Understanding the Soft Portrait Look
Before we dive into the settings, it's important to understand what constitutes a "soft portrait." Generally, it includes:
* Reduced Sharpness: Softens details, making the skin look smoother.
* Lowered Contrast: Flattens the tonal range, making the light more even.
* Gentle Highlights: Prevents harsh highlights and gives a glowing effect.
* Slightly Lifted Shadows: Opens up shadows, revealing more detail and reducing harshness.
* Warm or Neutral Tones: Depending on preference, can create a cozy or classic feel.
* Subtle Color Adjustments: Often involves muting vibrant colors and enhancing skin tones.
Step-by-Step Guide to Creating the Preset
1. Start with a Sample Image: Open a portrait photo in Lightroom 4 that you want to soften. This will be your reference for adjusting the settings.
2. Basic Panel Adjustments:
* Exposure: Adjust to achieve a good overall brightness. Usually a slight increase is helpful, but depends on the original image.
* Contrast: Reduce it significantly. Try a value between -20 to -40. This is crucial for flattening the tonal range and creating the soft look.
* Highlights: Reduce the highlights. Experiment between -20 to -50. This helps prevent blown-out highlights and gives a softer glow.
* Shadows: Increase the shadows. Try values between +10 to +30. This opens up the shadows and reduces harshness.
* Whites: Slightly increase the whites (+5 to +15) but be careful not to clip. This will prevent a muddy look.
* Blacks: Decrease the blacks (-5 to -15) to add a touch of depth without overdoing it.
* Clarity: Reduce Clarity drastically. This is a key element! Go for -20 to -50. Clarity adds mid-tone contrast, and reducing it will soften the image considerably.
3. Tone Curve Adjustments (Optional but Recommended):
* Point Curve (Recommended): Go to the Tone Curve panel and select the "Point Curve" option (the one with a graph). Create a gentle "S" curve, but very, very slight. Lift the lower left point (shadows) slightly upward and pull the upper right point (highlights) slightly downward. This subtle S-curve further softens the contrast and adds a gentle glow. Avoid making a harsh or dramatic curve. Subtlety is key.
4. HSL/Color Panel Adjustments (Focus on Skin Tones):
* Hue:
* Orange: Slightly shift the orange hue towards red (+3 to +7) or yellow (-3 to -7), depending on the model's skin tone. This can help improve the overall complexion.
* Saturation:
* Orange: Slightly reduce the saturation of orange (-5 to -15) to desaturate the skin slightly, leading to less redness or orange-ness.
* Yellow: Decrease yellow saturation (-5 to -15) to avoid a jaundiced look on the skin.
* Luminance:
* Orange: Increase the luminance of orange (+5 to +15) to brighten skin tones.
* Red: Increase the luminance of red (+5 to +15) for a healthy glow on cheeks and lips.
5. Detail Panel Adjustments:
* Sharpening: Reduce Sharpening significantly. Start with the Amount slider at 0 and increase it very, very gradually until you notice a slight sharpness, but not too much. Around 20-30 is usually sufficient. Remember, the goal is a soft look.
* Radius: Keep the radius low, around 0.5 - 0.7.
* Detail: Reduce the Detail slider slightly, around 20-30, to further smooth out textures.
* Masking: Increase the masking slider around 40-60 to protect smoother areas (like skin) from unwanted sharpening.
* Noise Reduction: If your image has noticeable noise, use the Luminance noise reduction slider cautiously (around +5 to +15). Too much noise reduction can make the image look plastic.
6. Effects Panel Adjustments (Optional):
* Grain: Adding a very subtle amount of grain (1-3) can add a film-like texture and make the image less sterile.
* Vignetting: A slight positive vignetting (Amount around +5 to +15) can brighten the edges of the image and draw attention to the center. A negative vignetting can create a more focused look, but in this case, positive vignetting is more suited.
7. Calibration Panel (Optional):
* This is a more advanced panel. You can subtly adjust the Red, Green, and Blue primary hues and saturation for even finer control over color tones. Experiment, but generally, small adjustments are best. A slight shift in the Red Primary Hue towards orange can enhance skin tones.
8. Save the Preset:
* Once you're happy with the adjustments, go to the "Presets" panel on the left side of Lightroom.
* Click the "+" (New Preset) button.
* Give your preset a descriptive name, such as "Soft Portrait (Light)" or "Dreamy Portrait."
* In the "Check" section, ensure that all the settings you adjusted are checked. Important: If you didn't adjust a particular panel, uncheck it! This will prevent the preset from affecting settings you don't want it to touch. For example, if you didn't adjust the lens correction, uncheck it in the "Check" section.
* Click "Create."
Tips and Considerations:
* Iterative Adjustments: Don't try to get everything perfect in one go. Apply the preset to different images and make further tweaks as needed.
* Image-Specific Adjustments: Remember that presets are a starting point. You'll likely need to make additional adjustments on a per-image basis to account for varying lighting conditions and skin tones.
* Subtlety is Key: The best soft portrait presets are subtle. Overdoing the adjustments can result in an unnatural and plastic-looking image.
* Experiment: Don't be afraid to experiment with different settings to find what works best for your style and the images you typically work with.
* Avoid Over-Smoothing: While softening is the goal, avoid completely removing texture from the skin. Some texture is essential for a natural look.
Example Settings Summary (Starting Point - Adjust to Taste!)
* Basic Panel:
* Contrast: -30
* Highlights: -40
* Shadows: +20
* Whites: +10
* Blacks: -10
* Clarity: -40
* Tone Curve: Subtle S-curve
* HSL/Color:
* Orange Hue: +5
* Orange Saturation: -10
* Orange Luminance: +10
* Red Luminance: +8
* Detail:
* Sharpening Amount: 25
* Radius: 0.6
* Detail: 25
* Masking: 50
These settings are just a starting point. Adjust them to suit your preferences and the specific characteristics of your photos. Good luck creating your soft portrait preset!