How to Manually Create a ‘Warm Contrast’ Preset Effect in Lightroom

This guide will teach you how to manually achieve a look similar to a warm contrast preset in Lightroom.

Manually achieving a warm contrast in Lightroom allows you more editing control to achieve the exact look you want.

Let’s dive into the tutorial.

How to Manually Achieve the ‘Warm Contrast’ Preset in Lightroom

Knowing how to manually achieve warm contrast, similar to a Lightroom preset, helps you better understand photo editing mechanics.

Presets are amazing and can be worth their weight in gold when you want to add a consistent or unique look to photos.

They streamline a photo editor’s workflow, giving consistent results.

However, overusing them will result in an editor becoming disconnected from their work.

Getting back to the basics and working manually instead of relying on presets will give a photographer a deeper understanding of the editing process.

Why Use Warm Contrast in Photos

Designers, advertisers, and photographers use a warm contrast effect for different reasons.

Warm tones can make us feel warm, content and cosy. They promote feelings of happiness and warmth.

Cool tones push the viewer away, while warm tones draw the viewer in, welcoming them.

Food photographers increase warm contrast to invite viewers to the table.

Photographers who want to emulate a romantic mood can amp up a photo’s warm tones.

Warm tones can also be used to alter a viewer’s perception of danger. Have you ever wondered why stop and danger signs are red?

Another effect of amping up the warm tones in an image is to create a lively ambiance.

While cool blue tones calm us, warm tones energize us.

Read more about warm vs cool tones here.

Now, let’s get to it and increase a photo’s warm tones.

Option 1 – Using the Basic Panel

In this tutorial, we will increase the image’s red, orange, and yellow tones to create an effect similar to a warm contrast preset.

There’s more than one way to achieve a warm contrast without a preset.

In Lightrooms’s Develop mode, we can manually edit the image’s tones using Basic, Tone Curve, HSL/ Color, or Color Grading.

The first method we will show you in this tutorial is using the Basic settings.

Step 1 – Select the Image in Lightroom

The first step is to select an image from the Lightroom library.

To do this, click on the image.

When selected, the image’s border will change from dark grey to light grey.

Step 2 – Open the Image in the Develop Mode

When you have selected your image, head to the menu bar at the top left of your canvas workspace and select Develop.

Your image will now open in Lightroom’s Develop module.

For this tutorial, we’re using an image of a girl lying amongst flowers.

The girl has red hair, but as the photo was taken in a darker light, it did not successfully capture her hair’s vivid colors.

We want to increase the photo’s warm contrast to amplify the red tones in her hair and create a more inviting ambiance.

When Develop mode is activated, Lightroom’s manual photo editing options will appear on the right-hand side of the canvas workspace.

On the left-hand side of the canvas, you’ll find Lightroom’s preset library.

Step 3 – Change the Viewing Mode to Split Screen

Before altering the image’s tones, we will change the viewing mode so that we can see the before-and-after images side by side.

Head to the viewing mode at the bottom of the canvas workspace and click the Split Screen icon.

Set your preference for the Before/After viewing option.

For this tutorial, we will use the Before/After Left/Right Split.

Step 4 – Open Basic Panel’s Editing Options

There are different ways to increase the warm tones of an image using Lightroom.

However, the most straightforward way is using the sliders in the Basic panel.

The Basic panel allows for precise edits.

Click the arrow beside Basic in the panel on the right-hand side of the canvas workspace.

This will open the Basic Panel, displaying the WB, Tone, and Presence editing sliders.

At the top of the panel, you will find the White Balance options: Temp and Tint.

Below WB, you will find the color Tone options: Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, and Blacks.

Below the Tone sliders are the Presence sliders: Texture, Clarity, Dehaze, Vibrance, and Saturation.

When you open an image in Develop mode, all the sliders will be set to zero, as you can see above.

To increase the image’s warm tones, we will use the sliders in the White Balance and Tone panel.

We don’t need to adjust the Presence sliders.

• More: Most Popular Lightroom Presets

Step 5 – Alter the Settings

Below, we have adjusted the settings to achieve a look similar to a warm contrast preset.

First, we slide the Temp slider to the right-hand side, increasing the color’s temperature to about +25.

We have not used the Tint slider, as we are happy with this photo’s Green/Magenta tints.

We then increased the Contrast by sliding the sider to roughly +30 in the Tone panel.

The Contrast slider increases the photo’s entire tonal contrast.

Increase the Highlights slider to +5 and the Whites to + 20.

We are increasing the white for this image to create a brighter backdrop to amplify the warm tones.

The Vibrance slider is increased to +10.

Vibrancy will amp up the photo’s dominant hues.

The image’s warm tones have increased, making it look like it was taken on a warm summer’s day.

It changes the photo’s mood from cool to warm and welcoming.

The hue of the girl’s hair is increased to a richer tone of red.

Use the Basics panel settings to achieve the desired results for your photo.

You will find that every photo will need different adjustments to create the correct warm tone.

• More: How to Edit Warm Tones in Lightroom

Step 6 – Compare the Results to the Warm Contrast Preset

When you apply a preset, you’ll notice that the sliders in the Basic panel will jump to a new position.

Remember, every preset will have different recorded settings.

Below is an example of the changes made to the sliders in the basics panel after a Lightroom warm contrast preset was applied.

The White Balance Sliders were increased to varying degrees.

The Contrast, Shadows, Whites and Blacks sliders were also increased, while for this Lightroom preset, the Highlights were decreased.

You might notice that the Clarity slider was also decreased.

Although this will have little effect on the image’s tonal colors, it will create a look that is unique for this preset.

The preset result is shown below.

When you add a preset, you can alter the preset settings and adapt them to your own liking.

Option 2 – Use the Tone Curve to Create Warm Contrast

Another way to create a warm contrast similar to a preset is to use the Tone Curve.

You will find the Tone Curve Panel under the Basic panel by clicking the arrow beside Tone Curve.

The Tone Curve allows you to adapt the colors of a photo by splitting them into red, green, or blue (RGB).

To do this, select the primary color of your choice by clicking on the colored circle above the Tone Curve.

To adjust the warm hues, click the Red circle. A white central dot depicts the selected circle. A dot under a circle informs us that this hue has been edited using the Tone Curve.

Click on the diagonal white line inside the Tone Curve graph and, using your cursor, drag the line into position.

As you drag the curve, you can view a live preview of the changes in the After panel or in the Navigator panel.

Release the cursor when you’ve achieved the warm contrast effect you’re looking for.

Using the Tone Curve, you can only alter the contrast and brightness of the photo’s red colors.

This creates a more crude edit, whereas the Basic panel is capable of making subtle, intricate edits.

Alternatively, you can use the Tone Panel to decrease the red tones in an image.

As you can see below, when the line is dragged downwards, the contrast and brightness of the red tones are decreased.

This is a useful editing trick to control over-saturated colors in an image.

• More: 26 Best Lightroom Plugins and Extensions

Option 3 – Use HSL/Color to Create Warm Contrast

The third option to increase warm tones in an image is using the HSL/Color editing panel.

Click on the arrow beside HSL/Color to open the panel.

Here, you will find a line of nine colored circles: red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue, purple, violet, and multicolored.

HSL stands for hue, saturation, and luminance.

Using this panel, we can select and isolate a hue to alter its saturation and luminance without affecting the other hues.

To select a hue to edit, simply click on its colored circle icon in the top bar above the Hue, Saturation, and Luminance sliders.

Once the hue has been selected, a white dot will appear at its central point.

Slide the hue slider to change its hue, and the saturation slider to increase or decrease saturation.

Use the luminance slider to increase or decrease luminance.

When you have adjusted one hue, select another.

For the purpose of creating a warm contrast, we selected the Red, Yellow, and Orange hues.

You can select the cooler hues and adjust their hue to a warm hue by using the Hue slider.

The image on the left above is the original image, and the image on the right shows the warm tone results achieved by using the HSL/Color panel.

The Hue slider was not used to achieve these results. However, the Luminance and Saturation levels were increased for the Yellow, Red, and Orange hues.

By doing this, we achieved a warm contrast similar to a warm contrast preset.

How much you increase the image’s luminance and saturation will depend on the result you desire and the image you use.

• More: How to Change a Color Using Color Range in Lightroom

Option 4 – Use Color Grading to Create a Warm Contrast

The fourth option available in Lightroom to alter the warm tones of an image is to use Color Grading.

Open the Color Grading panel by clicking on the arrow beside Color Grading in the Develop module panel.

The Color Grading panel consists of three colored wheels.

You will notice that each of the three colored wheels has a centrally positioned circle icon.

You can alter the tones in an image by dragging the central circle icon to a new position.

There’s a wheel for Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights. You can also select Global to edit all three color wheels at once.

To edit one of the three, click on the chosen wheel and drag its circle icon into a new position.

As you can see below, the warm tones were increased by repositioning the central circle of each wheel into its yellow-orange area.

At the bottom of the Color Grading panel, you will find a Blending and Balance Slider.

You can use these to fine-tune the Warm Contrast effect. Blending controls how much the three color wheels overlap.

It will mix the color tones to make a smoother blend, controlling the blend between highlights and shadows.

In the example below, the Blending effect was decreased to achieve the desired effect.

We hope you enjoyed this tutorial and now understand how to achieve warm contrasts manually.

You can create the same look as a Warm Contrast preset using these four alternate options.

We advise you to experiment with all four methods, as this will help you become more familiar with professional color editing.

When you regularly use these techniques to adjust the color tones of your photos, your eye for color will naturally improve.

If you liked this tutorial, you might like to check out – How to Sharpen Photos in Lightroom.

Happy editing.

FAQ

How do I add warmth in Lightroom?

You can use the White Balance slider to add warmth to an image in Lightroom.

Simply slide the White Balance slider to the right to enrich and warm the photo’s tones.

Another option is to use the HSL panel, as adjusting the sliders in the HSL panel will increase the warmth of the photo.

How do you adjust contrast in Lightroom?

To adjust contrast in Lightroom, use Lightroom’s Contrast slider.

Move the Contrast slider to the right to increase contrast or to the left to decrease contrast.

How do I manually install Lightroom presets?

To manually install Lightroom presets, head to the main menu bar and select File > Import Profiles & Presets.

The Import dialogue window will appear; locate the preset you wish to import and click Import.

The preset will now open in Lightroom.