Carnival Glow is a free Lightroom preset designed for night photography. It works best on scenes with accent and artificial lights that are set against the night sky. It gives the image a modern look with its cool blue glow.
Collection: Night Presets
Best for: Night Photography, Urban Scenes
Style: Blue Glow, Clear, Enhanced Tones
You can use this preset to create striking looks when photographing scenes in carnivals, fairs, and various urban scenes. Try using it on street images that feature colorful signage and streetlights. It will add an extra flair to any dynamic night shot.
This preset is also great as an Instagram filter! It will give your photos, or even an entire feed, an artistic and cohesive look because of its brilliant blue glow.
Adds a Distinct Blue Glow
Cool Blue. Carnival Glow creates its unique blue glow by blending temperature, tint, and split toning. It begins by cooling the color temperature to infuse the image with light blue. The preset then layers it with a tinge of green. You can notice how these two adjustments blend to create a subtle aqua hue.
To reinforce the motif, the preset also adds some blue to the shadows. Examine the After photo above and see how this simple accent helps distribute the added illumination.
If you want a stark contrast to this style, you would check out our red Lightroom preset for night photography. It instead fills images with dramatic red tones, with very artistic results.
Brightens and Lightens Tones
Brightening. The preset brightens the image by enhancing its tones. It does so without overblowing highlights, as it only lightens darks and brightens whites. It tempers highlights to make sure that there wouldn’t be any glaring, too-brilliant, white spots. This is handy when taking photos of scenes with a lot of artificial lighting.
In the After photo above, examine how moderate the tones are. You can observe this most easily on the subject. Notice how the shadows on her are less harsh. She is also more illuminated now, just enough to show more of her features and expression.
Reinforces Midtones Clarity
Clear and Vivid. To complement the brightening and retain depth, Carnival Glow fully amplifies clarity. This means that it defines midtones even more. The preset even complements this by setting a custom tone curve.
You can observe how it adds definition to the portrait above. Notice how the details are not washed out; they are, instead, crisp and clear. It helps draw attention to the subject as well: you can now see more of the woman’s face, her eyeglasses, and even the shades of her hair.
Applies Texture Enhancements
Crisp Details. Carnival Glow accentuates textures to go with its bright and modern look. It makes sure that you get to show as much detail as possible even when shooting at night.
It boosts sharpening and adds noise reduction. This way, you get crisp details without noise muddying them. In the After photo above, examine how it makes the fireworks more defined even with the bright blue tones. You can now even see more of the trails.
Finally, the preset adds vignetting. Carnival Glow applies this classic film effect to darken the edges and frame the vibrant night scene. It is this charming analog effect that sets this preset apart from our night photography Lightroom presets.
Carnival Glow is for Lightroom Mobile, Desktop and…
Like all our Lightroom Presets, you can absolutely use Carnival Glow 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
- Designed for Adobe Lightroom for PC, Mac, and Mobile
- Includes Lrtemplate and XMP preset formats for Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic desktop apps
- Includes DNG preset format for the free Lightroom mobile app
- Applicable to both RAW and JPG images
- 100% Free Preset Download
Need help with the presets? You can visit our guide to learn how to install Lightroom presets.
