Samsung Pro Mode Presets: Settings to Save by Situation

Change lighting conditions and you’ll need to go back into Pro mode and readjust four or five different settings, which can take precious seconds you don’t have. So it’s handy that you can save Pro mode presets in the Camera Assistant app, and recall them with a single tap.

We show you how to enable Pro mode presets and how to use them. We also suggest initial settings for six common situations, and you’ll find these six presets in one-page printable form beneath this article.

What you need for Pro mode presets

Presets are found under Camera Assistant, which you can download for free from the Galaxy Store or Good Lock’s list of plugins. When we checked on a Galaxy S25 Ultra running One UI 9 and Camera Assistant version 4.5.00.20 in November 2026, we found Presets under its own heading, described as a way to “Save and share your camera settings as presets.” SamMobile reported the addition in December 2025 with Camera Assistant version 4.5.00.13 for One UI 8.5.

Camera Assistant is available on many Samsung Galaxy phones, and Samsung's CamCyclopedia page lists support for everything from the S20 series to the S26 line, as well as the Galaxy Z Flip and Z Fold lines and a few A-series phones. Not all features are necessarily available on every device, the June 2026-dated page notes. Make sure your version of Camera Assistant is up to date via the Galaxy Store before looking for the Presets heading, particularly if you’re using an older or mid-range phone. Our Camera Assistant guide covers the app's other settings.

What a preset saves

There are five settings that you can save when using Pro mode, according to Samsung’s list of features, and SamMobile adds that the app will also remember which lens you were using when the settings were saved.

Other Pro mode settings aren’t on either list, so you’ll need to manually configure those settings each time you want to use them.

How to save a Pro mode preset

1. 1

   Install or update Camera Assistant

   You can either look for Camera Assistant in the Galaxy Store or find it as a plugin in Good Lock. Once installed, it will show up under Camera settings (towards the bottom in the General section).

2. 2

   Turn on Presets in Pro mode

   Open Camera Assistant and scroll down to Presets. Enable Presets in Pro mode.

3. 3

   Set the values in Pro mode

   Tap More, then tap Pro. Choose the lens. Adjust the white balance and the shutter speed. Adjust the ISO and focus. Take a test picture.

4. 4

   Save the preset

   Head back to Camera Assistant and tap Presets in Pro mode. Tap Create from current settings to make a preset with those settings.

5. 5

   Repeat for each situation

   Develop and refine your own presets for each lighting situation you commonly encounter, and test each one in its real light before you save it. There’s no need to create dozens of different presets; six presets should be enough to handle most situations in which people reach for Pro mode.

Make a preset from a photo you like

Create from photo settings creates a preset from an existing image in your Gallery (aka importing settings from a photo, per Samsung’s CamCyclopedia). Use a Pro mode photo as your starting point since you intentionally selected the ISO and shutter speed. Photo mode picks its settings for that particular light, which may not be appropriate for another scene.

Loading, sharing and deleting presets

Open Pro mode, tap the presets button and pick a preset. If you saved a preset while shooting with a different lens selected, choosing that preset will also switch to the lens you selected at the time.

EV is useful to see when you’re manually adjusting the shutter speed and ISO. When these two are adjusted manually, Pro mode will calculate EV and use the control as a readout showing how far away from what the camera’s light meter thinks is a correct exposure you are. +2.0 would mean your photo would probably be around two stops too bright.

You can also share your presets with other Samsung phones using Quick Share according to Samsung’s description of the feature (via CamCyclopedia).

To edit presets, you’ll have to create new ones and delete the old ones. Presets can be managed from the same Camera Assistant menu (via Android Police).

Starting values for six presets

Set these as your starting point for Galaxy S flagships:

• W: Wide-angle (main) camera
• T: 3x telephoto camera
• ST: 5x telephoto camera (only available on Ultra models)

Open the app, apply the preset, and take a picture. Check the EV value and adjust ISO and/or exposure (shutter speed) until the EV is close to 0. Note that according to Samsung’s own instructions for using Pro mode, ISO can't be left on Auto when exposure (shutter speed) is set manually, hence both values are provided here.

Night street, handheld

When photographing at night, use the camera with the largest sensor and brightest lens, which is the main camera. ISO 800 should be fine for most scenes with street lamps and shop fronts lit up. Hold your phone against your chest or brace yourself against a wall to prevent camera shake and use a shutter speed of 1/60s to avoid excessive blurring from people walking by. If the EV readout has a minus sign, try increasing the ISO to 1600 before making the shutter speed slower. Some noise can be dealt with in post-processing, but a blurred face cannot. Multiple frames can also be helpful for still scenes: our Night mode guide describes how a single image in Pro mode often isn’t quite as good as one produced using Night mode’s burst of frames, which it stitches together.

Tripod long exposure

Focus should be set to the very end of the scale (1.00 on a Galaxy S25 Ultra) to avoid focus hunting. ISO should be at the lowest value possible (50) to get the cleanest image. The 2-second timer is helpful to avoid camera shake (this is not saved in Pro mode presets). Exposure times of 4s work well for blue hour city scenes, while 10 seconds or longer is needed for car light trails on a dark road. If the image is overexposed (the exposure value indicator in the viewfinder will show plus signs), then start by decreasing the exposure time. For water in daylight, a neutral density filter might be called for, and the shutter speed guide has you covered with the full range of shutter speeds.

Fast action

For moving subjects you generally want to specify the shutter speed. Ball sports and running kids will usually freeze with 1/1000s and the 3x zoom will help you avoid getting in the way. The ISO should be set depending on the light. On an overcast day ISO 100 and 1/1000s will be a good start. Full sun is about 2 stops brighter (sunny 16 rule), so you will have to set it to ISO 50 and go up to 1/2000s. In shade you might have to set it to ISO 200 or even 400. As you can see, the ISO can’t compensate by itself, so using the Minimum shutter speed available in Camera Assistant for Photo mode might be more appropriate in changing light conditions. Our sports photography guide compares the two approaches.

Portrait in open shade

Use open shade, think the shady side of a building or under a tree, to soften light and avoid strong contrast.

Shooting in shade means that your subject is likely to take on some blue tones so 6500K should cancel that out and give you natural skin tones.

Use the 3x zoom lens for flattering compression and good separation between your subject and the background (compared to the same framing with the main camera).

Start with 1/250s and ISO 100. This will give you plenty of latitude to capture small movements and should deliver clean skin tones except in really deep shade. Increase ISO as the light drops off but keep your shutter speed at 1/250s.

Indoors, use a similar approach for portraits lit by window light but create a separate preset with settings of around ISO 400, 1/125s and 4500K.

Landscape at golden hour

For landscapes, use ISO 50 and MF at the far end for as sharp as possible images right up to the horizon. 5500K rather than AWB (which will probably overcorrect, making the image cooler than it needs to be) will help you retain some of the golden hour warmth. 1/500s is a good starting point on your main camera during golden hour; you'll need a much faster shutter speed to shoot in direct midday sun. Of course you can always drop your shutter speed with a bit of tripod assistance as the sun sets. For a near foreground, switch the preset's focus to AF and tap the foreground, and our landscape photography guide covers lens choice.

Moon

When shooting a full moon, aim for 1/ISO at f/11 (the Looney 11 rule!) so for ISO 50 this will be 1/50s at f/11. As Galaxy telephoto zooms are much brighter than f/11 you’ll find that you can use a much faster shutter speed than 1/50s. Start at 1/500s with your longest zoom. When the moon is half full the edge in shadow isn’t lit as brightly as a full moon. You’ll need a slower shutter speed to compensate. Try 1/250s at ISO 50. The sky will be black in your photo so it’s best to ignore the camera’s exposure reading as it will be center-weighted. Either put the moon in the centre and change your metering mode to Spot, or ignore the reading and just use the preview image to check that you’re keeping as much detail as possible in the bright edge of the moon. Our moon photography guide covers zoom and framing.

Pro mode presets and Expert RAW presets

Within Expert RAW (which produces 16-bit linear DNG image files), a Galaxy S25 Ultra with One UI 9 has a row of RAW presets accessible via the sliders icon in the bottom left of the Expert RAW preview screen. As of checking in November 2026, this consisted of a plus sign for adding more, two Photographer presets (Night Sky and Night Long Exp.), and a Custom 1 option. Pro mode presets suit quick shots from the main camera app, and our Expert RAW vs Pro mode comparison explains when each app is the better pick.