Understanding the "Soft Portrait" Look: This typically involves subtle skin smoothing, a slightly dreamy or diffused look, and often warmer tones. Avoid overly harsh contrasts.
Steps to Create the Preset:
1. Find Your Image: Open a portrait photo you want to use as a base for your preset. Ideally, choose a photo with good lighting and a relatively even skin tone to ensure the preset works consistently across different images.
2. Adjustments in the Develop Module: These are the core adjustments you'll make to achieve the soft portrait look. Experiment and find values that work for your image and style:
* White Balance: Adjust to achieve pleasing skin tones. A slightly warmer temperature often works well.
* Exposure: Fine-tune brightness to your preference. Avoid overexposure.
* Contrast: Reduce contrast significantly (e.g., -20 to -40). This softens the image and reduces harsh shadows.
* Highlights: Bring down highlights to around -20 to -40. This prevents blown-out highlights and creates a more even exposure.
* Shadows: Slightly lift shadows (e.g., +10 to +20) to fill in dark areas without making the image too bright.
* Whites: Bring down whites slightly (e.g., -10 to -20) to maintain detail in bright areas.
* Blacks: Slightly lift blacks (e.g., +5 to +15) to increase shadow detail and depth.
* Clarity: Reduce clarity significantly (e.g., -20 to -40). This softens the image and minimizes texture.
* Vibrance: Increase vibrance slightly (e.g., +5 to +15) to add saturation selectively, preserving skin tones.
* Saturation: Slightly reduce saturation (e.g., -5 to -10) to create a more muted, softer look; avoid desaturating too much.
* Sharpness: Reduce sharpness slightly (e.g., -10 to -20) or leave it at zero. Over-sharpening will counteract the soft look.
* Noise Reduction: Adjust luminance and color noise reduction as needed, especially if the image is noisy.
* Split Toning: This is optional, but you can add subtle split toning to enhance the mood. For a warmer look, add yellows to the highlights and oranges/magentas to the shadows. Keep the saturation relatively low.
* Lens Corrections: Apply lens corrections to correct any distortion or vignetting in your lens.
* Radial Filter (Optional): Use a radial filter to slightly darken the edges of the image, drawing focus to the subject. Use a soft feather.
* Adjustment Brush (Optional): Use the adjustment brush to locally adjust exposure, clarity, and other settings on specific areas (like the skin) for more precise control.
3. Create the Preset: Once you’re happy with the adjustments, go to the right-hand panel. At the bottom you’ll find the "Presets" panel. Click the "+" icon to create a new preset.
4. Name and Save: Give your preset a descriptive name (e.g., "Soft Portrait"). Choose where to save it (usually in the "User Presets" folder). You can also select which settings to include in the preset. It's generally a good idea to include all the adjustments.
Important Note: The exact settings will vary depending on your image and personal taste. These are just guidelines. Experiment with different values to achieve the desired effect. It's best to start with subtle adjustments and gradually increase them until you get the look you want. Always work non-destructively in Lightroom.
Remember that this preset is a starting point. You'll likely need to make minor tweaks to individual images after applying the preset to get the best results.