How to batch apply a preset in Lightroom Classic

1. Sync — the one you want most of the time

1. In the Develop module, edit one photo until you are happy with it.
2. Select that photo first, then Cmd/Ctrl-click or Shift-click the others. The photo you selected first is the "most-selected" source — it has a lighter border in the filmstrip, and everything else copies from it.
3. Click Sync… at the bottom right of the right-hand panel, or press Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + S.
4. In the Synchronize Settings dialog, tick only the settings you want to carry across. Check None and then tick deliberately is safer than starting from everything checked.
5. Click Synchronize.

Option/Alt-clicking the Sync button skips the dialog and reuses whatever was ticked last time, which is a real time-saver once you have settled on a set.

2. Auto Sync — for live, simultaneous editing

To the left of the Sync button is a small switch. Flip it and the button reads Auto Sync. From then on, every slider you move applies to every selected photo at once, live. Shortcut: Cmd + Opt + Shift + A on macOS, Ctrl + Alt + Shift + A on Windows.

This is excellent for a run of identical frames — a product shoot on a fixed set, a sequence under studio light — and dangerous everywhere else, because it stays on until you turn it off and there is no undo prompt. Turn it off the moment you are done. In the 2026 release, copy, paste and sync operations that involve AI-based edits now process in the background rather than locking the interface, which makes this far less painful on large selections than it used to be.

3. Copy and Paste Settings — across modules

Select the source photo and press Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + C. Tick the settings you want in the dialog. Select the destinations and press Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + V. Unlike Sync, this works in both the Library and Develop modules, and the clipboard persists, so you can copy once and paste into several selections over the course of an hour.

In the Library module the same thing lives under Photo → Develop Settings → Copy Settings / Paste Settings. Inside the Develop module there are also Copy… and Paste buttons at the bottom of the left panel, and plain Cmd/Ctrl+C and Cmd/Ctrl+V trigger them there.

A useful cousin: Previous (Cmd + Opt + V / Ctrl + Alt + V) applies the previously-selected photo's settings to the current one. Good for working through a shoot frame by frame.

4. Quick Develop — relative adjustments in Library

In the Library module's right panel, the Quick Develop section has a Saved Preset dropdown at the top. Select photos in grid view, pick a preset, and it applies to all of them. This is the fastest route when you just want a preset on a batch and do not need a dialog.

The important difference from Sync: Quick Develop's arrow buttons are relative, not absolute. Clicking the Exposure right arrow adds a third of a stop to each selected photo, preserving the differences between them. Sync would set them all to the same absolute value. When you are normalising a set that was correctly exposed but needs a nudge, relative is what you want.

5. Apply during import

In the Import dialog, the right-hand panel has an Apply During Import section with a Develop Settings dropdown. Pick a preset there and every photo in the import arrives with it applied. This is the least reversible of the five — you can of course reset afterwards, but it is easy to forget the setting is sticky between imports, so check it every time.

Choosing between them

Before you batch anything

Batch operations amplify whatever is wrong with the preset. If the preset carries exposure or white balance, a batch will spread that error across every photo. Test on five varied frames first, and read why your preset looks different on someone else's photo if the results surprise you.

PresetForge does the batch step on the other side of the process — Pro applies a measured preset across up to 50 photos at once so you can see how the look behaves on a real spread before you commit it to a shoot in Lightroom.