Kodak Portra 400 v2 - Free Preset for Lightroom
Kodak Portra 400 v2 - Free Lightroom Preset
Portra 400 is arguably the most loved film stock of the decade, and it isn’t hard to understand why. The Portra colors are beautiful and it is a very versatile film. Unfortunately, with the price of film inflating considerably (usually over $20/roll), Kodak Portra 400 has become difficult to afford. This Lightroom preset was made with the goal of helping people enjoy the Portra 400 colors without spending 50 to 75 cents per shot (not including development).
This is my second version of this preset. Looking back at my first attempt, I believe it was a noble effort, but there was room for improvement. Hopefully version 2 is a little truer to the color science of the original film. That said, trying to match the photos from a film stock with a digital preset is challenging. Many people criticize presets not exactly matching Kodak Portra 400 sample photos they’ve seen without realizing the variables that can affect the film. The age of the film, the environmental factors, the development process, the scanning process, and even the camera lens all slightly alter the end result. With so many variables at play, it is unrealistic to expect a digital preset to every render the exact result one would achieve with actual film.
Just so you know, I didn’t edit the colors of the photos after applying the preset in Lightroom. I know many people use presets as a base layer before editing their photos further, but it was important to me to create the preset in a way that was as close to a film recipe as possible. You can achieve a similar look by applying this preset to all of your photos and immediately exporting, no further editing required.
Color Palette
These small photos are meant to give you an overall feel for the color pallet created by the Kodak Portra 400 preset. Larger versions of these photos can be viewed in the sample gallery. I always make sure to take photos in mixed lighting to give the end user an idea of what they can expect in various lighting conditions.
The downloadable file is in the “.xmp” file format. Please let me know if you encounter any problems.
