A black and white photo of a girl in a summer dress dancing outdoors

Grey Gray


Grey Gray free Lightroom preset transforms your colored photo to a soft monochrome. The preset replaces color with complex grays. This approach to black and white gives images a surreal afterglow. It does this by converting cool colors to soft grays, and warm colors to deep, accentuating tones.

Collection: Black and White Presets
Best for: Versatile, Indoor and Outdoor
Style: Soft Matte, Grayscale, Light

The result you get will have a strong nostalgic atmosphere. This emotive look also brings with it the lasting charm of analog. It will help heighten the emotions of the captured moments.

You can try this muted monochrome treatment on any type of photograph, from intimate portraits to vast landscapes. It is versatile for all kinds of lighting, too. But if you want to intensify its dreamy and poetic impression, use it on pictures with diffused lighting. This artistic preset is great for prints and even the more casual social media or Instagram posts.

Brightens and Clarifies Images

A grayscale image of a woman reading a book at the edge of the bed

Brightening. As it is a monochrome preset, the treatment is switched to black and white mode. All adjustments are therefore optimized for monochrome.

Firstly, Grey Gray preset applies the fundamental improvements: increases in exposure and contrast. It only brightens a bit, however, just enough to stylistically add more light. This is carefully set so that highlights would not be overblown. We wouldn’t want to lose any detail.

The preset also increases contrast to give tones a crisper and more vivid look. You can see this more easily on the darker areas of the After photo above. Look at the woman’s hair, her striped shirt, and the ruffled bed sheet.

Softens the Look of Images by Moderating Tones

A black and white image of an analog camera by the window

Soft Light. Grey Gray is quite a delicate monochrome preset. It is the improvements in tone that makes this distinct look possible.

For this, Grey Gray mutes the highlights. This is apparent in the window of the above example. Note how it lessens and diffuses daylight.

To add to this soft look, the preset further lightens shadows as well. Therefore, if your images have strong lighting and stark shadows, this preset would significantly soften them. This is visible on its tone curve, with high shadows and low highlights.

But do not worry, they will not appear washed out. The preset deepens blacks so that they become rich and vivid.

Fine-Tunes the Black & White Mix Channels for a Rich Monochrome

A woman taking a stroll with a majestic architecture in the distance

Cool and Light. For a rich monochrome with a wide spectrum of grays, Grey Gray preset finely adjusts the black and white mix channels.

You can see how it handles blue tones in the above image. Notice the dome roof of the architecture on the right. It appears quite light in the After photo, not as dark as the tree on the left.

Along with the blue hues, mid-hues like purple and a bit magenta are increased as well.

A black and white photo of a row of buildings

Warm and Vivid. In contrast, observe how the warm and green hues become dark grays after applying the Gray Grey preset. This is obvious on the facade of these buildings.

Draws Your Attention to the Subject

A grayscale portrait of a woman blowing a kiss

Focused. To draw your attention to the subject, Grey Gray also increases sharpening. This, furthermore, improves texture a lot and complements the overall vintage film aesthetic.

Finally, the preset completes the look with some classic vignetting. See how it nicely frames the subject as well.

Grey Gray is for Lightroom Mobile, Desktop and…

Like all our presets, you can absolutely use Grey Gray 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 PresetLove.com

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