Lightroom Development Defaults

Development defaults are the way Lightroom applies baseline development settings to an image on import or reset. Defaults are the best way to apply common settings that apply to all images from a specific camera, like sharpening and noise reduction, and not for creative styling or effects.

Unlike presets, development defaults change every development setting except white balance when they are applied. This means they can’t be used to selectively change the way an image looks.

Customization

The selection of development defaults can be customized, beyond the basic camera model, to allow more fine tuned control over their application.

These options are:

• ISO setting
• Camera serial number

In addition to user created development defaults, there is a global default that Lightroom uses when it can’t find a user created default for the selected options. This default can’t be customized.

Defaults can be customized though the Preferences Dialogbox.

How Lightroom Chooses the Default to Apply

The selection criteria Lightroom uses is simple. Lightroom looks for a default that exactly matches the settings (model, ISO and/or serial number) it’s asked to use or it applies the global default.

This can be annoying since you must save specific defaults for all combinations of ISO and serial number (if you use serial numbers) for your camera(s). If you use 1/3 or 1/2 stop ISOs that means you’ll be saving many nearly identical defaults.

In the case of an EOS 1D Mark 3, from ISO 50 to ISO 6400 in 1/3 stops increments that’s 18 defaults to create and save.

Creating and Updating Defaults

Defaults can only be created or updated in the Development Module. Further, updating a saved default is no different than creating a new one. There is only one procedure.

1. Choose an image that meets the criteria you’ve chosen for your defaults. For example, if you’ve selected to use ISO specific defaults, choose an image from the camera and ISO you want to save a default for.
2. Set the sliders the way you want them. The settings should be good in general not necessarily good for every image from your camera. Remember, these settings should be your starting point for processing an image not the ending point.
3. Next, save the settings. To do this, hold the alt-key (option on Mac) and click the button that now reads “Set Default…” (This use to be the reset button).
   

   By holding alt (option on Mac) the reset button becomes the Set Default button.

4. Finally, you will be prompted with a warning you that the changes cannot be undone. Click “Update to Current Settings” to save the default.
   

   The "Set Default Develop Settings" Dialog box: Clicking "Update to Current Settings" will create or update a development default. Clicking, "Restore Adobe Default Settings" will rest the default.

Tips

What I like to do is create a series of images of a generic scene at each combination of settings I need. Something like an X-Rite Color Check card makes a good target. Since I only narrow my defaults to ISO; that means creating an image at each ISO setting for each camera model I have.

I keep my defaults out of my normal Lightroom image organization. After import, I move them to a sub folder named for the camera in a folder called defaults. This way I have a set of known images that I only ever make my “default” adjustments and I can easily find them.

Resetting Defaults

There are two ways to reset defaults.

To globally reset all defaults, there is the “Reset all default Develop Settings” button in the “Presets” tab of the Preferences dialog. This will remove all saved defaults from the system. From this point forward, images will use the global default when imported or reset.

To reset a specific default only, you click the button “Restore Adobe Default Settings” in the same dialog box that came up when you create a custom default.