Many digital photography fans, especially Gen Z, seek the look and feel of film without the cost and trouble of using it. They want their mirrorless or DSLR photos to reflect Kodak’s warm tones, Fuji’s soft colors, or the texture of classic black and white. However, film can be pricey, and scanning takes a lot of time. Even digital presets in Lightroom can be too expensive when premium packs cost a lot. Not to mention the thousands of options out there for presets that can confuse newer photographers. I know this all too well, and my preset collection from 2009 runs into the hundreds now, most of them unused. This situation has led some people to piracy or forced them to accept low-quality free options. Polychrome has released an AI Lightroom preset generator that’s aimed at filling this gap.
The most convenient way to mimic film in today’s digital age is through Lightroom (or Capture One) presets. With just a single click, you can transform a flat RAW file into a nostalgic style of analog film. But there are so many such presets out there now, and many of them aren’t priced well enough for entry-level photographers. This is where an AI-powered Lightroom preset generator changes the game. Polychrome’s LR Preset Generator provides something many enthusiast photographers have wanted for years: an affordable, quick way to create unique presets without needing to buy packs or pirate them. For many of you out there who crave film-like visuals on your DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, this tool could become a new essential.
Why This Is A Good Idea
A text input-based AI generator is looking to change the pre-made preset game. Instead of buying ready-made looks, you simply describe the vibe you want. You can say “moody portrait with teal shadows” or “warm vintage summer tones with grain,” and the Polychrome will create a Lightroom-ready preset file. Suddenly, getting a preset you like is not about hours of Google searches or affordability; it’s about imagination and being a bit of a wordsmith. More importantly, this tool offers a legal and safe option that reduces the temptation to use pirated packs. Instead of risking downloads from shady forums, users can create something unique and functional in seconds. This cuts down on piracy while encouraging creativity.
“But There’s ChatGPT” You Say?
You’re not wrong to point that out. Before Polychrome existed, some people tried using ChatGPT or other text-based AI models to create Lightroom presets. It seemed possible since Lightroom presets are just sets of parameters saved in .xmp or .lrtemplate files. The issue is that general GPT models do not always understand Lightroom’s internal structure for preset files. I know someone who spent hours and hours on ChatGPT to create Lightroom presets, and kept ending up with unusable results. The process was more frustrating than productive, and the results were disappointing, especially when asking the AI algorithm to correct itself didn’t help all the time, despite providing clear instructions on what to change. Files often came out corrupted, filled with random comments or code-like annotations which led to Lightroom being unable to import the presets. Some presets were too extreme, leading to edits that nobody would use. Others needed image references, which still didn’t convert into working presets.
This is why a dedicated AI tool like this is so useful. It appears specifically built to create presets that Lightroom can actually read, avoiding text noise and broken formatting.
How Do You Generate A Preset?
The site is incredibly simple to use in terms of generating a preset. You enter a text description of the look you want. That could be anything from a description of a mood to a more visually descriptive sentence. It just needs to be 100 characters or fewer at the moment (with no special characters or symbols). Pick an AI model from the drop-down, and the AI then uses that to build a set of Lightroom adjustments in the background. It then creates a preset file that you can import into Lightroom right away. The website also provides suggested prompts for users who aren’t sure what to input at the start, but I’d ignore this and just get into experimenting right away.
This tool isn’t just theoretical or way off the mark; the presets it creates actually work. Ask for “high contrast black and white,” and you will receive a bold monochrome preset ready to use. Request “warm cinematic tones,” and the AI produces a subtle film-like color grading. The real strength lies in repeated use. A user can generate three or four variants in minutes, test them across a photo library, and keep the ones that fit. Compared to spending hours making looks from scratch, the time saved is significant. A far better option than scouring the internet for cracked presets in dodgy file-sharing sites. All presets generated for me were xmp files. I assume they should still work on earlier versions of Adobe Lightroom Classic too.
Image Results
The photos below have sliders so you can see the raw file against the image with the preset applied (with no or minimal further edits). The preset prompt for each edit has been added as a comment. Remember, there’s no way of verifying if the results are as expected until you import the preset into Adobe Lightroom and apply it to an image. All presets were used on images from various cameras and were used in Adobe Lightroom Classic v14.5.1, and applied at default 100% preset strength
I think with this preset, Polychrome absolutely nailed it. This was the first preset I prompted it for, and I realised later on that I didn’t even give a grammatically correct sentence as a prompt. Nevertheless, the AI figured out what I was looking for and gave me a preset which, when applied, reminds me of various offbeat European-produced films set in the 70s and early 80s, even. A lot of these kinds of looks are nowadays seen in some Wes Anderson films. Below are some more images with the same preset applied.
This one could have been a bit more Super 8 like. I don’t think the film grain was grainy enough
I tried this one out just to see how intelligent the algorithm could be. I have to say it did a fairly decent job with the preset generation here.
Who Is Polychrome?
It would seem like the company is a Gen Z one too. Polychrome describes itself as a “small team consisting of three computer science students from Germany.” More importantly, they are passionate about photography. Their love for it reflects in the tools they create. Their app, Halationify, focuses less on cold code and more on capturing the essence of film, that warm halation glow that surrounds the highlights on a frame of Kodak. You can see that these folks are not just engineers. They are photographers at heart, shaping their craft so that photographers can continue pursuing that elusive analog feeling in a digital world.
Overall Thoughts
I honestly think the AI gets it right for the most part. Polychrome’s LR preset generator was something I expected to be just a novelty; it’s surpassed that expectation of mine clearly. For digital photographers who have wanted their files to reflect the charm of film, this is a tool to consider. It’s far from perfect, but it shows a lot of promise. The presets need adjustments at times, and the prompts may take some practice, but the foundation is solid. I just so dearly hope they bring this out for Capture One soon, as that software does not get a lot of preset love from creators.
