Let’s face it, many photographers these days utilize Lightroom presets to either expedite their workflow or to help spur creativity when they are in a rut. But have you ever wanted to use a Lightroom preset as a layer in Photoshop, or potentially layer two presets together? Well look no further, Preset Brewery by Adam Bardon makes life easy with a click of a button.

Preset Brewery brings functionality that I’ve wanted for the Adobe Suite for quite some time in two ways. One, I've wanted the ability to adjust the strengths of my presets, which is done by quickly duplicating the background layer then applying the preset by navigating to Filter > Camera Raw Filter, selecting the right most tab which looks like sliders, then apply the preset of your choice to the new layer. Now I adjust the opacity of the new layer to help achieve the look I’m aiming for.

Two, ability to combine two presets into one in Photoshop. Simply create two new background layers, adding the presets you’d like to use in the Camera Raw presets tab, then adjust the opacity of each to your liking. Simple enough.

With the release of Preset Brewery version 1.1 recently users now have the ability to export directly into the Camera Raw presets folder from the app, which is a welcome addition to the tool. Users can adjust the save location as well if they aren’t necessarily wanting the new .XMP file the app makes to go directly into the Camera Raw setting directory.

If you’d like to save yourself some time while adding your Lightroom presets into Adobe Raw for use in Photoshop navigate on your Mac to /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom to find your presets. Copy the presets you’d like to add into Adobe Raw and paste into a few folder on your desktop. Make sure not to cut and paste. Now simply use the app the convert those presets (.lrtemplate files) into .XMP files and let Preset Brewery add the new file into the proper directory for immediate use in Photoshop. Sorry Windows users, Preset Brewery is currently only available for Mac.

I spoke with Bardon, and in an upcoming release, users will have the ability to batch process presets versus having to convert them one at a time. Also, Bardon has offered a discount of 37 percent off for a limited time to Fstoppers readers. Use FSTOPPERS37 in the next two weeks to receive this handy app for $4.98.