Understanding the Look:
A soft portrait typically aims for:
* Reduced Harshness: Minimizing harsh shadows and highlights.
* Smoother Skin: Subtle blurring and softening of textures.
* Warm Tones: Often a slight warming of the skin tone.
* Subtle Color Palette: Generally muted and pleasing colors.
* Gentle Highlights: Avoiding blown-out highlights.
Lightroom 4 Settings:
Here's a step-by-step guide with recommended starting values. Remember to adjust these based on the specific image you're working with.
1. Basic Panel:
* Exposure: Adjust to achieve a well-exposed image as a starting point. Don't bake in specific exposure adjustments here. Leave this neutral, or very slightly positive (+0.10 to +0.30) for a brighter base.
* Contrast: Reduce this significantly (-20 to -40). Lower contrast helps to flatten the image, reducing harshness.
* Highlights: Reduce them (-30 to -60). This recovers detail in bright areas, preventing blown-out highlights.
* Shadows: Increase slightly (+10 to +30). This lifts the shadows, making them less harsh and revealing more detail.
* Whites: Adjust to the point just before clipping any areas. Often, a slight reduction is beneficial (-5 to -15).
* Blacks: Adjust to set your true black point, but avoid making them too dark. Slightly raising them can contribute to the soft look (+5 to +15).
* Clarity: Reduce this (-10 to -20). Clarity affects mid-tone contrast. Lowering it softens the overall image.
* Vibrance: Increase slightly (+5 to +15). Vibrance is a gentler form of saturation, boosting muted colors without over-saturating already vibrant ones. Helps to keep the skin tone natural looking.
* Saturation: Adjust if necessary, but be careful not to over-saturate skin tones. Usually, a small adjustment (+0 to +5) is sufficient.
2. Tone Curve Panel:
* Point Curve: Create a subtle "S" curve. This adds a touch of contrast and can enhance the overall tonality.
* Subtle S-Curve: Click on the curve to create three points:
* One point in the shadows (lower left quadrant): Slightly lift it upwards.
* One point in the midtones (center): Leave it as is.
* One point in the highlights (upper right quadrant): Slightly lower it downwards.
* The goal here is to gently brighten the shadows and soften the highlights, contributing to the soft effect. Be subtle, small movements are key.
3. HSL/Color Panel:
* Hue: Make subtle adjustments to skin tones.
* Orange: Shift slightly towards red (e.g., +3 to +7) for warmer skin tones.
* Yellow: Shift slightly towards orange (e.g., -3 to -7) to reduce any harsh yellow tones.
* Saturation: Adjust saturation of specific colors as needed.
* Orange: Reduce slightly (-5 to -10) to prevent skin tones from becoming overly saturated.
* Luminance: Adjust the brightness of specific colors.
* Orange: Increase slightly (+5 to +10) to brighten skin tones.
4. Split Toning Panel:
* Highlights: Introduce a subtle warm tone (e.g., Hue: 30-40, Saturation: 3-7). This adds a touch of warmth to the brighter areas of the image.
* Shadows: Introduce a very subtle cool tone (e.g., Hue: 210-230, Saturation: 2-5). This complements the warm highlights and adds depth.
* Balance: Adjust to fine-tune the balance between the highlight and shadow tones. Aim for a subtle effect.
5. Detail Panel:
* Sharpening: Reduce the Amount (e.g., 0-30) and increase the Masking (e.g., 50-80). Reducing the sharpening softens the image. Masking protects smooth areas like skin from being over-sharpened, focusing sharpening on edges instead.
* Noise Reduction: Increase Luminance Noise Reduction (e.g., 10-30). This smooths out noise and texture in the image, contributing to the soft look. Be careful not to overdo it, as it can make the image look artificial.
6. Lens Corrections Panel:
* Enable Profile Corrections: Check this box. This corrects lens distortion and vignetting, resulting in a cleaner image.
* Remove Chromatic Aberration: Check this box. This removes color fringing along edges.
7. Effects Panel:
* Post Crop Vignetting: A very subtle negative vignette (Amount -5 to -15) can help to draw the viewer's eye to the subject. Adjust to taste.
Saving the Preset:
1. After making all the adjustments, click on "Preset" in the left panel.
2. Click on the "+" button next to "Presets".
3. Name your preset (e.g., "Soft Portrait").
4. Carefully choose which settings to include in the preset. Important: Make sure all the settings you adjusted are checked. You may want to *uncheck* things like "Treatment & Profile" (color vs. black & white) and "Crop" if you want the preset to be more flexible. Very Important: Be sure "Process Version" is selected! If it is not, it may not work as expected with older files.
5. Click "Create".
Important Considerations:
* Start with a well-exposed image: The preset works best as a starting point.
* Adjust the preset to suit each image: No preset works perfectly on every photo. You'll likely need to fine-tune the settings to achieve the desired look. Pay particular attention to exposure and white balance.
* Subtlety is key: Avoid extreme settings. The goal is a natural-looking, soft image.
* Experiment: Don't be afraid to try different settings and see how they affect the image.
* Skin Tone: Always keep a close eye on skin tones to make sure they look natural and healthy.
* Process Version: Ensure you are using a relatively recent process version within Lightroom. Older process versions might not be fully compatible with the more modern features used in this preset.
Example Starter Settings (Remember to Adjust!)
* Basic: Exposure: +0.20, Contrast: -30, Highlights: -50, Shadows: +20, Whites: -10, Blacks: +5, Clarity: -15, Vibrance: +10, Saturation: +3
* Tone Curve: Subtle S-Curve (as described above)
* HSL/Color: Orange Hue: +5, Orange Saturation: -7, Orange Luminance: +7
* Split Toning: Highlights: Hue 35, Saturation 5; Shadows: Hue 220, Saturation 3, Balance +5
* Detail: Sharpening Amount 20, Masking 70, Luminance Noise Reduction 20
* Lens Corrections: Enable Profile Corrections, Remove Chromatic Aberration
* Effects: Post Crop Vignetting: Amount -10
By following these steps and experimenting with the settings, you can create a beautiful and effective "Soft Portrait" preset in Lightroom 4 that will give your portraits a dreamy and flattering look. Good luck!