Develop module basics

The Develop module contains two sets of panels and a toolbar for viewing and editing a photo. On the left are the Navigator, Presets, Snapshots, History, and Collections panels for previewing, saving, and selecting changes you've made to a photo. On the right are the tools and panels for making global and local adjustments to a photo. The toolbar contains controls for tasks such as changing between Before and After views, playing an impromptu slideshow, and zooming.

• The Histogram panel in the Develop module allows you to measure color tones and make tonal adjustments to the photo.
• Additional information about the Smart Preview status of the photograph is displayed below the histogram/EXIF information/RGB values.
• The tools in the tool strip let you fix red eye, remove dust and spots, crop and straighten photos, and adjust specific areas of a photo.
• The Basic panel contains the main tools for adjusting the photo's white balance, color saturation, tonal scale, and editing in HDR.
• The Tone Curve panel contain Histogram for fine-tuning your tonal adjustments. Tone Curve also gives additional control with Refine Sat. slider to adjust color saturation while making curve adjustments.
  
• The  Color Mixer panel contain tools for making color adjustments. Holding Alt or Option key while making adjustments with Point Color or Mixer sliders will show only the active hue in color and greyscale of all other hues for better visualisation.
• The Color Grading panel colors monochrome images or creates special effects with color images.
• The Detail panel lets you adjust sharpness and reduce noise.
• The Lens Blur panel lets you add blur effect easily to any image. The effect can blur the background or foreground by making a depth map of the image using Adobe Sensei. View Add depth with Lens Blur to learn more.
  
• The Lens Corrections panel lets you correct chromatic aberration and lens vignetting caused by the camera lens.
• The Transform panel lets you correct the horizontal and vertical distortions.
• The Effects panel lets you apply a vignette to a cropped photo and add a film-grain effect to a photograph.
• The Calibration panel makes adjustments to the default calibration settings for your camera.

Customize the order of Develop panels

You can drag the Develop panels on the right of the workspace in the order you would like to see them in your custom Develop panel menu. You can also choose to show or hide the panels as required.   

To customize the Develop panel menu, do the following:

Views in the Develop module

Reference View

Reference View in the Develop module provides a dedicated 2-Up view which lets you place a Reference (static) photo next to an Active (editable) photo. This view is useful when you want to edit a photo to make it look like a different, reference photo. Here are some examples:

• Matching the look of a photo for preset creation.
• Determining the white balance consistency in photos.
• Balancing the image attributes across photos that you want to use together in a layout or presentation.
• Fine-tuning the applied camera matching profiles to the look of camera-generated JPG files.

While working in Reference View, you can also apply selected Develop settings of the current Active photo across multiple photos. See Apply develop adjustments across multiple photos in Reference View.

View Before and After photos

You can compare two versions of a photo as you apply Develop settings to it. The Before view first displays the photo as it was originally imported, including any presets that were applied. The photo remains unchanged unless you copy settings to it. The After view shows changes as you make them. Zooming and panning are synchronized in the two views.

Copy settings to the Before or After version of a photo

When you are working in a Before and After view of your photo, you can apply the settings of one version to the other, and vice versa.

• In the toolbar, click the Copy Settings From The Before Photo To The After Photo button.
• In the toolbar, click the Copy Settings From The After Photo To The Before Photo button.
• Click Swap Before And After Settings.
• Choose Settings > Copy After's Settings To Before.
• Choose Settings > Copy Before's Settings To After.
• Choose Settings > Swap Before And After Settings.

All of the current settings for one version are copied to the other version. To copy a single history setting, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) a state in the History panel and choose Copy History Step Settings To Before.

Develop module buttons and tools

Show or hide the Develop toolbar

Choose View > Show Toolbar or Hide Toolbar, or press the T key.

Tools in the tool strip

Tools for performing local edits to specific areas of a photo are located in the tool strip under the Histogram panel. Select any tool to display its options in the tool drawer. Deselect the tool to close the drawer and revert to the Hand or Zoom tool.

Includes the Crop Overlay tool, Crop Frame tool, Aspect Ratio Lock button and options, Straighten tool, and Straighten slider.

Includes Generative AI by (Adobe) Firefly to remove unwanted objects from the photo, Content-Aware Remove option with Size and Opacity sliders as well as Heal and Clone options with Size, Feather, and Opacity sliders

Includes Pupil Size and Darken sliders. Click Reset to clear the changes to the photo.

• Add New Mask - Automatically mask Subject, Sky and Background with a single click.
• Objects tool - Mask an object by covering it with Brush Select, or drawing a box around the object with Rectangle Select, adjust selection with the Size slider.
• Brush - Includes options for brushing Exposure, Clarity, Brightness, and other tonal adjustments on specific areas of a photo.
  
• Linear Radiant and Radial Gradient -  Includes options for creating multiple, off-centre, vignetted areas to highlight specific portions of a photo.
• Range - Includes Color Range, Luminance Range and Depth Range masks to make adjustments to your photos.
• People - Automatically scans for individuals or groups of subjects and gives additional options to mask Facial skin, Eyes, Hair and more.

Additional Develop module buttons and tools

When you hold the pointer over the photo, R, G, and B color values display under the Histogram. The tool that appears changes depending on your view. The Zoom tool is selected if the magnification is Fit. The Hand tool is selected if the magnification is Fill, 1:1, or higher. Click the photo to toggle between Fit and 1:1.

Click this tool in the Basic panel, choose it from the View menu, or press W to select it. Options appear in the toolbar.

Adjust certain color and tone sliders by dragging the tool in the photo. Select it in the Tone Curve or Color Mixer panels, or choose from the View menu. Once the tool is selected, you can choose different targets from the Target Group pop-up menu in the toolbar. Select Point Colour within the Colour Mixer panel to make precise color adjustments.

Although this single-photo view is available in both the Develop and Library modules, the keyboard shortcut for Loupe view in the Develop module (the D key) is different from the keyboard shortcut in the Library module (the E key). The Loupe View button, located in the toolbar, lets you quickly switch to Loupe view in each module.

Select HDR in the Basics panel to Display, Edit and Export in HDR. It enables tools to across the board with visualisations in histograms to easily display and edit images in HDR. View Edit and Export in HDR to learn more.

These buttons at the bottom of the left panels let you copy or paste the current settings to a selected photo.

These buttons at the bottom of the right panels toggle according to whether you have one or more photos selected in the Filmstrip. If only one photo is selected, the Previous button lets you copy and paste all of the settings of the previously selected photo to the currently selected photo on the Filmstrip. If multiple files are selected, the Sync button lets you choose which of the current settings to paste from the currently selected photo onto the other selected photos. Auto Sync adjusts other selected photos automatically after each slider is moved. Press Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) to turn the Sync button into the Auto Sync button.

The Before And After Views button in the toolbar offers four choices. You can arrange two photo views side by side or top to bottom, display the whole photo in both views, or split the photo in two. Click the Loupe View button to turn off Before and After views.

These three buttons let you copy and paste the current settings from the After view to the Before view, from the Before view to the After view, or swap between the views. They appear in the toolbar when you have selected the Before and After view in the Develop module.

To keep track of the tools used, a dot would be visible under each tool in the tool strip. A red dot would be shown on the tool strip if the feature needs an update. For example, a red dot would be visible under Masking if an AI mask needs to be refreshed.

All panels have individual eye indicators to allow you to check which panel has an active setting. Furthermore, you can hold down the eye icon to temporarily hide the settings from the sub-panel for better visual indication. To switch a panel off or to reset the settings of a particular panel's edit, holding Alt or Option key will reveal a panel switch in place of the eye indicator. You may select the switch to turn the panel off or select the option to Reset an edit within the panel. To switch a panel off or to reset the settings of a particular edit, holding Alt or Option key will reveal a switch button in place of the eye icon and show an option to reset an edit within the panel. Strike-out eye indicator will be shown in a disabled state when the corresponding panel switch is turned off.

Select tools and options

Click the tool or choose it from the Tools menu. To deselect a tool, click it, click Done, or select or a different tool. 

Work with Develop presets

Presets provide a way to save a group of settings and apply them to other photos. Once you create and add a preset to the Presets panel in the Develop module, it remains there until you delete it. The presets also appear in the list of Develop settings which you can apply while importing photos.

Preview and apply a Develop preset

A set of default presets is listed in the Presets panel of the Develop module. Click the Lightroom Classic Presets folder to display the default presets.

1. To preview the effects of a preset on your photo, hover over the preset. 
2. Click to apply a preset. 

Starting from Lightroom Classic 11.4 (June 2022 release), you can access the following preset features:

• Adjust the intensity of the applied preset using the Preset Amount slider.
• When you create or update a preset, you can choose to enable the Amount slider. In the New Develop Preset or Update Develop Preset dialog box, select Support Amount Slider. If this option is deselected, the Amount slider will be greyed out for that preset. 
• If you are unable to select the Support Amount Slider option, that indicates the selected settings do not support the Amount slider.
• When you adjust sliders other than those specific to the preset, the preset selection stays the same.

Import Develop presets

Note:

Beginning with Lightroom Classic CC 7.5 (August 2018 release), you can also bulk import XMP presets and profiles, DCP profiles, and LCP profiles as part of a zip file. However, .lrtemplate presets can't be imported as part of a zip file.

To import Develop Presets in Lightroom Classic, do any of the following:

• In the Presets panel [Develop module], click the plus (+) icon at the upper-right corner and choose Import Presets from the displayed drop-down options. In the import dialog box that appears, select the preset files or a .zip file containing presets. Click OK.
  In this case, all the presets are added to the User Presets group.

• In the Presets panel [Develop module], right-click on the desired preset group and in the import dialog box that appears, select the preset files or a .zip file containing presets. Click OK.
  In this case, the presets are imported into the selected preset group.

Manage Develop presets

Using the Manage Presets option, you can show or hide various Develop preset groups that are displayed in the Presets panel and other places where the Develop presets list appears.

To show/hide preset groups, follow the steps below:

Create a Develop preset

Presets you create are based on the current settings of the selected photo.

Create an ISO adaptive preset

Create a preset based on the ISO setting of your images. To create an ISO adaptive preset, you need to select two or more images with different ISO values. If you apply the ISO adaptive preset to an image that has a different ISO value than the one specified in the preset, then the appropriate value of the setting is calculated based on the values defined in the preset.

For example, if you create a preset using two images, one with ISO 400 and Luminance Noise Reduction set to 0 and other with ISO 1600 and Luminance Noise Reduction set to 10, and apply this preset to an image with ISO 800, the Luminance Noise Reduction will be set to 5.

To set an ISO adaptive preset as the default setting for importing raw file format images, see Set raw defaults specific to ISO values. 

Update a Develop preset

Export a custom preset

You cannot export built-in Lightroom Classic presets or preset groups. You can export only custom presets.

Delete a custom preset

You cannot delete built-in Lightroom Classic presets. You can delete only custom presets.

Determine where custom presets are stored

By default, custom (user) presets are stored in a folder in the Lightroom Classic folder. For the specific locations on Mac OS and Windows, see Preference file and other file locations in Lightroom Classic and Lightroom 6.

• To store user presets in a folder with the catalog, in the Presets panel of the Preferences dialog box, select Store Presets With Catalog.
• To see where a user preset is located, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) it in the Presets panel of the Develop module and choose Show In Explorer (Windows) or Show In Finder (Mac OS).

Show partially compatible presets

On opening a photo in the Loupe view in the Develop module, some presets may not appear in the Presets panel due to incompatibility with the selected photo, such as camera profiles that are not applicable to the current photo or presets that only apply to raw files. The non-compatible presets are shown as faded and in Italics style in the Presets panel in Develop.

To see all presets even if they are not compatible with the current photo, do the following:

Duplicate preset handling

With this release of Lightroom Classic, if you attempt to create a duplicate preset with the same name under the same group, a Duplicate Preset Name dialog box opens with options to:

• Replace - Select this option to keep only the latest preset with the same name in the group
• Duplicate - Select this option to keep two presets with the same name listed in the same group
• Rename - Select this option to append a numeric extension to the name by default or rename it yourself

Undo image adjustments

Lightroom Classic provides several ways to undo, or reset, adjustments you make to photos as you're working in the Develop module.

To undo adjustments in the Develop module, do any of the following:

• Click the Reset button to revert back to the Lightroom Classic default settings.
• Click the General - Zeroed preset in the Presets panel to remove all settings completely.
• Select an earlier version in the History panel or Snapshots panel that occurred before you applied the settings. You can hover over the steps to preview the corresponding image in the Develop loupe view.
• Double-click individual slider controls to reset the sliders to zero.
• Choose Undo from the Edit menu. Lightroom Classic tracks each setting you make. You can undo all of them by choosing Undo multiple times.