Pastel street

Pastel Street gives your photos the quiet, slightly dreamlike quality you recognise from Wes Anderson's films. Soft pink facades, muted blue skies, green that leans more towards sage than grass. The world looks almost too composed to be real, but familiar enough to want to step into.

The preset pulls back the highlights and gently lifts the shadows, creating a flat, layered contrast without harsh transitions. Colours are desaturated in the midtones, while the pastel hues themselves, pinks, light blues and off-whites, are nudged up through the HSL controls. Orange skin tones shift towards a warmer peach. The result is cool without feeling cold, and soft without losing structure.

The preset works best on street photos in city centres with coloured facades, shutters and painted doors. Think Mediterranean side streets, Amsterdam canal houses or Scandinavian painted timber buildings. Portrait photos taken in natural outdoor light also work well, especially when the background includes architecture or painted concrete. Flat lays and product photography on light surfaces can give surprisingly strong results too.

You reach for Pastel Street when you want a photo that pulls rather than shouts. When you are tired of saturated colours and want something quieter, something that reveals itself on a second look. The preset suits photographers who care about composition and who use colour as a tool, not a statement.

A practical tip: this preset responds well to a slight overexposure in camera. Set your exposure a third to half a stop brighter than you normally would, so the shadows are already a little open before you start editing. Dark shadows combined with the flattened tone curve can make a photo look muddy. A touch more light at the moment of capture keeps the result fresh and clear.