Neal Kumar shoots cityscapes and processes it with a faded urban look. In this Lightroom CC tutorial, you'll learn how to edit like Neal Kumar. If you're using Lightroom Mobile or Lightroom Classic, you can still follow along using the same settings.

The Faded Urban Cityscape Look

Looking at nealkumar's IG, you can see that he his post-processing style is consistent with slight variations. In this tutorial, I'll be showing you how to recreate the look using this image as a reference.

Step 1

Here is the image that will be used for this tutorial. If you want to follow along using the same image, you can download it from Unsplash (link below image below).

Step 2

In the Color section, click on the Color Mixer button.

Step 3

Select the yellows then set the saturation to -100.

Repeat the -100 saturation setting for the rest of the colors (leave reds and oranges alone).

Step 4

In the Light section, click on the Tone Curve button.

Step 5

Go into the Blue channel and drag the bottom-left point upwards. This will tint the shadows blue.

Switch to the Green channel and drag the bottom-left point upwards until the shadows change from blue to teal.

Switch between the blue and green channels to refine the tint. It usually takes a few tries to get the right color.

Step 6

Switch to the RGB channel (the gray circle). Drag the bottom-left point towards the center. This will lift and crush the blacks:

• Right = crushing the blacks
• Up = lifting the blacks

Step 7

In our image, there's a heavy tilt towards the blues. Not a lot of oranges/reds are showing up. To change the balance of this, adjust the white balance. This setting will vary depending on your photo.

Final Results

We're done! Here's the final results.