How to Create a Modern Airy Look in Lightroom

Lightroom Post Processing

Creating a modern airy look is all about soft light, bright tones, and delicate color balance that make your images feel light and inviting. By fine-tuning exposure, highlights, and shadows, and carefully enhancing the colors, you can transform any portrait or lifestyle photo into a clean, elegant shot with a contemporary and uplifting feel. This versatile editing style works beautifully for portraits, fashion, interiors, or lifestyle imagery, adding a professional touch while keeping a natural, effortless aesthetic.

Step 1

Open your image in Lightroom.

Step 2

Go to the Develop tab.

Step 3

Expand the "Basic" tab and apply the following settings.

Step 4

Next, expand the "Tone Curve" tab, be sure to have the "Point Curve" selected and click 1 time anywhere on the curve to add a new control point.

Step 5

Set each control point to the following Input/Output values:

1. 0 - 0
2. 115 - 125
3. 255 - 240

Step 6

Expand the "Color Mixer" tab and apply the following settings.

Step 7

Expand the "Color Grading" tab, select the "Shadows" and apply the following settings.

Step 8

Now select the "Highlights" and apply the following settings.

Step 9

Expand the "Detail" tab and apply the following settings.

Step 10

Next, expand the "Calibration" tab and apply the following settings.

Step 11

If you plan to use this effect on more images, a good idea is to save all of these settings as a new Preset. To do that, on the left panel, click on the "Add New Preset" icon and from the dropdown menu select "Create Preset".

Step 12

In the "New Develop Preset" window, give your preset a name and click the "Create" button. This will create a new preset that you can later use over any other image you want.

Conclusion

Now that you know how to create a modern airy look in Lightroom, you can apply this fresh and uplifting style to any of your photos and fine-tune the settings to match the atmosphere you want to convey. This effect works beautifully across portraits, lifestyle, and even interior photography, and with a few simple tweaks, it can seamlessly adapt to your creative vision while keeping the images soft, clean, and contemporary.