My Best Free Camera RAW Presets

If you’re looking for how to install Camera RAW presets, or to get a Camera RAW presets download, then you have come to the right place!

With Adobe’s update to the Camera RAW preset format, moving to .XMP since version 10.3 of Photoshop, presets are now shared between Lightroom (which also uses the .XMP format) and Adobe Camera RAW (ACR).

This means that installing ACR presets is as easy as installing Lightroom presets. If you already have a selection of presets in Lightroom, they should already be available in Adobe Camera RAW inside Photoshop. If you don’t use Lightroom, then see below for how to install them.

If you want some free Camera RAW presets, then download one of my free presets for Lightroom, then use this guide to install them as Adobe Camera RAW presets and access them in ACR – Lightroom and Camera RAW presets are now the same, so ignore the name.

You can also download free RAW files for editing, and free practice images for Photoshop.

What is a Camera Raw preset?

Adobe Camera RAW within Photoshop is one of the most powerful image processors, letting you pull out the fine details of your images.

A Camera RAW preset is a a series of adjustments saved to a .XMP file which can be applied to any of your images after opening them in Adobe Camera RAW. This allows you to quickly apply one of your own saved styles, or one from elsewhere, to save time in photo editing and to ensure that your images maintain a consistent look.

How to Install Camera RAW Presets

How to install ACR presets varies slightly depending on whether you are using Windows or Mac.

Installing Adobe Camera RAW (10.3+) Presets in Windows

Unzip the presets that you have downloaded – try these black and white presets if you don’t have any. You can use any recent Lightroom presets or ACR presets.
Hit Ctrl+C on the preset folder – in this case called “Black and White Presets — www.lapseoftheshutter.com —“.
Open the folder “C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Roaming\CameraRaw\Settings” – this is the Camera RAW presets folder.
Hit Ctrl+V inside this folder to paste your presets here.
Open Photoshop and Adobe Camera RAW and you will find your new presets in the appropriate menu (see screenshot below).

Installing Adobe Camera RAW (10.3+) Presets in Macs

Unzip the presets that you have downloaded – try these sunset presets if you don’t have any. You can use any recent Lightroom presets or ACR presets.
Hit Cmd+C on the preset folder, which is called “Sunset Presets — www.lapseoftheshutter.com —” in this example.
Open the folder “/Users/[user name]/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/Settings“. As the Library folder is hidden by default, you may have to follow Adobe’s guide to find it.
Hit Cmd+V inside this folder to paste your presets here.
Open Photoshop and Adobe Camera RAW and you will find your new presets in the appropriate menu (see screenshot below).

Adobe Camera RAW Presets — Location of Presets inside Photoshop’s Adobe Camera RAW

Where are the presets in Camera Raw?

If you are struggling to find the folder for the presets for Camera RAW, then it is possible that you have the folder hidden. Try following these steps to access it.

By default the presets folder for ACR is:

Windows: C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Roaming\CameraRaw\Settings

Mac: /Users/[user name]/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/Settings

You can change the folder that Camera RAW presets save into by following this guide at Adobe’s site.

Does Camera Raw have presets?

Adobe Camera RAW does have presets, with these now following the .XMP format of Adobe’s other presets. This means that they can be shared between Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom and provides you with greater flexibility in your photo editing.

Any recent Lightroom presets will also work as Adobe Camera RAW presets in Photoshop.

How do I download Camera Raw presets?

You can download free Adobe Camera RAW presets by taking a look at my free Lightroom presets – all of these will be appropriate to use in Camera RAW. There are links to free downloads of these presets which just need to be unzipped, and then you can follow the process above to install them.

Below are some good starter Camera RAW presets free download 2024.