1. Understanding the Key Elements of a Soft Portrait:
* Reduced Sharpness: This is crucial for softening skin and blurring harsh details.
* Gentle Contrast: Lowering contrast helps create a smoother, more even tone.
* Subtle Highlights and Shadows: Expanding the dynamic range and controlling highlights and shadows adds depth without harshness.
* Warm Tones: Often, a touch of warmth is added to enhance skin tones and create a welcoming feel.
* Skin Smoothing (Optional): Some techniques can gently smooth skin texture.
2. Lightroom 4 Settings and Adjustments:
* Basics Panel:
* Temperature: Slightly warmer (e.g., +5 to +15). Adjust based on your image's existing color balance and the subject's skin tone. Don't overdo it.
* Tint: Adjust slightly towards magenta if needed to balance green tones in the skin (+2 to +5). Again, be subtle.
* Exposure: Adjust to achieve good overall brightness. Usually, slightly brighter than the original.
* Contrast: Lower it (e.g., -15 to -30). This is key to softening the overall look.
* Highlights: Lower them slightly (e.g., -10 to -25) to recover detail and prevent blown-out highlights, especially in skin.
* Shadows: Increase them slightly (e.g., +10 to +25) to lift shadows and reduce harshness.
* Whites: Adjust based on your specific photo. Often, a slight decrease (-5 to -10) can help soften the overall image.
* Blacks: Adjust based on your specific photo. Often, a slight increase (+5 to +10) can help soften the overall image.
* Clarity: Lower it significantly (e.g., -15 to -30). This reduces local contrast and contributes to the soft look. Be careful not to overdo this, as it can make the image look flat.
* Vibrance: Increase it slightly (e.g., +5 to +15). This adds subtle color without making the image look over-processed.
* Saturation: Adjust to taste. Sometimes a slight decrease (-5 to 5) helps.
* Tone Curve Panel:
* Point Curve (Linear): For a subtle, softer effect, create a very slight S-curve. Lift the shadows slightly and bring down the highlights slightly. This adds subtle contrast. If you're unsure, leave it on Linear.
* Detail Panel:
* Sharpening: Reduce the *Amount* significantly (e.g., to 0-20). This is crucial for a soft look. Consider masking the sharpening by holding the `Alt` key (Windows) or `Option` key (Mac) while adjusting the *Masking* slider. This protects smooth areas like skin from being sharpened while allowing sharpening on details like eyes.
* Noise Reduction: Increase the *Luminance* noise reduction (e.g., +5 to +20) to smooth skin and reduce grain. Don't overdo it, as this can make the image look plasticky. You may want to adjust the *Color* noise reduction as well.
* HSL / Color Panel:
* Luminance: Increase the Luminance of the orange and yellow channels slightly (e.g., +5 to +15) to brighten skin tones.
* Saturation: Adjust the Saturation of individual colors to your liking. For example, reducing the saturation of reds and oranges slightly can help reduce redness in skin.
* Hue: Make subtle adjustments to the Hue of reds, oranges, and yellows to fine-tune skin tones.
* Effects Panel:
* Post-Crop Vignetting: Add a subtle vignette (e.g., -5 to -15) with a high Midpoint and Feather to draw attention to the subject. Choose *Highlight Priority* as the Style.
3. Saving Your Preset:
1. After making your adjustments, click the "+" icon in the *Presets* panel on the left side of the Lightroom interface.
2. Give your preset a descriptive name, like "Soft Portrait."
3. In the *New Develop Preset* dialog box, carefully select which settings you want to include in your preset. Generally, you'll want to include:
* Exposure
* Contrast
* Highlights
* Shadows
* Whites
* Blacks
* Clarity
* Vibrance
* Saturation
* Tone Curve
* Sharpening
* Noise Reduction
* HSL / Color (if you made significant changes)
* Effects (Vignetting)
4. Click *Create*.
Important Considerations and Tips:
* Start with a Good Image: The best presets build upon a solid foundation. A well-exposed and well-composed image will always yield better results.
* Adjust for Each Image: No preset is a one-size-fits-all solution. You'll likely need to tweak the settings of your soft portrait preset for each individual photo, especially the exposure, white balance (temperature/tint), and noise reduction.
* Subtlety is Key: Avoid over-processing. The goal is to enhance the natural beauty of the subject, not create an artificial look.
* Experiment: Don't be afraid to experiment with different settings and combinations. The best way to learn is through trial and error.
* Skin Tone Accuracy: Pay close attention to skin tones. Overly warm or cool tones can look unnatural.
* Targeted Adjustments (Adjustment Brush): For more advanced skin smoothing, consider using the Adjustment Brush. Reduce clarity and sharpness selectively on skin areas. Lowering clarity on the brush and brushing over the skin will soften it. Feathering is crucial!
* Check for Halos: Overuse of clarity reduction or sharpening can create halos around edges. Zoom in to 100% and check for these artifacts.
* Preview Before Applying: Always preview the preset on a similar image before applying it to a large batch of photos.
Example Settings (as a starting point):
* Temperature: +8
* Tint: +3
* Exposure: +0.30
* Contrast: -20
* Highlights: -15
* Shadows: +20
* Whites: -5
* Blacks: +8
* Clarity: -25
* Vibrance: +10
* Saturation: -3
* Sharpening Amount: 15
* Sharpening Masking: 60
* Luminance Noise Reduction: 12
* Orange Luminance: +10
* Yellow Luminance: +5
* Vignette Amount: -10
* Vignette Midpoint: 50
* Vignette Feather: 70
Remember, these are just starting points. Adjust these values to suit your individual style and the specific characteristics of your photos. Good luck!