Early colour film aesthetic with soft saturation for nostalgic colour photography.
- XMP · Lightroom Classic, CC & Camera Raw
- .costyle · Capture One
- .cube · 3D LUT (DaVinci Resolve, Premiere Pro)
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Early Colour
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Character and mood
Early Colour brings back something most modern presets try to avoid: the gentle imperfection of early colour film. Not the heavy-handed nostalgia effect with blown-out grain, but the quieter way colours looked on paper in the sixties and seventies. Slightly muted, a little warm, never too clean.
The preset reduces saturation gently and selectively. Reds and oranges pick up a little warmth, while blues pull back without disappearing. Contrast is present but not harsh. Shadows stay soft and hold a trace of warmth, keeping them from dropping into pure black. Highlights are pulled down rather than clipped, giving the whole image a printed, filmic quality. The result looks like a photograph that has been sitting in a drawer for a while, without the actual damage.
Early Colour works well with images where light and atmosphere carry more weight than sharpness or detail. Street scenes in backlight, market stalls, people moving through a sunny afternoon. Portraits in natural light, preferably outdoors or near a window. Travel photography with a human element, architecture with a worn surface, or a quiet moment in a familiar place. The preset needs room in the highlights, so images that are already on the dark side will need some extra attention during exposure.
You reach for this preset when you want a photograph to feel like a memory, without layering textures or artificial grain on top. When you want the viewer to pause, not because something dramatic is happening, but because the mood feels right. Early Colour also works well when you want a coherent series of images that hold together as a set, for a project or a portfolio built around a single feeling.
One practical tip: after applying the preset, try lowering the exposure by a third to half a stop if your shots were taken in bright midday light. The preset is calibrated for slightly restrained highlights, and that reads better when the starting point is not too bright. After that, nudge the white balance a fraction warmer if skin tones still feel a little cool.
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.
