I. Understanding the Goal: What is "Soft Portrait"?
* Reduced Harshness: Minimizing harsh shadows and highlights.
* Smooth Skin: Reducing the appearance of blemishes and wrinkles.
* Gentle Contrast: Avoiding overly dramatic contrast that accentuates imperfections.
* Soft Lighting: Creating an impression of diffused, natural light.
* Warm Tone: Enhancing skin tones for a healthy, glowing look.
* Preserved Detail: Maintaining some level of detail to avoid a completely blurry or unrealistic look.
II. Lightroom 4 Development Settings:
Here are the settings you'll adjust to build your Soft Portrait preset. Remember to adjust these *in moderation* and to suit your specific images. These are starting points, and you will almost certainly need to tweak them for individual photos.
1. Basic Panel:
* Exposure: Adjust as needed for proper brightness. Aim for a slightly brighter overall exposure. For example: +0.30.
* Contrast: Reduce significantly to soften the image. -30 to -50. Reducing contrast is crucial for softening the shadows and highlights.
* Highlights: Lower to recover detail in bright areas and further reduce harshness. -40 to -60.
* Shadows: Raise to brighten the shadows and create a more even lighting. +20 to +40.
* Whites: Adjust to ensure bright areas aren't clipped, may need a slight decrease. -5 to -15.
* Blacks: Adjust to taste. Slightly raising can add to the softness, but too much can make the image look washed out. +5 to +15.
* Clarity: This is the most important setting for creating a soft portrait look. Reduce significantly. -20 to -40. Clarity adds mid-tone contrast, so reducing it softens details.
* Vibrance: Increase slightly to enhance colors without oversaturation. +5 to +15.
* Saturation: Adjust to taste, but generally, a slight increase can be beneficial. +0 to +5.
2. Tone Curve Panel:
* Point Curve: A subtle S-curve can add a little contrast back without being harsh. A *very gentle* S-curve is the key. The middle point of the curve should stay in the same place.
* Alternatives: You can also use the "Medium Contrast" preset as a base and adjust from there.
* Reasoning: Fine-tune the shadows and highlights with greater control. Be very subtle.
3. HSL/Color Panel:
* Luminance:
* Orange: Increase slightly to brighten skin tones. +5 to +15.
* Yellow: Increase slightly to brighten skin tones. +5 to +15. Be cautious, as too much yellow can look unnatural.
* Red: Adjust based on the image and any red tones in the background.
* Saturation:
* Orange: Adjust based on skin tone needs. Maybe a slight decrease if skin is already very saturated. -5 to +5.
* Red: Adjust based on the image.
* Hue:
* Orange: Very subtle adjustments only, to correct skin tone if needed.
4. Detail Panel:
* Sharpening: Reduce the amount of sharpening. Amount: 20-40 (or even lower, experiment). A lower radius (around 0.8) is generally good for portraits. Increase the masking slider (around 40-60) to prevent sharpening of smoother areas like skin.
* Noise Reduction: Increase luminance noise reduction to smooth out skin. Luminance: 10-20. Don't overdo it, as too much noise reduction will make the image look plastic.
5. Lens Corrections Panel:
* Enable Profile Corrections: Check the box to automatically correct for lens distortion and chromatic aberration. This often improves overall image quality.
* Remove Chromatic Aberration: Check the box.
6. Effects Panel:
* Post-Crop Vignetting: Consider adding a slight, subtle vignette to draw the viewer's eye to the subject. Amount: -5 to -15. Midpoint: 50. Use a negative amount for darkening the corners. Experiment with Highlight Priority vs. Color Priority vs. Paint Overlay.
* Grain: Adding a very small amount of grain can help give a film-like feel and mask any remaining digital "perfection". Amount: 5-10, Size: small, Roughness: average.
III. Creating the Preset:
1. Reset: Start by resetting all settings to their defaults in the Develop module (click the "Reset" button at the bottom).
2. Adjust: Make the adjustments described above to a sample portrait photo.
3. Save:
* Go to the "Presets" panel on the left side of the Develop module.
* Click the "+" button at the top of the Presets panel (or right-click in the panel and select "New Preset").
* Give your preset a descriptive name (e.g., "Soft Portrait v1").
* In the "Check All/Check None" box, click "Check None".
* Crucially, check only the settings you have actually modified. This is important so your preset doesn't unintentionally change settings you haven't adjusted. At a minimum, you'll want to check:
* Exposure
* Contrast
* Highlights
* Shadows
* Whites
* Blacks
* Clarity
* Vibrance
* Saturation
* Tone Curve
* HSL/Color
* Sharpening
* Noise Reduction
* Lens Corrections (if you enabled them)
* Post-Crop Vignetting (if you added it)
* Grain (if you added it)
* Click "Create".
IV. Using the Preset:
1. Import Photo: Import the photo you want to edit into Lightroom.
2. Apply Preset: Go to the Develop module. In the Presets panel, find your newly created "Soft Portrait" preset and click on it.
3. Fine-Tune: This is absolutely essential. No preset will work perfectly on every photo. You will almost always need to make further adjustments to the exposure, white balance, and other settings to achieve the desired result. Pay close attention to skin tones.
V. Tips and Considerations:
* Lighting: The best soft portraits are taken in soft, diffused light. Harsh sunlight will make it more difficult to achieve a soft look. Overcast days are ideal.
* Skin Tone: Pay careful attention to skin tones. Adjust the orange and yellow luminance and saturation sliders to achieve a natural, healthy look.
* Over-Processing: It's easy to go overboard with softening. Avoid making the skin look completely plastic or blurry. Maintain some texture and detail.
* Experimentation: These are just starting points. Experiment with different settings to find what works best for your style and your subjects.
* Specific Skin Issues: If your subject has acne or other skin issues, you may need to use the Spot Removal tool in Lightroom to address those specifically. The preset will help overall, but targeted adjustments might be necessary.
* White Balance: Adjust White Balance *before* applying the preset. Correct white balance is crucial for accurate skin tones.
* RAW vs. JPEG: Shooting in RAW format gives you much more flexibility in post-processing. You'll have more latitude to recover details and adjust colors.
Example Values (Again, these are STARTING POINTS):
Let's say you're working with a portrait shot outdoors in slightly overcast conditions. Here's how the settings might look:
* Exposure: +0.20
* Contrast: -40
* Highlights: -50
* Shadows: +30
* Whites: -10
* Blacks: +10
* Clarity: -30
* Vibrance: +10
* Saturation: +2
* Orange Luminance: +8
* Yellow Luminance: +5
* Sharpening Amount: 30, Radius: 0.8, Masking: 50
* Luminance Noise Reduction: 15
* Vignette Amount: -10, Midpoint: 50
Remember to save this as a preset as described above, selecting only the adjusted settings.
By following these steps, you can create a custom Soft Portrait preset in Lightroom 4 that will help you achieve beautiful, flattering results. The key is to experiment and fine-tune the settings to suit your individual images. Good luck!