How to Emulate the Portra 400 Film Look in Lightroom

Lightroom Post Processing

The Portra 400 film is known for its soft and natural tones, perfect for portraits, landscapes, and even everyday snapshots and recreating this iconic look in Lightroom to give your photos a touch of nostalgia and warmth is easier than you may think. So today I will show you how you can emulate this film effect in Lightroom, and in the process, create a preset for a later use over any other of your images.

But before we begin, and if you want to follow this tutorial exactly as described, please download the following free image from Pexels: Download.

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 and select the Point Curve.

Step 5

Add 4 new anchor points to the curve by clicking anywhere inside the curve graph and set the following Input/Output values for each point:

1. 0-0
2. 30-25
3. 70-75
4. 115-120
5. 190-170
6. 255-255

Step 6

Now select the Red Channel, add 4 new anchor points and set the following Input/Output values for each point:

1. 0-0
2. 40-20
3. 85-65
4. 145-170
5. 205-225
6. 255-255

Step 7

Now select the Green Channel, add 4 new anchor points and set the following Input/Output values for each point:

1. 0-0
2. 40-20
3. 80-60
4. 135-155
5. 185-210
6. 255-255

Step 8

Now select the Blue Channel, add 4 new anchor points and set the following Input/Output values for each point:

1. 0-0
2. 40-25
3. 120-120
4. 175-205
5. 215-235
6. 255-255

Step 9

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

Step 10

Expand the "Color Grading" tab, be sure to select the "Shadows" option and apply the following settings.

Step 11

Still in the Color Grading tab, select the "Highlights" option and apply the following settings.

Step 12

Next, expand the "Effects" tab and in the "Grain" section apply the following settings.

Step 13

Now expand the "Calibration" tab and apply the following settings.

Step 14

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 15

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.

Step 16

To test the new preset, open an image in Lightroom and go to the Develop tab. Under "Presets", simply click on the recently created preset.

Conclusion:

Now that you know how to easily emulate the Portra 400 film in Lightroom, you can use this new preset over any other image and, if needed, make some fine tune adjustments according to the final look you want to achieve.