A vibrant film photo of a woman walking along the street

Vintage Pop


Vintage Pop is a free Lightroom preset that gives photos a vivid vintage aesthetic. It adds a retro charm without washing out colors and textures — unlike other old film presets, its undersaturated hues will consistently look rich and crisp.

Collections: Vintage Presets
Best for: Portraits, Indoor and Outdoor
Style: Vibrant, Classic Matte, Crisp Midtones

Such a classic style is suitable for various types of photography, making it perfect as a travel preset. This preset also looks amazing on portraits because of how its warmth complements skin tones.

Try it as an Instagram filter that will unify the look of your images, or even of your entire feed. ?

Amplifies Contrast for a Bold Look

A high-contrast headshot of a woman

Crisp Tones. What sets this preset apart from other vintage styles is how it fuses two aesthetics: retro and pop-art. Your photos can, therefore, have the charm of the old, and the intensity of the new. The blend of these creates a timeless look that can never go out of style.

Examine the example portrait above. The subject and her expressions stand out more now — the original photo looks washed out compared to it. The resulting image looks stunning and gives a stronger, lasting, impression.

Creates a Charming Vintage Look with Compressed Tones

A bright portrait of a woman in a white top and with red-rimmed glasses

Vintage Tones. These adjustments set the base for the retro vibe. Vintage Pop softens whites and lightens blacks — you get a narrower spectrum of tonal intensity. This is a quality that you can find in nearly all old-film presets; it is, after all, the distinct look that films once produced. This preset nails it, then improves on it with its color settings.

You can see the result in the above After photo. The woman’s white sweater looks somewhat muted, while the dark areas appear brighter.

A man's vibrant portrait with a blue background

Nothing Harsh. Vintage Pop’s finer adjustments in tone are in its tweaks for highlights and shadows, which are also applied in the tone curve. Because these lower highlights and brightens shadows, no tone in your photos would look harsh. The moderated highlights and shadows would also retain more detail.

You can check the result in the man’s portrait above. See how the retro aesthetic produces a dashing hipster vibe.

Blends Punchy Midtones and Undersaturated Hues

A portrait of a man in a black shirt

Understated Intensity. This is when the magic happens: how an old look gains a familiar, modern, punch. To create this style, Vintage Pop boosts clarity, hence amplifying the midtones. These make them crisp and punchy. You can examine its results by looking at the man’s shirt, his tattoos, and even the leaves in the background. See how the preset enhances his skin tones as well.

Applies Fine Adjustments in Luminance

A vivid and colorful portrait of a woman outdoors

Brilliant Hues. The pop-art look of this preset lies in its adjustments in luminance. This set the brilliance of specific hues. As you can observe in the above After photo, these settings go hand in hand with the mentioned boost in clarity.

To produce this effect, Vintage Pop increases the luminance of green, yellow, aqua, and orange colors. On the other hand, and to balance the overall look, it also lowers the luminance of red, blue, and purple.

Photographer Reviews

Johnny T is an expert photographer and axe enthusiast and he runs the website Ancient Path Workshop. He used our Vintage Pop preset on one of his axe photos. Here’s his submission:

vintage pop review

“I love the Vintage Pop preset because it provides that extra touch that makes classic axes look even better.”

Johnny T

Vintage Pop is for Lightroom Mobile, Desktop and…

Like all our presets, you can absolutely use Vintage Pop as is, right out of the box. With any preset, you might need to make adjustments to accommodate your specific camera, settings, lighting and subject matter.

  • Entirely Adjustable
  • Compatible with Lightroom 4, 5, 6 and CC
  • Performs with both PC, Mac, and Mobile
  • Applicable to both RAW and JPG images
  • 100% Free

Free Lightroom Preset by Hardy Arul

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