How to Recreate an existing Photo Effect in Lightroom

[nina38345918yc5p]

Hello everyone,

I have a question about recreating a specific photo effect in Lightroom. I really like the look of a particular Instagram feed and would love to replicate the same style. I’m looking for a way to extract all the color grading and effects from one image and apply them to a completely different picture. Can anyone guide me on how to analyze and apply those effects in Lightroom?

I’d appreciate any tips or workflows you might have!

Thank you so much!

[dj_paige]

Questions about Lightroom (not Lightroom Classic) should be posted in the Lightroom (Ecosystem) forum

[richardplondon]

Regardless whether this is Lightroom, or Lightroom Classic, or Photoshop, or any other image editing situation: the processed result that you see is a combination of what the original subject consisted of (its own tones, colours, textures and surface qualities); what the lighting / ambient situation was; technical choices made when the photo was taken (as to exposure, chiefly but also in-camera HDR or flash etc); the physical attributes of the camera itself; any processing that happened as part of the capture, such as a HDR or creative effect or 'film' simulation etc. And the output from that is a lot of pixels showing certain tones and colours. Then postprocessing comes into play and correctively changes those tones and colours in certain ways. But anything you may find out about this postprocessing, and repeat onto your own photos, will NOT deliver the same result if a different subject has been differently photographed with different lighting and equipment.

As an analogy, if I multiply A x B x C x D and then add 2, I am very unlikely to get the same answer if I instead multiply E x F x G x H and then add 2. Perhaps I may have got close to the same answer if I had added some other number instead of 2.

That can be found out by understanding how A may be different from F, and how B may be different from G, etc. Or, more straigntforwardly, you can progressively notice and learn what effect the different postprocessing adjustments have in terms of taking you closer to, or further away from, whatever "look" this sample has inspired you to try and seek.

But you may need to also address the subject, lighting, equipment etc aspects - it is unfortunately not guaranteed always feasible to attain a given "look" through postprocessing alone.

[Justin Hoch]

I second this. The initial circumstances and settings give a different starting point to the image you're trying to emulate with your own. What I would do is set them up side by side and tweak the settings of your image - the exposure, color balance, etc - until they get to where you have replicated the look you're going for. If you're not sure why the image looks the way it does, then you're going to have to do a lot of trial and error. But you'll learn which sliders do which things and then you'll get better at knowing which settings you need to adjust to get the look you're going for.

But then even if you copy those settings you've developed to another image taken in another environment, you're probably not going to get the same look immediately because you're starting from a different point. You'll have to repeat that process again on the new image. The copied settings might get you closer than starting from scratch, though, which is what the Preset market is all about. It won't get you all the way, but it might get you a lot of the way there. And sometimes not, because the starting points were too different.

[Ian Lyons]

@nina38345918yc5p 

The folk trying to offer advice are doing so in a vacumn. Therfore, I think it best you post a screenshot. This will give folk here some idea as what you're trying to achieve.