AI masking has been making it quicker to mask subjects and sky in Lightroom Mobile for a few months now, but the new Adaptive Presets combine the power of AI masks with presets into a one-click, amazing photo result.

Adaptive Presets have been rolling out across the Adobe suite and Lightroom Mobile is no exception. The new Adaptive Presets for Sky and Subject are giving me pretty fantastic results. Let’s check out where to find them and how they work.

Where to find Lightroom Mobile Adaptive Presets for Sky and Subject

The Adaptive Presets combine one-click masking with applying a preset look, and you’ll find them in the Premium tab of your Presets.

You’ll find Adaptive Presets in the Presets section of the bottom ribbon in Lightroom Mobile.

I have already done the basic edits for the photo before applying the Adaptive Preset. These are preserved, just like when adding a mask, so you can use all your own presets as per usual.

Lightroom Mobile has a bunch of different useful styles built into the new Adaptive Presets.

The effect is pretty cool considering it took one click to get there!

Adjusting Adaptive Presets in Lightroom Mobile

It’s easy to control how much the preset affects your image. While still in the Premium Presets tab, click on the preset again before applying it, and you can adjust the amount applied to fine tune your results.

You can control the amount when applying the preset to your image.

To edit the Adaptive Preset after applying and exiting from Presets, you’ll find it in Masking on the bottom ribbon, just like any other mask. You can add or subtract from the mask here too, to further refine the effect.

After it’s applied, you can further refine it in Masking.

This is especially useful if the preset on its own looks too heavy-handed.

How to copy Adaptive Preset settings from one photo to another

One of the magical things about Lightroom is copying settings from one photo to another, saving you time and keeping your photo set consistent. Adaptive Presets can be copied with ease just like any other mask.

First, Copy the settings from the finished photo. In the Copy Settings dialogue, make sure you select any Adaptive Presets you’ve applied, under Masking. Lightroom will warn you that the AI-powered selections will need to be recomputed.

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Then go to the target photo and Paste the settings. I’ve copied the Warm Pop preset I applied to the subject earlier, so next I need recompute the AI-powered selections.

Open Masking in the bottom ribbon, find the mask that has copied over (it’ll be marked with an alert icon). Tap the mask, then tap the Update button when prompted to recompute the AI selection.

Updating the mask after coping and pasting is done in the Masking tab.

You can then edit the settings of the copied mask, adjusting it as necessary for the new photo.

Combining multiple Adaptive Presets on the same photo

Subject and Sky Adaptive Presets can be applied one after the other on your photos. You can apply one to the subject, and another to the sky. With this method you can quickly achieve a dramatic look or combine styles for special effects. Just one click for each part of the image!

From my experiments, you can’t apply more than one Adaptive Preset that covers the same area. If you change your mind on the look of the sky, for example, Lightroom will switch the existing mask to the new preset selected. You can, however, stack masks in Masking, so in that way it’s possible to add multiple effects to the same area.

You can add new masks after applying Adaptive Presets in the Masking tab of the bottom ribbon.

Adaptive Presets in Lightroom Mobile are a powerful way to quickly edit your photos, using the power of AI to save you time. Give it a try and see what creative results you can make.