of our favorite Lightroom presets for adding warmth and richness without losing the natural feeling of the photo.
Golden Boho enhances golden tones, soft browns, creamy highlights, and earthy color for a warm, relaxed finish. We especially love this style for outdoor portraits, golden-hour photography, lifestyle images, families, travel, and bohemian-inspired photography.
Preset Style: Warm • Earthy • Golden • Soft Browns • Creamy Highlights
Shop: Golden Boho Lightroom Presets
5. Classy Film Lightroom Presets
Classy Film is for anyone who loves film but wants the finished photo to feel polished, timeless, and a little more refined. Inspired by heritage film tones and classic editorial photography, this collection brings together warm neutrals, clean highlights, refined contrast, and soft grain.
It's a beautiful option for portraits, interiors, travel, weddings, fashion, and lifestyle photography where you want a cinematic film look that still feels elegant and natural.
Preset Style: Cinematic • Classic Film • Warm Neutrals • Refined Contrast • Soft Grain
Shop: Classy Film Lightroom Presets
6. Honeydust Film Lightroom Presets
Honeydust Film creates the kind of warm, earthy film edit that works beautifully when you want richness without pushing everything too orange. Think creamy skin tones, muted greens, golden highlights, and softly faded film color.
We especially love Honeydust for late-summer and early-fall photography, but the soft earthy palette works throughout the year for portraits, families, outdoor sessions, lifestyle photography, travel, and everyday photos. Multiple lighting, warmth, grain, and no-grain options make it easy to find the right version for your image.
Preset Style: Creamy Skin Tones • Earthy Film Color • Golden Highlights • Muted Greens • Soft Fade
Shop: Honeydust Film Lightroom Presets
7. Canon G7X-Inspired Lightroom Presets
The compact-camera look has been everywhere in 2026, and our Canon G7X-Inspired Lightroom Presets are designed for that clean, punchy, slightly nostalgic digital-camera aesthetic.
These presets add warm skin tones, deeper shadows, crisp detail, and rich color for photos that feel polished while still having that casual point-and-shoot energy. They're especially fun for travel photos, nights out, lifestyle content, fashion, vacation photos, and everyday snapshots.
The collection includes standard presets along with masked versions, so you can choose between a complete edit or a more targeted adjustment to your subject.
Preset Style: Warm Skin Tones • Rich Contrast • Clean Detail • Punchy Color • Deeper Shadows
Shop: Canon G7X-Inspired Lightroom Presets
8. Old Soul Black & White Film Lightroom Presets
Every preset collection needs a beautiful black-and-white option, and Old Soul B&W is our favorite when you want your photos to feel nostalgic, emotional, and timeless.
Old Soul combines creamy highlights, deep shadows, soft contrast, faded tones, and film-inspired grain to recreate the feeling of aged black-and-white photography while still keeping faces and important details natural.
With light, medium, and dark black-and-white variations plus lighting and grain options, you can create anything from a soft faded image to a deeper and moodier film edit.
Preset Style: Nostalgic Black & White Film • Creamy Highlights • Deep Shadows • Soft Contrast • Authentic Film Grain
Shop: Old Soul B&W Film Lightroom Presets
9. Light & Airy Lightroom Presets
Light and airy editing isn't going anywhere. Light & Airy remains one of our favorite choices for creating soft, bright photos with beautiful light and a clean, timeless finish.
This style works especially well for weddings, engagements, portraits, family photography, lifestyle images, interiors, and photos taken in naturally bright spaces. It helps soften shadows and bring more light into an image without needing a complicated editing workflow.
Preset Style: Bright • Airy • Soft Light • Clean • Dreamy
Shop: Light & Airy Lightroom Presets
10. Kodak Portra 400 Film Lightroom Presets
Portra-inspired editing continues to be one of the most timeless film looks for photographers. Our Kodak Portra 400 Lightroom Presets are designed around the soft color, flattering skin tones, gentle warmth, and film character photographers love about the Portra aesthetic.
It's a beautiful choice for portraits, weddings, engagements, family sessions, travel photography, lifestyle photos, and anyone who wants an edit that feels timeless rather than trendy.
Preset Style: Classic Film • Soft Color • Natural Skin Tones • Warm Film Finish
Shop: Kodak Portra 400 Film Lightroom Presets
Which Lightroom Preset Style Is Right for You?
There really isn't one editing style that's right for every photographer, and that's part of what makes Lightroom so fun. If you're drawn to soft, emotional photos, start with Soft Nostalgia. If you want your images to stay close to real life, try True Color or Natural Light. For warm earthy edits, Golden Boho and Honeydust Film are beautiful choices.
If film is your favorite look, try Classy Film, Old Soul B&W, or Portra 400. And if you love the trending compact-camera look we're seeing throughout 2026, the Canon G7X-Inspired Collection is a fun place to start.
Whatever style you choose, presets are completely adjustable. After applying your preset, you can use Lightroom's Amount slider, Exposure, and White Balance controls to customize the finished edit for your individual photo.
Why Lightroom Presets Are Helpful for Photographers
Photography trends will keep changing, but a consistent editing style will always matter. Presets give you a starting point you can use across multiple images so your portfolio, galleries, social media, and client work feel connected without requiring you to rebuild every edit from scratch.
They're also an easy way to experiment. You might discover that you love a nostalgic film edit on one session and a clean true-to-color look on another. Having a few different styles available makes it easier to find what feels right for your photography.
Want to try a preset for free? Download our Free Smooth Skin Lightroom Presets — perfect for portraits and natural-light photos.
Or explore all of our current 2026 collections here: Shop All Lightroom Presets.
How to Start Using Lightroom Presets
You can use Lou & Marks presets with Lightroom Mobile and Lightroom Desktop. If you're just getting started, Lightroom Mobile makes it easy to begin editing directly from your phone.
Download Lightroom Mobile here: Lightroom for iPhone or Lightroom for Android.
Desktop users can learn more about Lightroom directly from Adobe here: Adobe Lightroom.
Once your presets are installed, simply choose a photo, apply the preset you love, and make any small Exposure or White Balance adjustments needed for your image. You can also adjust the preset Amount slider when you want the effect to feel softer or stronger.
