For those of you who use Lightroom, you are probably familiar with Develop presets and how to use them. However, something that has baffled me for quite some time is how to batch-apply a preset to a large group of photographs. The most common answer is always to process one photograph (or apply a preset to it) and then use the “Sync Settings” feature to sync your image together. That method has always felt laborious, especially when I’m using a preset and I’m not 100% certain what the settings are that I should sync, particularly with images where I do not want to sync all of the settings (such as exposure or white balance).

I am happy to say that I have finally found a way, and it is so easy that I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I didn’t figure this out earlier … just use the Quick Develop panel!

So, here’s how it works:

1. First, in Lightroom, go into the Library module by pressing G (for Grid view).

2. Then, highlight the photos you want to work with. (In my example, I went to Edit > Select All to highlight all images in the folder.)

3. Next, head over to the Quick Develop panel on the right and select the preset you want to apply from the “Saved Preset” section. (You may need to create your preset in the Develop module before doing this step.)

4. All of your photos should now have the newly-added preset applied, saving you a lot of time and frustration!