Understanding the Goal: What is a "Soft Portrait?"
A soft portrait aims for:
* Reduced sharpness and detail: Smooth skin, softer edges, and less emphasis on fine lines.
* Gentle color palette: Often muted or pastel tones, avoiding harsh contrasts and saturated colors.
* Highlight emphasis: Subtle brightening of highlights to give a luminous look.
* Pleasing skin tones: Warm and natural, avoiding overly red or yellow casts.
Step-by-Step Guide:
1. Start with a Well-Exposed Portrait:
* Import a portrait image into Lightroom 4 that is reasonably well-exposed. You'll be making adjustments from this base.
2. Basic Panel Adjustments:
* Exposure: Adjust slightly to achieve the desired overall brightness. Usually, a small bump (+0.1 to +0.3) is helpful for a soft look. Be careful not to overexpose.
* Contrast: Reduce contrast significantly. A range of -15 to -30 is a good starting point. This softens the image and flattens the tonal range.
* Highlights: Lower the highlights. A range of -20 to -50 can help prevent blown highlights and contribute to the soft look.
* Shadows: Increase shadows to open up darker areas and reduce contrast further. +10 to +30 is a good starting point.
* Whites: Adjust slightly to control the brightest areas. Experiment with increasing or decreasing depending on your starting image.
* Blacks: Adjust slightly to control the darkest areas. Generally, avoid making them too dark; lifting them slightly (a positive value) can enhance the softness.
* Clarity: This is crucial. Reduce Clarity *significantly*. A range of -20 to -50 is typical. This softens the details and reduces texture. This is a key ingredient in your soft portrait look.
* Vibrance: Increase Vibrance gently. +5 to +15 can help boost the muted colors without making them overly saturated. Avoid increasing saturation directly, as it can make skin tones look unnatural.
3. Tone Curve Adjustments (Optional, but Recommended):
* Go to the Tone Curve panel.
* Subtle S-Curve or a Flattened Curve: Create a very gentle S-curve for a slight boost in contrast, *or* flatten the curve slightly by pulling down the highlights and lifting the shadows. The goal is to soften the contrast further. Avoid making the curve too aggressive.
* Channel Specific Adjustments: (Optional but useful) You can adjust each channel (Red, Green, Blue) for subtle color toning. For example, slightly lifting the red curve in the shadows can add a warm tint. Experiment!
4. HSL/Color Panel Adjustments:
* Hue: Make subtle adjustments to skin tones. For example, slightly shifting the orange hue towards red can warm up skin.
* Saturation: Reduce saturation in the orange and yellow channels slightly to prevent overly vibrant skin tones. -5 to -10 in these channels can be effective.
* Luminance: Increase luminance in the orange and yellow channels to brighten skin tones. +5 to +15 is a good starting point. Be careful not to make the skin look unnatural.
5. Split Toning (Optional):
* Use Split Toning to add subtle color casts to the highlights and shadows.
* Highlights: Consider adding a very subtle warm tone (e.g., a light orange or yellow) at a low saturation (5-10).
* Shadows: Consider adding a slightly cooler tone (e.g., a light blue or purple) at a low saturation (5-10). This can add a subtle, ethereal feel.
* Balance: Adjust the balance slider to favor either the highlights or shadows effect.
6. Detail Panel Adjustments:
* Sharpening: Reduce sharpening significantly. Set Amount to a very low value (e.g., 20-30) and increase the Radius slightly (0.8-1.0). Increase Masking to prevent sharpening in areas where you want softness. The goal is to soften the overall image, not enhance detail.
* Noise Reduction: Increase Luminance Noise Reduction slightly (5-15) to smooth out skin tones. This can help reduce the appearance of fine lines and blemishes.
7. Lens Corrections:
* Enable Profile Corrections: Check the "Enable Profile Corrections" box to automatically correct for lens distortion and vignetting.
* Manual Corrections: (If needed) You can manually correct for distortion or vignetting if the automatic profile correction doesn't work perfectly.
8. Effects (Vignette):
* A very subtle positive vignette (using the Highlight Priority style) can sometimes enhance the softness, but use sparingly.
9. Saving the Preset:
* Once you're happy with the look, go to the Presets panel on the left side of Lightroom.
* Click the "+" button to create a new preset.
* Give your preset a descriptive name (e.g., "Soft Portrait Lr4").
* In the "New Develop Preset" window, *carefully select which settings to include in the preset*. Crucially, uncheck White Balance, Exposure, and Spot Removal. These settings are highly image-specific and should not be included in the preset. Include the adjustments from the other panels. This ensures the preset can be applied to a variety of images without causing significant exposure or white balance issues.
* Click "Create."
Important Considerations:
* Image-Specific Tweaks: Remember that presets are starting points. You'll likely need to make adjustments to each individual photo to achieve the perfect look.
* Skin Tone Accuracy: Pay close attention to skin tones. Avoid making them look overly red, yellow, or orange.
* Subtlety is Key: The best soft portraits are subtle. Avoid overdoing any one adjustment.
* Experiment: Don't be afraid to experiment with different settings to find what works best for your style and the types of portraits you shoot.
* Lightroom Version Limitations: Lightroom 4 lacks some of the advanced masking and adjustment tools available in later versions. You might need to rely more on global adjustments rather than targeted adjustments.
Example Preset Settings (as a starting point):
* Basic:
* Exposure: +0.2
* Contrast: -25
* Highlights: -40
* Shadows: +20
* Whites: +5
* Blacks: +5
* Clarity: -30
* Vibrance: +10
* Tone Curve: Gentle S-curve or slightly flattened.
* HSL/Color:
* Orange Saturation: -5
* Orange Luminance: +10
* Yellow Saturation: -5
* Yellow Luminance: +5
* Detail:
* Sharpening Amount: 25
* Sharpening Radius: 0.8
* Sharpening Masking: 50
* Luminance Noise Reduction: 8
Remember to adjust these settings based on your specific image and artistic preferences. Good luck!