Matte look Lightroom has become a trend in digital photography business, and now all portrait and fashion professional photographers produce it. Why so many people like it? A retro style is much demanded nowadays. The cinematic look photography is frequently used in popular magazines and advertising. The photo editors use soft dreamy effect Lightroom especially if they work with brand pin up photography style. High End portrait retouching has never been so frequently used before. Today we’re going to talk about matte photography trend and how to create matte look in Lightroom.

  There are so many photo styles, and it is so difficult for product photographers to stand out from the crowd. They study new Photoshop tutorial, read about how to make photos look like film in Lightroom. Nevertheless, speaking about photo retouching, you need to know, which adjustments would look natural enough to be taken for the film photographing. The effect can be demonstrated on totally different pictures. If you have to work with such styles, you will quickly discover, that such questions as how to raise blacks in Lightroom will be answered too, as the point of the white and black colors are displaced.  

Your attention needs to be drawn to the fact that the photos parameters may vary. The shift in the parameters can be in minus and in plus. Use different settings, plugins or use the Lightroom glow effect to receive the Lightroom matte effect. Here is a pastel effect Photoshop tutorial   which will help you understand how it works. 

What is matte look Lightroom for beginners

The matte filter is generally used in pastel photography. Nowadays there is something like an epidemic direction of pastel photography tutorials on YouTube and free dreamy Lightroom presets which are used by professional and beginning fashion photographers to enhance their portfolios. Sometimes the pastel Lightroom presets are used for hiding some flaws or blemishes which were made during a beauty photo session.

The uniqueness of the film photos, that is so often wanted to be achieved, consists, of course, of colors. While filming or photo shooting, we always search for the most suitable frame tints. Blue is one of the basic color in matters like how to edit like vsco in Lightroom, because it is really pleasant for the visual perception. Deep blue or green shadowing is what recreate the atmosphere most often. Digital possibilities of the computer generating of the images made it much easier to get high end retouching before after that you wish. Rotoscoping was used in the past along with the motion control, but now we have better methods.

So, how to raise blacks in Lightroom? You need just a few second to accomplish it: find the curves part and adjust the range of the b&w points just like you want them to look like. You can switch to another display mode of the curves if you find, that it’s easier to work with one specific type, no matter which. If you have worked with them before, you already know which part changes black colors, and which – the white ones, so you just give your picture darker gray instead of black and ensure that the contrast is now decreased. Light gray is also possible to achieve due to the dot moving. Speaking of moving, in case you are going to photo shoot some sport, you can repeat after our article’s example: “Yoga photography tips”. Yoga is good to start with sport. Because there you can just ask a person to sit or stay or even lay still.

Well, as you can see, those are incredibly simple manipulations that we use, but nonetheless, they give you the desired result: you do not ask how to make photos look like film in Lightroom anymore, but you do it yourself and get a reminiscent classic picture by working on your colors. Remember, that you aren’t restricted by any boundaries, you are free to experiment and work on your styling. The HSL part of the program is good because it gives you a lot of power over your photo and in case you wish to add more vintage impact on the viewers just try increasing yellow with purple. 

If you are planning to fully recreate vintage, do not forget to add the digital noise to the photo. It doesn’t look good on each modern bright picture, but on the vintage matte this would be a reasonable choice. Remember, that how to add fade in Lightroom issue does not have to become an obstacle for you each time you decide to post process photographs in such style. You are totally capable of creating your own preset or downloading one, if you do not perfectly know the program and are afraid of making a mistake. 

Which is better: matte or glossy photos?

There is no arguing to the fact, that in the end, it all depend on your individual preferences and it does not have to look like anybody else’s style or choice. While you consider printing your photo, this choice comes to you by himself. Ultimately, there is no reason in choosing only one style each time, and this depends on who your clients are this time: models? Is it for a personal portfolio or is it going into a magazine? Are you selling something? Only by answering questions like that you are going to make it right.

People love vibrant colors, because it makes reality more real than it already is. It is kinda of oxymoron, though people feel really alive, while admiring glossy pictures with high vibrance. Of course, such photographs usually are sharper and more details may be seen, so it makes you imagining wearing the clothes on the photo, touching the fabric, jewelry, stones – anything at all. Nature and outdoor photo shooting are always tempting post processed in glossy style, and printed they tend to draw more attention.

Historical objects belong to the past, when we did not have all our technologies and no one could even think of how to edit like vsco in Lightroom, because there was no other option, as to make a matte photograph. So naturally architectural objects and monuments are going to look better in this style, because it just fits so well! Of course modern architect vibrant photos look good too, but people have to know, that they have a choice, and the answer is really easy. And if you are going to make historical looking pictures, like a carriage, you will need our article “Horse photography tips – Make good photographs by yourself”. 

As you can see for yourself, going after certain type of finish must be effected not only by an artistic opinion, but also some picture qualities, that will be influenced by this. Both styles have something to offer, but certain applications must be counted, otherwise, this will not be a professional work piece. And about the typing. Which one, once again?

If you follow the name, you will easily understand, why such images are called glossy – by glossing over a photo they give it a really nice fitting shining. The difference between glossy ones and matte images is not so big: as a matter of fact, it is very simple, as it just uses more coating in the end. But they are nonetheless made the same way. And if your aim is to boost the color visually, then, by all means, go for the shiny one. This extra layer can do more than just look pretty. 

No one denies, that there are disadvantages as well. For example, a glare creation. Light reflected off the photo may make it difficult to observe all the angles at the same time, if not impossible. Besides, this photo finish tends to collect fingerprints. So unless the picture is going into a special photo album, there is a sense in considering all pluses and minuses., because otherwise it may be not pleasant handling them. 

From a first glance, the offer how to raise blacks in Lightroom is very similar, but such finish contains less shine, no glossy sheen, even if the lifespan is not so different after all. And it is evident matte finishes lack the boost of colors, but not all of them. Matte effect may look calm and at the same time deep and very attractive. No need in monochrome images, no need in the vibrance, but nonetheless a great job may be done here. No need to imitate anything either, while it is totally okay to have similarities with a film effect. 

By choosing matte, try to play up image textures and thus make it really deep and thoughtful. By the way, remember, that fingerprints and light are not such a threat to the picture, in case you chose this finish. And experts have nothing against the extra grain that may occur, because there is nothing wrong or disgusting with that. When you fully understand all pros and cons and you’re ready to deal with the noise that appears from high amount of ISO, are you probably going to ask yourself or google how to make photos look like film in Lightroom, because you know it’s beautiful. And the skin retouching online should not bother you so much because matte effect always looks good on the skin. 

How to make the matte effect?

The whole article was dedicated to the question how to add fade in Lightroom and other thing as well. However, it must be obvious, that the same job can be easily done in the Photoshop too. Besides that, matte effect is easy to acquire, it’s also quite versatile and the number of photos you can use this finish on is beyond compute. 

There are hundreds of useful tutorials, so do not hesitate to watch videos like this one.

So many people – so many opinions and pieces of advice you can use afterwards. The technique probably won’t differ too much, although it is really interesting to watch speed tutorials. This one promises you’ll need less than a minute.

Isn’t that impressive? There are even themed tutorials, for instance, this one is about using the matte effect on wedding pictures. And one more video recommendation: here the author shows you something really interesting: the creation of a dramatic matte effect!

If you are not sure, how to edit like vsco in Lightroom by yourself, but you still have such a wish, High End Beauty Retouching is a perfect helping hand. Our photo retouching prices are not going to chock you, and our methods are usually come from professionals all over the world, so the post processing will be diverse and proven to be good. With us, there are always guarantees. So we are hoping to hear from you in case you need somebody to help, because this is what we do best.