Faded

Faded does what the name says. The colours pull back, the contrast softens, and what remains feels like a photograph that has spent years tucked inside an album sleeve. Not as a gimmick, but as a mood. As if time has already been working on the image before you even look at it.

Technically, the preset lifts the black point so that deep shadows never fully close down. The highlights carry a faint veil. Colours lose saturation, especially warm tones like orange and red, which step back from the foreground. The result is a muted, bleached tonal range reminiscent of printed photographs from the seventies or eighties. No drama, no clipped highlights. Just quiet grey and beige-leaning midtones that give the image room to breathe.

This preset works well with portraits in soft, diffused light, with street photographs taken on overcast days, and with still scenes that do not rely on vivid colour. Think of someone standing near a window, an empty street after rain, a market stall on a grey morning. Images with strong colour saturation or hard backlight tend to work less well, because this preset draws its strength from restraint and quiet.

You reach for Faded when you want a photograph that does not ask for attention. When atmosphere matters more than sharpness or pop. It sits comfortably in series where you want visual consistency without everything looking heavily edited. It is also a solid starting point for analogue simulations, giving you a workable base without much extra effort.

One practical tip: after applying the preset, bring the Clarity slider down by five to ten points in Lightroom. Not more than that. It reinforces the soft, slightly hazy quality that belongs to this style, without making the image look out of focus.