Faded Holiday is a free Lightroom preset that creates a relaxing vacation atmosphere using cool film tones. Unlike other summer presets, this creates a unique holiday feel without using warm tints like orange or yellow. Its complex adjustments make it deal for most of outdoor photography.
You can apply this preset on your beach and travel photos. It works best on images with diffused lighting; Faded Holiday’s tones coat the image subtly, giving it a classic retro feel. The effect is similar to the images developed using the slide films of analog cameras.
Produces Cool Film Tones
Cool Film. The preset produces cool tones that are similar to the Fujifilm Provia’s. It finely sets the effect using the tone curve. To further recreate the film look, Faded Holiday also adds some fine grain.
Try to examine the results in the After photo above. First of all, notice the bluish haze that tints the image. See how it affects the entire scene, particularly the warm tones. Compare the colors of the building façade, the pavement, and the man’s clothing.
Lightens Tones
Light Matte. Faded Holiday softens tones to create a charming matte film look. It first subdues highlights to reveal details and make sure that they do not look washed out. It then also softens the other end of the tonal range by lightening both blacks and shadows. As a result, the tone curve is somewhat compressed; this produces the slightly flat vintage film effect.
You can examine the effect of these adjustments in the example above. Notice how all the tones look lighter now. Compare the shadows of the desert’s sand dunes and even the strip of blue sky at the top.
Lowers Contrast Levels
Low Contrast. The preset enhances its vintage film look further by also lowering its contrast levels. It does so only moderately; this goes hand in hand with the previous lightening of tones. Because of these improvements, your resulting photo would not have any harsh highlights or shadows. Both dark and light regions would appear balanced throughout.
Applies Complex Adjustments in Saturation and Luminance
Subdued Colors. Faded Holiday primarily creates its “faded” look by tweaking the saturation and luminance levels of its hues. This is set in Lightroom’s powerful HSL panel. With it, the preset gets to set the color intensity at varying levels.
The preset desaturates red, green, purple, and magenta. This will somehow affect some skin tones and other elements of nature. In contrast, it amplifies blue hues. This means that you get vivid blue skies and clear bodies of water.
Lastly, to deepen some tones, Faded Holiday decreases the luminance of all colors except for yellow. As a result, colors look darker and somewhat more accentuated against the preset’s light tones.
Faded Holiday is for Lightroom Mobile, Desktop and…
Like all our presets, you can absolutely use Faded Holiday preset 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 Forrest Lane
