Black and White Film Fade Effect in Lightroom – Weekly Ordinary to Extraordinary Lightroom Edit – E24

Pye Jirsa

Updated on:

Black and White Photography

Black and White Film Fade Effect

In this tutorial we’re going to go create a nice black and white film fade effect for this image. We’re also going to edit this image at the speed we normally edit so you can see just how quickly the photo goes from ordinary to extraordinary in just a few seconds and clicks. The Lightroom Presets v5 is designed to make your editing workflow more efficient, while maintaining the professional quality in your photo processing.

Black and white photo

[Note: In the new Lightroom Presets v5, we have revamped all of the presets to improve image tonality and quality, allowing you to achieve even more amazing results. We’ve also added 95 new presets to reach a total of 311 presets in what is the gold standard of Lightroom image processing. In this series we’ll be going over how to use the new v5 presets to create great looking photos.  Click Here to learn more or purchase the system.]

With each of our Ordinary to Extraordinary Edits, we’re going to first be going through how we create our effects with the SLR Lounge Lightroom Presets v5, then we’ll be going through the details in the develop settings so everyone can understand exactly how we get to a specific look. This way, whether you have the presets or not, everyone can benefit from watching this video or reading the article below. For those that have the preset system, you can see the Preset Mixology below:

My Mixology

  • 01-40 BASE – VIVID STYLIZED: 42d. Punchy Fade – B&W Filmic
  • 03-30 ADJUST – CONTRAST: 37. Contrast Boost – Medium
  • 03-40 ADJUST – SHADOWS BLACKS: 42. Darken – Medium (-15,-30)
  • 03-70 ADJUST – VIGNETTING: 71d. Vignette – Light
  • 04-10 SFX – FILM & LENS: 11e. Max Film Grain

Black and White Film Fade Effect Video Tutorial

Black and White Film Fade Effect Written Tutorial

One way to speed up your editing efficiency is knowing exactly how you want your photo to look before you start editing. This way you won’t have to go through multiple looks for your photo until you’re satisfied. Instead you’ll edit your photo how you want it to look and you’re finished.

For this photo, I know exactly how we want it to look. I want this photo to have a black and white high contrast fade with film grain. With that in mind, I know that I want to choose the “01-40 BASE – VIVID STYLIZED: 42d. Punchy Fade – B&W Filmic” preset because it will give me that look.

Before Preset

black and white filmic fade

After Preset

newbefore

This preset pretty much finishes our edit because these BASE presets are designed to edit and finish a photo in one click. We’re going to add additional presets to this image to show how detailed you can be when editing with the Lightroom Presets v5 when trying to achieve a certain look.

We’re adding three Adjustment presets to add contrast, blacks, and vignetting to this image. In just 3 clicks we’re able to add all these adjustments quickly. If we didn’t have the preset system we would have to go through and adjust all the sliders in the Develop Panel manually.

  • 03-30 ADJUST – CONTRAST: 37. Contrast Boost – Medium
  • 03-40 ADJUST – SHADOWS BLACKS: 42. Darken – Medium (-15,-30)
  • 03-70 ADJUST – VIGNETTING: 71d. Vignette – Light

After Adjustment Presets

afteradjustments

To finish this image and compliment the look we’re editing for, we’re adding the “04-10 SFX – FILM & LENS: 11e. Max Film Grain” preset. This last preset stylizes the photo and gives it that black and white film look we’re editing for.

In the Develop Settings we can see just how many adjustments the presets are making. The Contrast and Clarity have been raised and the Highlights, Shadows, Whites and Blacks have all been dropped. In the Tone Curve we applied a “Vivid Punch” preset, so the shadows are being pulled up, the highlights are being pulled down, and the highlight mid tones are being boosted. These adjustments are giving this photo the high contrast fade look.

develope settings

In this photo we have the standard Sharpening settings applied. We also have two different kinds of vignetting applied, which I don’t mind because it works well with this look.  The Grain Amount has been raised to 90 because we applied the “Max Film Grain” preset.

lightroom develop settings

And here’s what our photo looks like before and after the presets are applied.

Before

black and white filmic fade

After

Black and White Photography

Conclusion and Learn More

We hope you all enjoyed this tutorial. If you are interested in learning more or purchasing the SLR Lounge Lightroom Presets v5, please click any of the links in this article.

Stay tuned for more SLR Lounge Weekly Edits!

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