Lightroom Settings for that Hot New Bleached Sepia Look

I have lately been trying to re-create the look that I’m seeing more often in wedding and portrait photography — a slightly desaturated and dark sepia tint combination that really seems to work for portraits. My Lightroom 2 settings for this effect are at the end of this entry. You may have to adjust slightly for your lighting situation, but it should get you off to a good start. I would appreciate your comments if you use it.

To illustrate the effect, below are a few pictures of some of the more influential women in my life for the last 40 years — my wife, her sisters, and, of course, my mother-in-law — all of them captured in one spot.

Original photo … taken under a hazy early afternoon sky .. a bit over saturated out of the camera.

A “standard” darker sepia with slight vignette …

and, finally, the new hot look. Note how the colors show through, but have been muted somewhat through desaturation and adding of a sepia tone. I believe the look is very compelling, gives a bit of an “edge” to the photo while still being very flattering to the subject overall.

My Lightroom 2 settings are shown below.

Let me know what you think and be sure to freely share it with everybody you know. Of course, a mention of Dale Ward Photography would be a bonus.

Until the next entry. Happy shooting

Dale

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 4th, 2010 at 1:20 PM. It is filed under All, Good Info for Photographers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.