There’s something truly captivating about the look of vintage photographs. The faded colors, the subtle grain, and the soft tones all come together to create a sense of nostalgia and timelessness. In today’s digital age, you don’t need a darkroom or an old film camera to achieve this classic aesthetic. Thanks to vintage Lightroom presets, you can bring the charm of yesteryear to your modern images with just a few clicks. Whether you’re a wedding photographer wanting to add a romantic, old-world feel to your clients’ photos or a portrait photographer aiming for a classic, film-like quality, vintage presets are an invaluable tool in your editing arsenal.

Key Takeaways

  • Understanding Vintage Presets: Vintage Lightroom presets are pre-made settings that apply a nostalgic, film-inspired look to your digital photos. They can mimic the color palettes, grain, and tones of classic film stocks.
  • Why They’re Popular: These presets offer a quick and consistent way to achieve a timeless aesthetic, saving photographers hours in post-processing while helping to define their unique artistic style.
  • Types of Vintage Looks: The vintage aesthetic is diverse, ranging from the warm, faded look of old photographs to the vibrant, saturated colors of retro film. Common styles include film emulation, sepia tones, and matte finishes.
  • Customization is Key: While presets provide a great starting point, the best results come from fine-tuning the settings to match the specific lighting and mood of each photograph. Adjustments to exposure, contrast, and color grading are often necessary.
  • Beyond Presets with AI: While presets are a fantastic tool, AI-powered editing solutions like Imagen offer a more dynamic and personalized approach. Imagen learns your unique editing style, including your preferences for vintage aesthetics, and applies it intelligently to each photo, ensuring a consistent yet adaptive result that static presets can’t match.

What Exactly Are Vintage Lightroom Presets?

So, what are we really talking about when we say “vintage Lightroom presets”? At their core, these are saved sets of editing adjustments within Adobe Lightroom that you can apply to your photos with a single click. Think of them as recipes for a specific look. Instead of manually adjusting dozens of sliders for exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, colors, and effects for every single photo, a preset does all that heavy lifting for you instantly.

The “vintage” part of the name refers to the specific aesthetic these presets are designed to create. They aim to replicate the look and feel of photographs from past eras. This can mean a lot of different things, as photographic technology and styles have changed dramatically over the decades. A vintage preset might try to emulate:

  • The look of a specific film stock: Think of the classic looks of Kodak Portra, Fuji Superia, or Ilford HP5. Each film had its own unique way of rendering colors, contrast, and grain. Film emulation presets are meticulously crafted to reproduce these characteristics.
  • The effects of aging on a photograph: Old photos often have faded colors, a yellow or brownish tint, reduced contrast, and sometimes light leaks or dust and scratches. Some vintage presets are designed to mimic these signs of age for a truly nostalgic feel.
  • A general retro vibe: This is a broader category that might not be tied to a specific film or time period but rather aims to capture a general sense of nostalgia. This could involve muted tones, a matte finish, or a specific color palette that feels reminiscent of the past.

Essentially, vintage Lightroom presets are a bridge between the convenience of digital photography and the timeless appeal of analog aesthetics. They are a powerful tool for any photographer looking to add a layer of storytelling and emotion to their work.

Why Has the Vintage Look Become So Popular in Photography?

You’ve seen it everywhere, from Instagram feeds to professional wedding albums. That classic, film-inspired look has made a major comeback. But why? What is it about this vintage aesthetic that resonates so deeply with both photographers and their audiences? It’s more than just a passing trend. There are some solid reasons behind its enduring popularity.

First and foremost, the vintage look evokes a powerful sense of nostalgia and timelessness. There’s an emotional connection we have to old photographs. They remind us of family histories, of moments that have stood the test of time. By applying a vintage style to a modern photo, you’re tapping into that emotional reservoir. A wedding photo with a soft, filmic look can feel more romantic and enduring, as if it’s already a cherished memory.

Another key reason is the desire for a unique artistic style. In a world saturated with digital images that can often look a bit too perfect and sterile, a vintage aesthetic helps a photographer’s work stand out. The subtle imperfections of a film look—the grain, the slightly shifted colors—add character and a human touch. It’s a way of saying that your work is crafted, not just captured. For professional photographers, developing a consistent vintage style can become a signature part of their brand, attracting clients who are drawn to that specific look.

And let’s not forget the practical side of things. Achieving a beautiful vintage look manually can be incredibly time-consuming. You’d have to be an expert in color grading, tone curves, and split toning, and you’d need to apply those skills consistently across hundreds or even thousands of photos from a shoot. Vintage Lightroom presets offer a huge shortcut to consistency and efficiency. With a good set of presets, you can apply a cohesive look to an entire gallery in a fraction of the time, freeing you up to focus on other aspects of your business.

Finally, there’s a certain authenticity associated with the vintage look. It feels more real, more organic than the hyper-sharp, ultra-saturated look that digital cameras can produce straight out of the box. The softer tones and textures can be more flattering for portraits and can create a more immersive, story-driven feel for documentary-style photography. It’s a look that feels less about technical perfection and more about capturing a mood and a moment.

Exploring the Different Flavors of Vintage: Common Preset Styles

The term “vintage” covers a lot of ground in photography. It’s not a one-size-fits-all look. Just as there were many different types of film and printing processes over the years, there are many different styles of vintage presets available today. Understanding these different “flavors” can help you choose the right one for your images and your artistic vision.

Film Emulation: The True Classics

This is perhaps the most popular category of vintage presets. Film emulation presets are designed to meticulously replicate the look of specific, iconic film stocks. Photographers who grew up shooting on film often have a deep appreciation for the unique qualities of their favorite rolls, and these presets bring that magic to the digital world.

  • Kodak Portra: Known for its beautiful, warm tones and flattering skin tones, Portra is a favorite for portrait and wedding photography. Presets that emulate Portra will often give your images a bright, airy feel with a touch of warmth.
  • Fuji Pro 400H: This film was famous for its cooler, slightly greenish tones and fine grain. Fuji presets are great for creating a more contemporary, fine-art look, especially for outdoor and landscape photos.
  • Ilford HP5: A classic black and white film, HP5 is known for its beautiful contrast and classic grain structure. Presets that mimic HP5 will give you a timeless, documentary-style black and white look.

Retro and Cross-Processed Looks: A Splash of Color

This style is all about bold, stylized color. It’s less about accurately recreating a specific film and more about capturing the vibe of a certain era, like the 1970s or 80s.

  • Retro Color Grades: These presets often feature warm, golden hour tones, with rich oranges and yellows. They can give your photos a sun-drenched, nostalgic feel.
  • Cross-Processing: This look comes from an old darkroom technique where you would process one type of film in chemicals meant for another. The result was often wild, unpredictable color shifts, high contrast, and saturated colors. Cross-processed presets can give your images a quirky, artistic, and edgy look.

Faded and Matte Finishes: Soft and Dreamy

This style is characterized by its soft, low-contrast look. It’s perfect for creating a dreamy, romantic, or moody atmosphere.

  • Matte Look: This is achieved by lifting the black point in the tone curve, which means that the darkest parts of your image are not pure black, but rather a dark gray. This gives the photo a soft, non-glossy, matte finish.
  • Faded Tones: These presets reduce the overall contrast and saturation of an image, making it look like an old photograph that has faded over time. This can be a beautiful effect for creating a sense of nostalgia and history.

Sepia and Monochrome Tones: Beyond Basic Black and White

Of course, no discussion of vintage looks would be complete without mentioning monochrome styles. But it’s not just about converting to black and white.

  • Sepia Toning: This classic look gives your photos a warm, brownish tint. It’s a great way to instantly make an image feel like it’s from a bygone era.
  • Toned Black and White: Beyond sepia, you can find presets that add subtle color tints to the highlights and shadows of a black and white image, a technique known as split toning. This can add a lot of depth and mood to your monochrome photos.

By exploring these different styles, you can start to see the incredible versatility of vintage presets. The right preset can completely transform the mood of a photograph, helping you to better tell the story you want to tell.

A Practical Guide: How to Use Vintage Lightroom Presets

So you’ve found some vintage presets that you’re excited to try. Now what? Getting them into Lightroom and applying them to your photos is a straightforward process. Let’s walk through it step-by-step.

Step 1: Installing Your Presets in Lightroom Classic

Before you can use your presets, you need to tell Lightroom where to find them. The good news is that this is much easier than it used to be.

  1. Unzip the Preset File: Most presets you download will come in a .zip file. The first thing you need to do is unzip or extract this file. Inside, you should find files with the .xmp extension. These are the modern Lightroom preset files.
  2. Open Lightroom Classic: Launch the Lightroom Classic application on your computer.
  3. Go to the Develop Module: Click on “Develop” at the top of the screen to switch to the editing workspace.
  4. Find the Presets Panel: On the left side of the screen, you should see a panel called “Presets.” If you don’t see it, go to the “Window” menu at the top, then “Panels,” and make sure “Presets” is checked.
  5. Import Your Presets: Click the small plus (+) icon at the top right of the Presets panel and select “Import Presets.”
  6. Navigate to Your Preset Files: A file browser window will open. Navigate to the folder where you unzipped your presets and select the .xmp files.
  7. Click Import: Once you’ve selected the files, click the “Import” button.

That’s it! Your newly installed presets will now appear in the Presets panel, ready for you to use. They will usually be organized in a folder with the name of the preset pack you purchased or downloaded.

Step 2: Applying a Preset to Your Photo

This is the fun part. With your presets installed, applying them is as easy as can be.

  1. Select a Photo: In the Develop module, select the photo you want to edit from the filmstrip at the bottom of the screen.
  2. Find Your Preset: In the Presets panel on the left, find the vintage preset you want to apply.
  3. Hover to Preview: Before you even click, you can just hover your mouse over the preset name. You’ll see a live preview of how the preset will look on your photo in the main preview window. This is a great way to quickly test out different looks without committing to any changes.
  4. Click to Apply: When you find a preset you like, simply click on it. All the saved adjustments from that preset will be instantly applied to your photo. You’ll see all the sliders in the panels on the right side of the screen jump to their new positions.

Step 3: The Most Important Step – Customizing the Preset

This is the step that separates the amateurs from the pros. It’s rare that a one-click preset will be absolutely perfect for every single photo. Every image is unique, with its own lighting, colors, and subject matter. A preset is a starting point, not a final destination.

After you’ve applied a preset, take a look at your photo and ask yourself a few questions:

  • Is the exposure right? The preset might have made the photo too bright or too dark for your taste. The first and most important adjustment you should always check is the Exposure slider in the Basic panel.
  • How’s the contrast? Maybe the preset added too much contrast, crushing your shadows, or maybe it made the image too flat. Play with the Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, and Blacks sliders to dial it in perfectly.
  • What about the white balance? A vintage preset might have added a strong warm or cool color cast. If it’s too much, you can adjust the Temp and Tint sliders to make it look more natural.
  • Are the colors how you want them? You can fine-tune individual colors using the HSL/Color panel. For example, if the preset made the greens too muted, you can go to the HSL panel and increase the saturation and luminance of the greens.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with the sliders after you’ve applied a preset. The goal is to make the preset work for your photo. By making these small adjustments, you’ll be able to get a much more refined and professional-looking result. This is how you truly make a preset your own and develop your unique style.

Finding Your Perfect Vintage Vibe: Where to Get Presets

Now that you know how to use them, the next question is, where do you find high-quality vintage Lightroom presets? There’s a huge market out there, with options ranging from free downloads to premium collections from professional photographers. Here’s a breakdown of what to look for and where to find them.

Free vs. Paid Presets: What’s the Difference?

You’ll find plenty of free presets available online, but it’s important to understand the trade-offs.

  • Free Presets: These can be a great way to get started and experiment with different styles without any financial commitment. You can find them on photography blogs, YouTube tutorials, and some preset marketplaces. However, the quality can be inconsistent. A free preset might be designed for a very specific type of photo and may not work well on a variety of images. They also typically don’t come with any support or instructions.
  • Paid Presets: When you purchase presets from a reputable source, you’re generally paying for quality, consistency, and expertise. Professional preset creators spend countless hours developing and testing their presets on a wide range of photos from different camera systems to ensure they are versatile. Paid presets often come in collections or packs, giving you a variety of looks that are all designed to work together cohesively. They also usually come with installation guides and customer support if you run into any issues.

For a professional photographer who needs reliable and consistent results, investing in a good set of paid presets is almost always worth it.

What to Look for in a High-Quality Preset Pack

Not all preset packs are created equal. When you’re shopping for vintage presets, here are a few things to keep in mind:

  • Before and After Examples: A good preset seller will show you plenty of examples of their presets in action on a variety of different photos. Look for examples that were shot in different lighting conditions (sunny, overcast, indoor, outdoor) and on different subjects (portraits, landscapes, weddings). This will give you a much better idea of how versatile the presets are.
  • Consistency: The presets within a pack should all have a similar underlying style. This is important for creating a cohesive look across a full gallery of photos.
  • Compatibility: Make sure the presets are compatible with your version of Lightroom (Lightroom Classic, Lightroom CC, or Lightroom Mobile). Most modern presets use the .xmp file format, which works across all versions.
  • Reviews and Testimonials: See what other photographers are saying about the presets. Look for reviews on the seller’s website, on social media, or in photography forums.

Where to Find Them

  • Preset Marketplaces: Websites like Etsy have a massive selection of presets from independent creators. You can also find presets on creative marketplaces like Creative Market.
  • Professional Photographers’ Stores: Many well-known photographers sell their own custom presets. This can be a great option if you admire a particular photographer’s style and want to learn how they achieve their look.
  • Specialty Preset Companies: There are companies that specialize in creating high-quality presets, especially film emulation presets. These companies often do extensive research to accurately replicate the look of classic film stocks.

By doing a little research, you can find the perfect set of vintage presets that will not only speed up your workflow but also help you define and refine your artistic voice.

The Next Level: Crafting Your Own Signature Vintage Presets

Using presets made by others is a fantastic way to speed up your workflow and explore different styles. But what if you want to create a look that is truly, uniquely yours? The ultimate step in mastering the vintage aesthetic is learning to create your own presets from scratch. This might sound intimidating, but it’s a skill that will give you complete creative control over your images.

The Building Blocks of a Vintage Preset

Creating a vintage look is all about manipulating a few key elements in Lightroom’s Develop module. Let’s break down the most important panels and sliders involved.

  • The Basic Panel: This is your starting point. Here, you’ll want to adjust the White Balance (Temp and Tint) to give your photo a warm or cool color cast. Often, a slight shift towards yellow and green can contribute to a vintage feel. You’ll also want to play with the Contrast, Highlights, and Shadows. A common technique for a faded look is to reduce the overall contrast.
  • The Tone Curve: This is arguably the most powerful tool for creating a vintage look. The tone curve gives you precise control over the brightness and contrast of your image. To get that classic “matte” or “faded” look, you’ll want to create a gentle S-curve and, most importantly, lift the black point. You do this by grabbing the bottom-left point of the curve and dragging it straight up. This ensures that the darkest parts of your image are a dark gray instead of pure black.
  • The HSL/Color Panel: This is where you can fine-tune your colors. For a vintage look, you often want to desaturate certain colors, especially vibrant ones like bright greens and blues. You can also shift the Hue of certain colors. For example, shifting the greens towards yellow or aqua can have a big impact on the overall feel of the image.
  • The Color Grading Panel (formerly Split Toning): This tool is essential for adding subtle color tints to the highlights, midtones, and shadows of your image. A classic vintage technique is to add a bit of yellow or orange to the highlights and a touch of blue or teal to the shadows. This can create a beautiful, cinematic color palette.
  • The Effects Panel: This is where you’ll find the Grain slider. Adding a bit of grain is one of the quickest ways to make a digital photo feel more like film. Don’t go overboard, but a subtle amount of grain can add a lovely texture and character to your images.

A Step-by-Step Process for Creating Your Preset

  1. Start with a Good Photo: Choose a well-exposed photo shot in RAW format. A photo with a good range of tones will be the best canvas for creating a versatile preset.
  2. Make Your Adjustments: Go through the panels listed above and start making your edits. Don’t be afraid to experiment. The key is to make small, subtle changes and see how they interact with each other.
  3. Refine and Test: Once you have a look you’re happy with, try applying it to a few other photos. You’ll likely need to make some tweaks to ensure it works well in different lighting conditions.
  4. Save Your Preset: Once you’re satisfied, it’s time to save your creation. In the Presets panel on the left, click the plus (+) icon and choose “Create Preset.” Give your preset a name, choose which group to save it in, and select which settings you want to include. It’s generally a good idea to uncheck things like Exposure and White Balance, as these will need to be adjusted on a per-photo basis anyway.

Creating your own presets is a journey of discovery. It will force you to think deeply about color, tone, and mood, and it’s one of the most rewarding things you can do to develop your personal style as a photographer.

Beyond Presets: The Future of Editing with Imagen

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Lightroom presets, whether you buy them or create them yourself, are an incredibly powerful tool. They have revolutionized the way many photographers approach their post-production workflow. However, they do have one fundamental limitation: they are static. A preset applies the exact same set of adjustments to every photo, regardless of the photo’s content. This is why you always have to go in and make manual tweaks to exposure, white balance, and other settings.

But what if there was a smarter way? What if you could have an editing tool that understood your unique vintage style but was also intelligent enough to adapt its edits to the specific needs of each individual photo? This is where AI-powered editing, and specifically Imagen, comes into the picture.

How Imagen is Different from a Preset

Imagen is not a preset. It’s an AI-powered desktop application that learns your personal editing style from your past edits in Lightroom Classic. Instead of a static recipe, Imagen creates a dynamic Personal AI Profile that edits new photos just like you would, but in a fraction of the time.

Here’s how it works:

  1. You Teach Imagen: You start by showing Imagen at least 2,000 of your previously edited photos from your Lightroom Classic catalogs. These photos should be a good representation of the style you want the AI to learn—in this case, your signature vintage look.
  2. Imagen Learns: The AI analyzes all of these edits. It doesn’t just look at the final slider positions; it learns the relationships between the original photo and your final edit. It learns how you adjust exposure in different lighting conditions, how you treat skin tones, how you grade your colors to achieve your vintage aesthetic.
  3. Imagen Edits for You: Once your Personal AI Profile is built, you can upload new, unedited photos to Imagen. The AI will then edit each photo individually, applying your unique style with incredible accuracy. It will automatically correct the exposure and white balance for each shot, something a static preset could never do. The result is a batch of photos that are not only consistently styled but also correctly edited for the specific conditions in which they were shot.

The processing happens in the cloud, which means it doesn’t slow down your computer. You can upload a full wedding gallery, and Imagen will have it edited and ready for you to download back into Lightroom in minutes.

The Power of a Personal AI Profile for a Vintage Look

Imagine you’ve spent years perfecting your own unique vintage style. You have a specific way you like to handle colors, a certain amount of grain you prefer, and a signature S-curve you apply to your tone curve. With Imagen, you can bake all of that knowledge and artistry into your own Personal AI Profile.

Your profile will understand that you like to warm up your indoor shots, add a touch of magenta to your shadows, and desaturate your greens. And it will apply those preferences intelligently, adapting them to each new photo it sees. The result is a level of consistency and efficiency that is simply impossible to achieve with presets alone.

And your profile is not set in stone. As your style evolves, you can continue to feed Imagen your latest work through a process called “fine-tuning.” This ensures that your Personal AI Profile grows and changes along with you as an artist.

What if I Don’t Have a Signature Style Yet? Talent AI Profiles

For photographers who are still developing their style or who simply want to try out a professional-grade vintage look right away, Imagen also offers Talent AI Profiles. These are AI profiles built on the editing styles of some of the world’s leading photographers. You can browse through a variety of styles, including many with beautiful vintage and filmic aesthetics, and apply them to your photos instantly. It’s like having a world-class photographer as your personal editor.

Imagen represents a true paradigm shift in photo editing. It takes the consistency and speed of presets and combines it with the intelligence and adaptability of a human editor. For any photographer who loves the vintage aesthetic but is tired of the endless manual tweaking that presets require, Imagen is a game-changer.

Conclusion: Embracing the Timeless in a Digital World

The appeal of the vintage aesthetic in photography is undeniable. It’s a look that transcends trends, tapping into a universal appreciation for nostalgia, storytelling, and the beauty of imperfection. For the modern digital photographer, vintage Lightroom presets have been an essential tool for bringing this timeless quality to their work, offering a path to both artistic expression and workflow efficiency.

We’ve journeyed through the world of vintage presets, from understanding what they are and why they’re so popular, to the practical steps of installing and customizing them. We’ve explored the diverse flavors of vintage styles and even touched on the rewarding process of creating your very own signature look.

But the evolution of photo editing doesn’t stop with presets. As we’ve seen, the rise of AI-powered tools like Imagen is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. By learning your unique style, Imagen offers a level of personalization and intelligence that static presets simply can’t match. It represents a future where you can achieve your perfect vintage look with unparalleled consistency and speed, freeing you up to do what you do best: create beautiful, memorable photographs.

Whether you choose to master the art of traditional presets or embrace the power of AI, the goal remains the same: to craft images that resonate, that tell a story, and that stand the test of time. The vintage look is more than just a filter; it’s a conscious artistic choice, a way of connecting the present moment to the rich history of the photographic art form. So go ahead, experiment, find the vintage vibe that speaks to you, and continue creating work that is both beautiful and timeless.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Can vintage Lightroom presets damage my original photos?

Absolutely not. Lightroom uses non-destructive editing, which means that any changes you make, whether manually or by applying a preset, are stored as a set of instructions. Your original RAW file is never altered or damaged. You can always go back to the original, unedited version of your photo by clicking the “Reset” button in the Develop module.

2. Why do my photos look different from the preset examples after I apply them?

This is a very common experience and it’s usually due to differences in lighting, camera settings, and the colors in your original photo. A preset is designed to work as a starting point. The most common reasons for a discrepancy are differences in exposure and white balance. Always be prepared to adjust the Exposure and Temp/Tint sliders after applying a preset to make it fit your specific image.

3. Can I use vintage presets on my mobile photos?

Yes! If you have an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, any presets you install in Lightroom on your desktop will automatically sync to the Lightroom Mobile app. This means you can apply the same beautiful vintage looks to photos you take with your phone. There are also many presets available that are designed specifically for mobile editing.

4. What’s the difference between a preset and a LUT?

A preset is a set of saved slider adjustments specific to Adobe Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw. A LUT (Look-Up Table) is a more universal file that can be used to apply a color grade in a wide variety of photo and video editing applications, including Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and Final Cut Pro. Some preset packs will include both .xmp presets and .cube LUTs for maximum versatility.

5. How many presets should I have? Is it possible to have too many?

While it can be tempting to collect hundreds of presets, this can often lead to decision fatigue and an inconsistent editing style. It’s generally better to have a small, curated collection of high-quality presets that you know and love. Find a few core vintage styles that resonate with you and learn how to adapt them to your photos. This will lead to a more cohesive and recognizable body of work.

6. Do vintage presets work on all types of photography?

While vintage presets are most commonly associated with portraits, weddings, and lifestyle photography, they can certainly be used on other genres as well. A moody, faded preset could add a beautiful, atmospheric quality to a landscape photo, and a classic black and white preset can be great for street or documentary photography. The key is to experiment and see what works for your particular subject matter and artistic vision.

7. Is it “cheating” to use presets?

Not at all. This is a common misconception among new photographers. Professional photographers in all fields use presets as a fundamental part of their workflow. They are a tool for efficiency and consistency. The real artistry comes not from the one-click application, but from how you select, customize, and adapt the preset to enhance the story and mood of your unique photograph.

8. How does Imagen handle black and white photos if I have a color vintage style?

When you create a Personal AI Profile in Imagen, you specify whether it’s for color or black and white photos. If your vintage style is primarily color-based, you would train a color profile. If you also have a signature black and white vintage style, you would create a separate profile for that. This ensures that Imagen applies the correct type of edit to the right photos.

9. Can I share my custom-made vintage presets?

Yes, you can. Once you’ve saved a preset in Lightroom, you can right-click on it in the Presets panel and choose “Export.” This will create an .xmp file that you can share with other photographers.

10. Do I need to shoot in RAW to use vintage presets effectively?

While you can apply presets to JPEG files, you will get much better results if you shoot in RAW. A RAW file contains much more data than a JPEG, which gives you far more flexibility when it comes to editing. The adjustments in a vintage preset, especially those that drastically alter colors and tones, will work much more effectively on a RAW file and will be less likely to produce unwanted artifacts like banding.

11. What is “split toning” and how does it relate to vintage presets?

Split toning is a technique where you add a specific color to the highlights of an image and a different color to the shadows. This is a very common element in vintage presets. For example, adding warm yellows to the highlights and cool blues to the shadows can create a beautiful, cinematic, and nostalgic feel. In the latest versions of Lightroom, this feature has been expanded into the more powerful Color Grading panel.

12. Will using a popular vintage preset make my work look like everyone else’s?

This is a valid concern. If you simply apply a popular preset and export the photo without any further adjustments, your work might end up looking generic. This is why the customization step is so crucial. By fine-tuning the preset to your specific photo and taste, and by developing your own library of adjustments, you can use a popular preset as a foundation to build a look that is still distinctly your own.

13. How much time can I really save with presets or a tool like Imagen?

The time savings can be enormous. Manually editing a single photo to achieve a complex vintage look could take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes. If you have a wedding with 800 photos, that’s a huge amount of time. With presets, you can cut that down significantly, but you’ll still spend a lot of time on individual adjustments. With a tool like Imagen, the AI does the bulk of the individual adjustments for you. Many photographers report that Imagen cuts their total editing time by 75% or more, turning days of editing into just a few hours.