I. Understanding the Goal
A "Soft Portrait" generally aims for:
* Reduced Contrast: Less harsh shadows and highlights.
* Smooth Skin: Minimizing texture and blemishes.
* Gentle Tones: Softened colors and gradients.
* Subtle Warmth: Often a slight warming effect to enhance skin tones.
* Slight Blur/Bloom (Optional): Simulating a slight out-of-focus effect.
II. Lightroom 4 Settings
Here's a step-by-step guide to creating the preset. Remember to adjust these settings based on your specific image, as one size doesn't fit all:
1. Basic Panel:
* Exposure: Adjust as needed to achieve a good overall brightness. Start with +0.10 to +0.30, then tweak.
* Contrast: Reduce significantly. Try -20 to -40. This is key to the soft look.
* Highlights: Reduce to recover detail in bright areas. Try -20 to -40.
* Shadows: Increase to lift detail in darker areas. Try +10 to +30.
* Whites: Adjust to fine-tune the overall brightness and prevent clipping. Often, a slight reduction (-5 to -15) helps.
* Blacks: Adjust to control the depth of blacks and shadows. Often, a slight increase (+5 to +15) helps prevent harsh shadows.
* Clarity: Critically important: Reduce Clarity drastically! This softens textures. Try -30 to -50. Go even lower if you want an extremely soft look.
* Vibrance: Increase slightly for subtle color enhancement. Try +5 to +15.
* Saturation: May need slight adjustment depending on your image. Often a slight increase (+3 to +8) is helpful if the image is naturally desaturated.
2. Tone Curve Panel:
* Channel: Select "Point Curve." (or you can play with the RGB channels if you prefer)
* Create a Subtle "S" Curve:
* Add a point in the shadows and slightly lift it (drag it upward).
* Add a point in the highlights and slightly lower it (drag it downward).
* Keep the curve very gentle. The goal is to further reduce contrast. This step is optional but helps.
* Consider adding a tiny point at the bottom left and dragging it right to lift the deepest blacks into greys (faded effect). Be very subtle.
3. HSL / Color Panel:
* Luminance:
* Slightly increase the Luminance of Orange and Yellow to brighten skin tones. Try +5 to +15 for each.
* Adjust other colors (Red, Green, Blue, Aqua, Magenta) as needed based on your image's color palette. Sometimes a slight reduction in the luminance of blues or greens can make the skin pop.
* Saturation:
* Reduce saturation in colors that are too strong, especially reds or yellows if they are overly vibrant on the skin.
* Increase slightly in colors you want to enhance (e.g., blues in the sky, greens in foliage).
* Hue: Make subtle adjustments to hue. For example, shifting orange slightly towards red can warm skin tones. Shifting greens towards yellow can brighten foliage.
4. Split Toning (Optional):
* This can add a subtle color cast.
* Highlights: Consider adding a very subtle warm tone (orange/yellow hues, low saturation - 5-10).
* Shadows: Consider adding a very subtle cool tone (blue hues, low saturation - 5-10).
* Balance: Adjust the balance slider to favor either highlights or shadows based on your preference.
5. Detail Panel:
* Sharpening:
* Amount: Reduce Sharpening. The default is usually too high for a soft portrait. Try Amount: 20-30.
* Radius: Leave at the default (1.0).
* Detail: Reduce slightly. This softens textures further. Try 15-25.
* Masking: Increase the Masking slider to only apply sharpening to edges. Try 60-80.
* Noise Reduction:
* Luminance: Increase Noise Reduction to smooth skin. Start with 10-20 and adjust as needed. Be careful not to overdo it, as it can make the image look plastic.
* Color: Increase Color Noise Reduction to remove color artifacts. Try 10-20.
6. Lens Corrections (Optional):
* Enable Profile Corrections: Check this box to automatically correct lens distortion and vignetting. This will usually improve the image. If the correction is too strong, you can adjust it manually.
7. Effects Panel (Optional):
* Grain: Avoid adding grain for a smooth portrait.
* Vignetting: You *could* add a very subtle, light vignette (Amount around -5 to -10, Midpoint around 50) to draw attention to the center of the image, but this is stylistic.
III. Creating the Preset
1. Click the "+" button at the top of the Presets panel on the left.
2. Select "Create Preset..."
3. Preset Name: Give it a descriptive name like "Soft Portrait."
4. Group: Choose where to save the preset (e.g., "User Presets" or create a new group).
5. Check the boxes for all the settings you adjusted. IMPORTANT: Leave the "White Balance" and "Transform" boxes *unchecked* unless you want the preset to always apply the same white balance and transform settings to every image. Usually, these settings need to be adjusted individually for each photo.
6. Click "Create."
IV. Using and Refining the Preset
1. Apply the Preset: Select an image and click on your "Soft Portrait" preset in the Presets panel.
2. Fine-Tune: *Always* adjust the settings after applying the preset. Every image is different, so you'll need to tweak the Exposure, White Balance, and other parameters to get the best result. Pay close attention to the skin tones.
3. Local Adjustments: Use the Adjustment Brush tool to selectively adjust areas of the image. For example:
* Soften Skin Further: Use the Adjustment Brush with negative Clarity and positive Softness (if available in Lightroom 4 - some older versions lack this).
* Dodge and Burn: Use the Adjustment Brush with positive Exposure to lighten specific areas (e.g., eyes), and negative Exposure to darken other areas (e.g., to add dimension).
Tips and Considerations:
* Start with a Good Image: A well-exposed and properly focused image will yield the best results. This preset cannot fix poor photography.
* Skin Tones are Key: Pay close attention to skin tones and adjust the HSL/Color panel accordingly. Don't make skin look too orange or too pale.
* Subtlety is Important: The best soft portrait presets are subtle. Overdoing any of the settings (especially Clarity reduction and Noise Reduction) will create an unnatural, overly processed look.
* Experiment: Don't be afraid to experiment with different settings to find what works best for your style and the types of images you shoot.
* Facial Recognition: Some newer versions of Lightroom have facial recognition features that can automatically target skin for smoothing. Lightroom 4 does not. You will have to use the adjustment brush for targeted skin adjustments.
By following these steps and experimenting, you can create a beautiful "Soft Portrait" preset in Lightroom 4 that will add a dreamy, ethereal quality to your portrait photography. Remember to always fine-tune the settings for each individual image. Good luck!