A monochrome photo of a woman smelling a flower

Metallic Scape


Metallic Scape free Lightroom preset transforms colored images to black and white and tints with light cool tones. The result is a bright metallic look: a silver monochrome. It is optimized for outdoor photography, like portraits and landscapes. Its tones, especially when blending with natural light, are rich enough to produce complex skin tones and crisp landscape textures.

Collection: Black and White Presets
Best for: Outdoor, Natural Light
Style: Clear, Polished, Light Cool Tint

This is a unique classic preset to try. It takes the style of vintage film photography and applies a sleek modern twist. It has softened tones like most film simulations but with a tint that adds definition and artistic flair.

The preset’s stunning effect can be applied to photos that you intend to print, and even your everyday snapshots on Instagram. After all, this makes such a unique filter! It will give your feed an elegant, cohesive, and professional look.

Mutes Saturation and Vibrance to Simulate Monochrome

A silver monochrome film portrait of a woman in front of a bush of violet flowers

Grayed Out. Unlike most black and white presets, Metallic Scape simply mutes vibrance and saturation to generate the monochrome effect. The saturation slider is only slightly away from being fully diminished. It still somewhat processes color; it does not switch Lightroom’s processing to black and white mode. This enables the preset to retain color information and accurately set its distinct tone.

You can examine Metallic Scape’s intricate gray tones in the woman’s portrait above. The highlights are now in silver. Her skin tone looks smooth and complex as well. The flowers’ violet hues are now displaying a broad range of grays that give us an impression of depth and detail. Even with the lack of color, the preset still produces expressive and dramatic photographs.

Adds a Blue Tone in the Highlights

A silver monochrome photo of a polaroid camera

Cool Tint. The preset enhances its monochrome look by adding a blue tone in the highlights. This also sets it apart from other black and white presets. It is this soft cool tone that gives Metallic Scape its distinct metallic luster.

A silver monochrome photo of a woman sitting on wooden steps

Brilliant Grays. You can see the results in the After photo above. Pay close attention to the light regions, specifically the highlights. Look at the sun on the wall, the balustrade, and sunlit leaves, and the subject herself. Even with the colors grayed out, you can still appreciate a lot of texture and the nuances of brilliant gray tones.

Creates a Bright Film Look

A silver monochrome portrait of a woman wearing a white top with a denim jacket over her right shoulder

Brightened Expressions. The preset first adds more light to the scene by increasing exposure. This also allows it to apply finer adjustments in tone. After this brightening, Metallic Scape begins to moderate highlights. It softens them to make sure that there are no overblown regions that would otherwise wash out textures.

In this example, see how well Metallic Scape works on portraits. The woman’s expression looks brighter and livelier. There is also now a nice contrast between her bright skin tone and her dark, textured, denim jacket.

Lightens and Softens Shadows

Soft Shadows. Metallic Scape softens shadows to preserve detail and expose more complex grays. The effect also contributes to the silver motif. As you can see in the example above, this preset does not produce true blacks; remember that, along with its cool blue tint, it is still processing color. This last adjustment for the shadows also sees to it that the dark regions remain moderated and literally within the gray area.

Metallic Scape is for Lightroom Mobile, Desktop and…

Like all our presets, you can absolutely use Metallic Scape 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
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