OW Essentials No.10 - Modern Wedding Lightroom Preset

What kind of look does Modern Wedding create?
Modern Wedding creates a desaturated, contrast-forward look with dense blacks, pale highlights and cool, steely neutrals. Selected warmer colours remain present in skin, florals and practical light, keeping the reduced palette from becoming fully monochrome.

Is this a literal bleach-bypass emulation?
No. It is a contemporary digital preset inspired by the visual characteristics associated with bleach bypass: reduced saturation, pronounced contrast, silver-like tonal density and selective colour retention. It does not reproduce a specific laboratory process or film stock.

Which applications can I use the preset in?
Modern Wedding is supplied as one .xmp preset for Adobe Lightroom, Lightroom Classic and Adobe Camera Raw.

Do I need a camera-specific version?
No. There is one XMP preset rather than separate camera versions. Your Adobe camera profile, exposure and white balance will still influence the final result.

Does it work with RAW and JPEG photographs?
Yes. RAW files are recommended because they provide more latitude for recovering highlights, adjusting white balance and controlling the stronger tonal character of the preset. JPEG and TIFF files are supported but contain less editable image information.

What should I adjust after applying the preset?
Begin with exposure and white balance. Because Modern Wedding has a pronounced contrast structure, also check the deepest blacks and brightest highlights. Mixed-light scenes may require additional colour correction.

Can I make the look less intense?
Yes. Use the preset Amount control where supported, or adjust contrast, saturation, blacks and highlights after applying it. The preset is intended as an editable starting point.

Can I use it across a complete wedding gallery?
Yes, as a shared colour direction. Apply it to a representative photograph, refine exposure and white balance, then synchronise images made in similar lighting. Daylight, interiors, flash and mixed-light scenes should be treated as separate groups.

Is this the same as the Modern Wedding LUT?
It follows the same bleach-bypass-inspired visual direction, but it is rebuilt for photography. The Lightroom version uses editable photographic controls, while the LUT version is designed for motion and colour-grading software.

Will my photographs look exactly like the gallery examples?
Not exactly. Camera profile, lighting, exposure, white balance and subject colour all influence the result. The examples demonstrate the intended visual direction; they are not a guarantee of identical results on every image.