How to Create a Desaturated Cinema Effect in Lightroom

In this tutorial we’ll walk through the process of creating a desaturated, cinema-inspired effect in Lightroom’s develop module. The process is pretty simple, it works well with a wide variety of photos, and it creates an interesting and dramatic effect.

Here is a look at the sample “before” photo.

And here is what the sample photo will look like after the cinema effect.

How to Create Your Own Lightroom Presets

Here’s an example of how I created a Develop Preset to use when I import photos taken with my Fujifilm X-T1 camera. The idea was to create a preset that takes me to a neutral starting point from where I can process the file. You can follow along to create an import Develop Preset for your own camera. I’ll explain what I’m doing at each step and suggest some variations you can try.

Start by selecting a photo taken with the camera that you are going to create the Develop Preset for and open it in the Develop module. Zero all the settings by pressing the Reset button at the bottom (you may find it helpful to make a Virtual Copy of the photo first so you don’t undo any edits you have already made).

1. Camera Calibration panel

I set Process to 2012 (Current) the most recent, and Profile to Classic Chrome (the Film Simulation setting I use most often). The Profile options available to you vary depending on the camera.

Possible variation: You can create a different Develop Preset for each Profile that you regularly use.