An artistic photo of a wheat field with few trees

Grain It Up


Grain It Up free Lightroom preset creates dramatic tones and a film effect that includes a lot of grain. It then adds a retro appeal by coating the image with a classic brown tint.

Collection: Warm Presets
Best for: Outdoor, Landscapes, Natural Light
Style: Dark Tones, Moody, Grungy, Brown Tint, Crisp Details

This preset is ideal for travel and landscape photos because of its strong tones and crisp details. If you are looking for a colored but desaturated vintage preset, this is definitely the one to go for. Try it as an Instagram filter, too! It can help give your feed a unique and artistic look as well.

Creates a Warm Vintage Look

A vintage photo of a lone tree in the middle of a golden field

Old Film. We tend to associate the aged film look with warm soft hues, dim tones, and grainy texture. Grain It Up applies all these, but better. For its signature retro style, it blends a warm color temperature and magenta tint. These two help moderate the intensity of color.

Given such an aesthetic, Grain It Up also adds a tinge of yellow in the highlights. This makes light appear like golden sunshine, whether direct or diffused.

You can examine the results of these settings in the After photo above. Notice the complex yellow highlights that illuminate the field. It also helps draw out the bold tones.

Amplifies the Intensity of Tones

A warm retro photo of a man barely visible in the middle of a golden field

Bold Tones. Grain It Up produces bold tones to match its crisp details. It begins by broadening the tonal range; it deepens dark regions and illuminates light ones even further. Then, to add definition, the preset boosts sharpening and clarity as well.

As you can see in this example, the preset focuses on accentuating blacks and shadows. These stand out even more because of the light vintage yellow look. In the After photo, examine how the shadows help add depth and detail. These intense black tones also make sure that the photo would not look washed out.

Softens Color Intensity

A warm vintage photo of a woman in the middle of a field

Vintage Hues. The preset recreates the undersaturated hues of old film photos by lowering vibrance and saturation. It applies several adjustments for this to make sure that it retains some color integrity. Even with some hues nearly grayed-out, you can still appreciate much of the image’s original color composition.

A warm retro photo of a rusted tank in the middle of a golden field

Muted Colors. The field above looks softened yet more golden now. The preset has also turned the blue sky into greenish-gray (as the yellow tint combines with the blue). Against these lightened hues, the sharp tones and details become more emphasized. See how these color adjustments reinforce Grain It Up’s film look. The resulting image may look old, but not at all less compelling.

Applies Film Effects

A warm vignetted retro image of some wheat in the field

Film Texture. As a film preset, Grain It Up replicates some camera effects that you would expect from a retro preset. Most importantly, as its name suggests, the preset adds a lot of film grain. This, as you can see in all the above examples, complements the muted yet bold aesthetic.

Finally, notice the significant amount of vignetting that Grain It Up applies. This acts like a frame and adds to the overall vintage look. It even helps draw attention to the details.

Grain It Up is for Lightroom Mobile, Desktop and…

Like all our presets, you can absolutely use Grain It Up 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
Grungy Free Lightroom Presets

Free Lightroom Preset by Rachel Carter

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