How to Create a Professional Faded Look in Lightroom

Lightroom Post Processing

A soft, faded aesthetic is a great way to give your photos a clean, modern feel. This subtle look works beautifully across a range of photography styles — from lifestyle and travel to portraits — and adds a touch of nostalgia while keeping the image professional and polished. Today, I will show you how to create a professional faded look in Adobe Lightroom from scratch, using only built-in tools. No third-party presets needed. By the end, you'll have a fully customizable editing workflow that you can reuse or save as your own custom preset.

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 2 times anywhere on the curve to add 2 new control points.

Step 5

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

1. 0-30
2. 60-60
3. 180-185
4. 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 under "Manual Noise Reduction" 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 Presets" 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 professional faded look in Lightroom, you can apply this editing style to any of your photos and adjust the settings as needed to match the final mood you want to achieve. The effect works beautifully across different types of photography, and with a few small tweaks, it can easily adapt to your personal style.