Understanding the Goal:
The goal of a soft portrait preset is to:
* Soften Skin: Reduce blemishes and fine lines while maintaining a natural look.
* Create a Dreamy Feel: Slightly blur the details without losing sharpness entirely.
* Improve Tone and Color: Enhance skin tones and create a pleasing color palette.
* Add Light: Often a brighter, airier feel is part of the soft portrait aesthetic.
Lightroom 4 Settings and Adjustments:
1. Basic Panel:
* Exposure: Increase slightly to brighten the image. +0.20 to +0.50. Adjust based on the original exposure.
* Contrast: Reduce contrast to flatten the image and give it a softer feel. -15 to -30.
* Highlights: Reduce highlights to recover details in bright areas of the skin. -20 to -40
* Shadows: Increase shadows to lift the dark areas and add detail in shadows. +10 to +30.
* Whites: Adjust subtly. Slightly increase to brighten, or decrease to prevent clipping in bright areas. -10 to +10.
* Blacks: Adjust subtly. Generally, avoid making blacks too dark. -10 to +10.
2. Tone Curve:
* The Tone Curve is crucial for shaping the overall feel.
* Point Curve (Preferred for fine-tuning): Create a slight "S" curve. Gently pull the top right point down slightly (highlights) and the bottom left point up slightly (shadows). This will subtly increase contrast but in a gentle way.
* You can also experiment with the Parametric Curve. Raising the Highlights and Lights will brighten the brighter tones of the image, contributing to the airy feel.
3. HSL / Color Panel:
* Hue: Subtle adjustments to the Hue can improve skin tones.
* Orange: Adjust slightly to make skin tones warmer or cooler (experiment, small adjustments only). -5 to +5.
* Red: Similar to Orange, subtle adjustments. -5 to +5.
* Saturation: Reduce saturation slightly, especially in the Orange, Red, and Yellow channels. This prevents skin tones from becoming too vibrant and artificial.
* Orange: -5 to -15
* Red: -5 to -10
* Yellow: -5 to -10
* Luminance: Increase Luminance in the Orange and Yellow channels to brighten skin.
* Orange: +5 to +15
* Yellow: +5 to +15
4. Detail Panel:
* Sharpening: Reduce Sharpening considerably. The amount depends on the original image, but start low.
* Amount: 20-40 (default is 25, so you may just want to reduce the *Radius* instead)
* Radius: Keep this small to avoid over-sharpening. 0.5 - 0.8
* Detail: Reduce this to smooth out textures a little. 20-40
* Masking: Increase Masking to only sharpen edges and avoid sharpening the skin. 60-80
* Noise Reduction: Increase Luminance Noise Reduction to smooth skin. Be careful not to overdo it and lose detail.
* Luminance: +10 to +30 (experiment, use sparingly)
* Color: +5 to +15 (Helps with color noise)
5. Lens Corrections (if applicable):
* Enable Profile Corrections: This will remove any distortion or vignetting caused by the lens.
* Remove Chromatic Aberration: This corrects any color fringing you might see around high-contrast areas.
Steps to Create the Preset:
1. Import a Portrait Photo: Choose a portrait photo that you want to apply the soft look to. Ideally, choose an image with good lighting to start with.
2. Adjust Settings: In the Develop module, start adjusting the settings in the panels described above. Experiment and see what works best for your image. Remember to start with the Basic panel and work your way down.
3. Fine-Tune: Zoom in on the skin to check for over-softening or artifacts. Adjust noise reduction and sharpening accordingly.
4. Create the Preset:
* In the Develop module, go to the Presets panel on the left side.
* Click the "+" icon in the Presets panel.
* Give your preset a descriptive name (e.g., "Soft Portrait - Light," "Soft Portrait - Natural").
* In the "New Develop Preset" dialog box, carefully select the settings you want to include in the preset. Crucially, make sure to *deselect* any settings you *didn't* change. For example, if you didn't adjust the White Balance, deselect "White Balance." This prevents the preset from changing that setting on images where you want to keep the original white balance. You'll usually want to include:
* Basic Tone adjustments (Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, etc.)
* Tone Curve
* HSL/Color settings
* Detail (Sharpening and Noise Reduction)
* Lens Corrections (if you want to apply lens corrections automatically)
* Click "Create."
Important Considerations and Tips:
* Image Specific Adjustments: Every image is different. This preset is a starting point. You will likely need to make further adjustments to the preset after applying it to a new image, especially in terms of Exposure, White Balance, and Noise Reduction.
* Skin Tone: Pay close attention to skin tones. Use the HSL panel to fine-tune them until they look natural and pleasing. The Orange and Yellow channels are your primary tools for this.
* Over-Softening: Avoid over-softening the skin, which can make the portrait look unnatural. Use the Detail panel carefully.
* Experiment: Don't be afraid to experiment with different settings to find the look you prefer. There is no one "right" way to create a soft portrait preset.
* Save Multiple Variations: Create several variations of the preset with different levels of softening, brightness, and contrast. This will give you more options to choose from.
* Presets as a Starting Point: Think of presets as a foundation for your editing workflow. They are designed to get you close to your desired look quickly, but fine-tuning is always necessary.
* Before/After: Use the before/after view in Lightroom (by pressing the "\" key) to compare the original image with your edited version and make sure you're improving the image.
* Practice: The more you practice creating and using presets, the better you'll become at understanding how different settings affect the final image.
* Monitor Calibration: Ensure your monitor is calibrated to accurately display colors and tones. Otherwise, your adjustments may not translate well to other screens.
By following these steps and experimenting with different settings, you can create a "Soft Portrait" preset in Lightroom 4 that gives your portraits a beautiful, dreamy look. Remember to fine-tune the preset for each individual image to achieve the best results. Good luck!