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I’ve always liked the look of vintage photography—the kind that mostly comes from film cameras—the texture… the colors… the look I’ve been trying to recreate lately. I did a similar exploration before with VSCO, but now I use Adobe Lightroom.

It’s not easy yet. I still don’t grasp much about color editing. But I’m sure this sense sharpens with more practice—and feeding myself more references!

Then I made my first three vintage presets.

The bright sunny scene has a warm yellow film preset.
The bright sunny scene shows its original colors (1).
RAWPreset 1

The first one is too yellowish—dull and washed out. But I’ll keep it and improve it. I feel like it could work for photos that need a warm nostalgic feel.

The bright sunny scene has a cooler, more balanced film preset.
The bright sunny scene shows its original colors (2).
RAWPreset 2

This one is an improvement over preset 1 with a cooler tone—more balanced. I’m okay with this one for now—I’ve tried it on other photos and it works well—though I’m still not satisfied.

The bright sunny scene has an unnatural film preset.
The bright sunny scene shows its original colors (3).
RAWPreset 3

I like the colors on this one—it somehow works with this photo. The problem is it doesn’t quite work with other photos.


It’s kind of ironic—and a hassle too—using a digital camera but chasing the look of vintage photography. But I never wanted to own a film camera—rather recreate the look instead!

My delightful irony.

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