The legendary Kodak slide film that coloured the world for 75 years. Saturated reds and yellows, punchy contrast, warmer than cinema. Steve McCurry shot the Afghan Girl on it. Paul Simon wrote a song about it. Inspired by the colour characteristics of Kodachrome. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Kodak.
- XMP · Lightroom Classic, CC & Camera Raw
- .costyle · Capture One
- .cube · 3D LUT (DaVinci Resolve, Premiere Pro)
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Kodachrome
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Character and mood
Kodachrome is not a filter. It is a memory. Those saturated reds, those warm yellows, that contrast that hits just a little harder than you expect. That is how the world looked on thousands of slides projected in living rooms and lecture halls through the sixties, seventies and eighties. This preset brings those colour characteristics into your Lightroom workflow, not for the sake of nostalgia, but because they still work.
Technically, the preset does several things at once. Reds and yellows are lifted without tipping into the unnatural. Skin tones gain warmth without turning orange. The contrast is punchy, with deeper shadows and bright highlights that stop just short of clipping. The tone curve has a gentle S-shape that gives the image body. Blues and cyans stay relatively cool, which makes the warmer tones stand out even more. Together, that creates the distinctive tension Kodachrome always had: vivid, but not loud.
The preset works best with subjects that have colour and light. Street photography on a sunny day, markets, festivals, portraits in warm daylight. Travel photography benefits too. The preset does what Kodachrome always did, it makes ordinary things look slightly more than ordinary. Scenes with a lot of red, orange or yellow respond the strongest. Overcast weather or dominant blue light works less well, unless you are deliberately looking for that contrast.
You reach for Kodachrome when you want a photo to have immediate character. Not subtle, not neutral. A photo that shows at a glance that a choice was made. That suits street photography where the energy of a moment is the subject, and portraits where you want to bring out the warmth of the person in front of you. It also holds up well in print, because the colour relationships are built on a solid foundation.
A practical tip: start with the preset amount at 80 to 85 percent rather than 100. Kodachrome has enough character on its own. Pulling it back slightly gives the photo room to stay itself while keeping the colour feel intact. After that, if needed, adjust the exposure per image. The preset is a starting point, not a final answer.
Installation
Lightroom Classic & CC (desktop)
Unzip the downloaded file on your computer. Open Lightroom Classic and go to the Develop module. Right-click the Presets panel, choose 'Import Presets', and select the .xmp file. The preset appears in your list immediately and can be applied to any photo straight away.
Lightroom Mobile
Lightroom Mobile syncs presets via the cloud. Import the .xmp file into Lightroom CC on your desktop first. Once cloud sync completes, the preset is automatically available on your phone or tablet. An Adobe CC subscription is required for this sync feature.
Capture One
Unzip the file. Open Capture One and navigate to the Styles panel. Click the arrow next to 'Styles' and choose 'Import Style'. Select the .costyle file. The style is available in your library immediately. Works with Capture One version 21 and later.
DaVinci Resolve / Premiere Pro (3D LUT)
Copy the .cube file to your application's LUT folder. In DaVinci Resolve via Project Settings → Color Management → LUT folders. In Premiere Pro via the Lumetri Color panel → Creative tab → Look → Browse. The LUT works on both LOG and standard exposed video footage.
