Wannabe

Wannabe throws you back to 1996. Not in a clean, curated way, but with the raw energy of a disposable camera at a school trip. Colours are washed out, the light burns a little too bright, and the whole image feels like it has been sitting in a shoebox for a decade. That is exactly the point.

The preset lifts the shadows and lets the highlights bleed. You lose depth, and that loss works in your favour. Colours turn pastel and flat at the same time, with a faint yellow or pink cast depending on your white balance. Contrast is low, the tone curve is flat rather than shaped. Skin tones get a near-matte finish you never see on a modern smartphone. The whole thing looks cheap, and that is the compliment.

Wannabe works best with group shots, street moments and portraits in motion. Think friends on a terrace, a gig in a small venue, kids playing outside without knowing the camera is there. Fashion editorials with a retro angle also respond well to this preset, as do documentary images where atmosphere matters more than technical polish. Static studio portraits against a white background give less interesting results, because the preset needs messy energy to do its work.

You reach for Wannabe when you want a photo that feels like someone made it great by accident. Not curated, not tight. If you are working on a project where collective memory or a specific era plays a role, this preset adds a layer that is hard to fake with individual sliders. It also fits well with content that deliberately steps back from the polished aesthetic that has dominated social media for the past several years.

One practical tip: push your exposure up by a third to half a stop in Lightroom before applying the preset. Wannabe is already designed to look overexposed, but a little extra light in your source file pushes the cheap film effect noticeably further. If you are shooting in open shade or under overcast skies, this approach works best.