How to Easily Make a Retro Aesthetic Look in Lightroom

Lightroom Photo Effects

There are many diferent image effects you can make in Photoshop. But depending on the look you are trying to achieve, you can also make it in Lightroom. Today, I will show you how easy it is to make a retro aesthetic look in Lightroom changing only a few settings (that you can also adjust to your liking) in less than 5 minutes. But please, keep in mind every image is unique, so the settings I will show you here should be taken as a basis for all of your images. Your particular image may require some different values on each of the settings, but for sure will work on most of them.

Step 1

Open your picture in Lightroom.

Step 2

Go to the Develop tab and expand the Basic module.

Step 3

In the Basic module apply the following values.

Step 4

Now, expand the Tone Curve module and be sure to select the Point Curve.

Step 5

Add 3 new anchor points by clicking anywhere on the curve graphic and set each point to the following Input/Output values:

1. 0-25
2. 70-60
3. 135-120
4. 190-190
5. 255-255

Step 6

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

Step 7

Now select the Highlights and apply the following values.

Step 8

Next, expand the Detail tab and apply the following values.

Step 9

Lastly, expand the Effects tab and set any Grain amount you want, here I will set mine to 30.

Step 10

With the Preset finished, a good idea is to save it for a future use on other pictures. To do so, click the "+" sign in the Presets Panel and then on Create Preset.

Step 11

In the New Develop Preset window, name your preset as you wish, select only the modules used as shown and click the Create button. The next time you want to use this effect, simply open your picture and click over the new Retro Aesthetic preset.