How can I save my color grading settings in Premiere Pro?

March 5, 2026 · caitlin

Saving your color grading settings in Premiere Pro is a straightforward process that can save you significant time on future projects. By creating custom presets, you can quickly apply consistent looks across multiple clips or even entire projects. This ensures a uniform aesthetic and streamlines your editing workflow.

Mastering Color Grading Presets in Premiere Pro

Premiere Pro offers powerful tools for color grading, allowing you to achieve a wide range of visual styles. However, recreating complex color adjustments from scratch for each new project can be incredibly time-consuming. Fortunately, Premiere Pro allows you to save your color grading settings as presets. This feature is a game-changer for editors looking to maintain brand consistency or simply speed up their post-production process.

Why Save Your Color Grading Settings?

Imagine spending hours perfecting a specific cinematic look for a client’s video. Now, imagine needing to apply that exact same look to dozens of other clips or a future project. Without saving your settings, you’d be repeating those hours of work. Saving your color grading settings as presets offers several key advantages:

Consistency: Ensure a uniform visual style across all your footage, whether it’s for a single project or across multiple client productions.
Efficiency: Dramatically reduce the time spent on repetitive color adjustments. Apply a saved look with just a few clicks.
Experimentation: Easily test different looks by applying various presets and reverting if they don’t fit.
Collaboration: Share your signature looks with other editors or team members, promoting a cohesive visual identity.

How to Save Your Color Grading Settings as a Preset

The process of saving your color grading settings in Premiere Pro is primarily done through the Lumetri Color panel. This panel is your central hub for all color correction and grading operations.

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Preset

Apply Your Color Adjustments: First, make all the desired color adjustments to a clip. This includes changes made in the Basic Correction, Creative, Curves, Color Wheels, HSL Secondary, and Vignette sections of the Lumetri Color panel. Ensure the clip you’re adjusting has the final look you want to save.
Open the Lumetri Color Panel: If it’s not already open, navigate to Window > Lumetri Color.
Locate the Preset Option: In the Lumetri Color panel, look for the dropdown menu at the very top. It usually defaults to "None" or the name of the effect. Click on this dropdown.
Select "Save as Preset": From the dropdown menu, choose the option that says "Save as Preset…".
Name Your Preset: A dialog box will appear, prompting you to name your new preset. Choose a descriptive name that clearly indicates the look or purpose of the preset (e.g., "Cinematic Teal & Orange," "Warm Documentary Look," "Vintage Film Grain").
Choose a Preset Folder (Optional but Recommended): You can choose to save your preset in the default "User Presets" folder, or you can create new folders to organize your presets. Creating custom folders (e.g., "Project X Looks," "Client A Styles") can be very helpful for managing a large library of presets.
Decide What to Include: The dialog box may offer options to include specific parts of the Lumetri Color effect in your preset. For most color grading presets, you’ll want to include all adjustments. However, you can selectively exclude certain parameters if needed.
Click "OK": Once you’ve named your preset and selected its location, click "OK" to save it.

Where to Find Your Saved Presets

Your custom presets will now appear in the Lumetri Color panel’s dropdown menu under the "User Presets" folder (or any custom folders you created). You can also find them in the Effects panel under Video Effects > Color Correction > Lumetri Color Presets.

Applying Your Saved Color Grading Presets

Applying a saved preset is even simpler than creating one.

Select the Target Clip: In your timeline, select the clip to which you want to apply the color grade.
Open the Lumetri Color Panel: Ensure the Lumetri Color panel is open (Window > Lumetri Color).
Navigate to Your Preset: Click the dropdown menu at the top of the Lumetri Color panel. Browse through your "User Presets" or custom folders until you find the preset you want to apply.
Click on the Preset Name: Simply clicking on the name of your saved preset will apply all the saved color adjustments to the selected clip.

Pro Tip: You can drag and drop your saved presets directly from the Effects panel onto a clip in the timeline as well.

Organizing and Managing Your Presets

As your preset library grows, effective organization becomes crucial.

Descriptive Naming: Use clear, concise names. Include keywords that describe the mood, style, or intended use of the look.
Custom Folders: Create folders within the "User Presets" directory for different projects, clients, or types of looks (e.g., "Daytime," "Nighttime," "Skintones").
Regular Review: Periodically review your presets. Delete any that you no longer use to keep your library clean and efficient.

Advanced Techniques and Considerations

While saving Lumetri Color presets is the most common method, you can also save adjustment layers with color grading applied. This allows you to apply a look to multiple clips simultaneously without affecting the clips directly.

Using Adjustment Layers for Global Color Grading

Create a new Adjustment Layer (File > New > Adjustment Layer).
Place this adjustment layer on a track above your video clips in the timeline.
Apply the Lumetri Color effect to the adjustment layer and make your desired color grading adjustments.
To save this as a reusable look, you can right-click on the Lumetri Color effect in the Effect Controls panel and select "Save as Preset." This will save the Lumetri Color effect itself as a preset that you can then apply to other adjustment layers or clips.

When Might You NOT Save a Preset?

Sometimes, a color grade is highly specific to a single shot. For instance, a dramatic effect for a brief moment might not be worth saving as a general preset. In such cases, you might simply make the adjustments and move on. However, for any look you anticipate using more than once, saving a preset is highly recommended.