Perfect Day free Lightroom preset creates an impression of a sunny day with a lime tint that’s reminiscent of an analog film. The result is a classic film hue that produces a lively yet cozy look and feel. Its unique balance of warm and cool tones give it a stunning retro appeal.
This preset looks best on outdoor images, whether of urban areas or natural scenery. You can try it on outdoor portraits, landscapes, and travel photos. Its tones come out beautifully on photos shot under diffused natural light, as you can see in the examples below.
You can also use this as an Instagram filter! Not only would the preset give your photos a charming air of nostalgia, but it would also help you achieve a consistent and professional look across your feed. If you do use it for this purpose, tag us on our Instagram and get a chance to be featured on our website.
Creates an Old Film Effect
Old Film. Perfect Day sets its distinct look and feel by creating a blend of cinematic film tones and lively color accents. After all, as its name suggests, it is meant to bring out the emotions and atmosphere of your perfect day captures.
The preset increases exposure a bit to add more light. This somehow recreates the brilliance of sunshine. Then, for its signature colors, Perfect Day begins by adding a lime tone to highlights. This adjustment, in effect, combines the usual cool blue tones of film emulations and the golden sunlight hues. The preset then fine-tunes the overall aesthetic by customizing the RGB channels in the tone curve. These adjustments all combine to define the preset’s aesthetic, as you can see in the After photo above.
As you can observe in our example above, Perfect Day completes its film look by also enhancing its textures. It sharpens details and adds some fine film grain. Set against the light tones, these textures look crisply defined.
Produces an Analog Film Texture
Analog Matte. Perfect Day has a matte texture, as we would expect from most analog film presets. It lowers highlights and lightens shadows; this means that it narrows the tonal range. This, of course, contributes to the popular light and airy aesthetic.
The preset does not mute highlights so much; it leaves enough luster to still replicate the brilliance of sunlight. To reinforce the soft look, it instead decreases clarity.
Fine-Tunes Colors for an Artistic Retro Look
Soft Colors. To complement its elegant and stylish look, Perfect Day lowers the intensity of its colors. It initially does so by lowering the saturation levels in the Presence panel; it follows this with a more detailed adjustment in the HSL. It desaturates all colors individually and at varying levels. This ensures that the hues blend well with the overall motif.
Perfect Day also subdues the luminance of all colors except for the purple and magenta midtones. This means that only areas with these hues would appear brilliant. In the After photo above, for example, we show how the woman’s skin tones and her dress look more illuminated.
Perfect Day is for Lightroom Mobile, Desktop, and…
You can absolutely use Perfect Day 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. If you want more analog film presets, be sure to view our entire collection here.
- 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
