How do I create faded blacks and whites in Lightroom and save it as a preset?
Asked 11/15/2013
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I want to reproduce a look where the darkest blacks are lifted to dark gray and the brightest whites are pulled down to light gray, similar to crushing tones in Photoshop but with limited output levels. I can do it in Photoshop, but I’d like to do it in Lightroom so I can apply the effect to many images with a preset. Is this possible in Lightroom, and which controls should I use?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
12y ago
2 Answers
5
This can be done in Lightroom (well it can in the version I use, 5). The curves tool looks like this in the Develop module:
Once you've crunched your blacks using the 'Blacks' slider, you can click and drag the bottom left anchor point vertically upwards, to can make it look like this:
This will lighten the blacks in the way you illustrated. You can also darken the whites by dragging the opposite anchor point downwards.
You can then create a preset by including the 'Tone Curve' in the settings.
Originally by user456. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user456
12y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes. In Lightroom, use the Tone Curve rather than Levels.
To get this faded look:
- Lift the black point by dragging the bottom-left end point of the tone curve upward. This maps pure black to dark gray.
- Lower the white point by dragging the top-right end point downward. This maps pure white to light gray.
- If needed, adjust the Blacks slider first to deepen or “crunch” the shadows before lifting the black point.
This gives the same general effect as limiting black and white output levels in Photoshop: no true black and no true white, producing a matte/faded contrast look.
Once you like the result, save it as a Lightroom preset and make sure the Tone Curve is included in the preset settings so you can batch-apply it to many photos.
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