• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Organizing
  • Editing
  • Explainers
  • Photo-editing A-Z
  • About

Life after Photoshop

  • Lightroom Classic
  • Capture One
  • Nik Collection
    • Analog Efex
    • Color Efex
    • Silver Efex
    • HDR Efex
    • Viveza
    • Sharpener
    • Dfine
    • Perspective Efex (retired)
  • DxO PureRAW
  • ON1 Photo RAW
  • Exposure X

Learn how to use HDR Efex Pro 2 presets

September 19, 2013 by Rod Lawton

09 Loading presets

HDR Efex Pro 2 presets

So what if you want to load presets someone else has sent you, or which you’ve downloaded from the Internet? You simply click the Imported section in the sidebar and then click the ‘+’ button alongside the panel heading. Now you’re prompted to locate the presets you want to load on your computer.

10 Imported presets

HDR Efex Pro 2 presets

And here are the two presets I selected in the previous step. They include another one I created earlier called ‘Rocky landscape’, and I can apply it to my image simply by clicking on it, just as I would with any of the in-built presets.

11 The finished image

HDR Efex Pro 2 presets

This walkthrough is mostly about presets, but it also demonstrates you can get great HDR effects from just a single image. If you shoot RAW, you may well be able to capture the full tonal range of a scene without resorting to bracketed exposures, and this solves all the problems with misalignment and ghosting that multiple images can produce.

See also

More HDR Efex Pro tutorials

Related

Pages: Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4

Filed Under: TutorialsTagged With: DxO, Nik Collection

Rod Lawton has been a photography journalist for nearly 40 years, starting out in film but then migrating to digital. He has worked as a freelance journalist, technique editor (N-Photo), channel editor (TechRadar) and Group Reviews Editor on Digital Camera World. He is now working as an independent photography journalist. Life after Photoshop is a personal project started in 2013.

Primary Sidebar

Subscribe to this site

Enter your email address to subscribe to Life after Photoshop and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Adobe Lightroom: what is it, where do you get it, what does it cost in 2025?

Adobe Lightroom is not one program but three. You could … [Read More...] about Adobe Lightroom: what is it, where do you get it, what does it cost in 2025?

The best photo editing software for organizing, editing, RAW and effects

Choosing the best image editing software used to be easy. … [Read More...] about The best photo editing software for organizing, editing, RAW and effects

Layers explained

Layers explained: what they do and how to use them

Layers are a central part of many photo editing processes, … [Read More...] about Layers explained: what they do and how to use them

BAN adjustments… Basic And Necessary image corrections to do first

Photo editing software does two quite different jobs. It can … [Read More...] about BAN adjustments… Basic And Necessary image corrections to do first

More Posts from this Category

Mission statement

Life after Photoshop is not anti-Photoshop or anti-subscriptions. It exists to showcase the many Photoshop alternatives that do more, go further, or offer more creative inspiration to photographers.

Affiliate links

Life after Photoshop is funded by affiliate links and may be paid a commission for downloads. This does not affect the price you pay, the ratings in reviews or the software selected for review.

Contact

Email lifeafterphotoshop@gmail.com

Copyright © 2025 Life after Photoshop · News Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.OK