1. Understanding the Goal:
A soft portrait emphasizes the subject's beauty by:
* Reducing Harshness: Minimizing strong shadows and highlights.
* Smoothing Skin: Softening textures and imperfections.
* Creating a Dreamy Atmosphere: Often achieved through subtle blurring or glow.
* Enhancing Color: Warming tones and/or emphasizing specific colors.
2. Basic Panel Adjustments:
* Exposure: Adjust until the subject's face is well-lit but not blown out. Usually a slight boost (+0.2 to +0.5 stops) is helpful.
* Contrast: Lower the contrast significantly (-20 to -40). This helps soften the overall image and reduce harsh shadows.
* Highlights: Pull the highlights down (-20 to -40). This recovers detail in bright areas and prevents them from becoming distracting.
* Shadows: Lift the shadows (+10 to +30). This opens up darker areas, revealing more detail and reducing contrast further.
* Whites: Adjust slightly to fine-tune the overall brightness. A slight reduction can help prevent clipping.
* Blacks: Adjust slightly to fine-tune the overall contrast. A slight increase can add some depth to the image.
3. Tone Curve Adjustments:
The Tone Curve is key to achieving a soft, film-like feel.
* Channel: Select the "Point Curve" region, not the parametric curve.
* S-Curve (Subtle): Create a very gentle S-curve. Raise the curve slightly in the shadow area (lower left) and lower it slightly in the highlight area (upper right). This adds subtle contrast while maintaining softness. Avoid overly aggressive curves as they can introduce unwanted artifacts. A *very* mild S-curve is key.
4. Detail Panel Adjustments:
This is crucial for smoothing skin.
* Sharpening:
* Amount: Reduce the sharpening amount significantly (10-30). You want less sharpness overall for a softer look. You can always add sharpening later selectively using the adjustment brush.
* Radius: Keep the radius low (0.5 - 1.0).
* Detail: Reduce the detail slider (0-20). This smooths out finer textures.
* Masking: Increase the masking slider (50-80). This protects smooth areas from being sharpened, focusing sharpening primarily on edges. Hold down Alt/Option while dragging the slider to see the mask. White areas are sharpened, black areas are not.
* Noise Reduction:
* Luminance: Increase luminance noise reduction (10-30). This smooths out luminance noise, which can contribute to a harsh look, especially on skin. Be careful not to overdo it, as it can make the image look plastic.
* Detail: Increase the Luminance Detail slightly (50-80) to retain detail while reducing noise.
* Color: Increase color noise reduction (10-20) to remove color blotches in shadows.
5. HSL/Color Panel Adjustments:
This step refines skin tones and overall color balance.
* Hue:
* Orange: Slightly shift the orange hue towards red or yellow, depending on your subject's skin tone, to refine their skin color.
* Yellow: Adjust yellow to neutralize any unwanted yellowness in the skin.
* Saturation:
* Orange: Reduce the saturation of the orange slightly ( -5 to -15) to soften skin tones.
* Yellow: Reduce the saturation of yellow slightly to avoid an unnatural skin tone.
* Luminance:
* Orange: Increase the luminance of orange slightly (+5 to +15) to brighten skin.
* Red: Increase the luminance of red if your subject is wearing red clothing.
6. Split Toning (Optional):
This adds subtle color toning to the highlights and shadows.
* Highlights: Add a very subtle warm tone (orange or yellow, hue around 35-45, saturation 5-10).
* Shadows: Add a very subtle cool tone (blue or violet, hue around 220-240, saturation 5-10). Use sparingly for a vintage feel. Balance them with the *Balance* slider.
7. Effects Panel (Optional):
* Vignetting: Add a very slight vignette (Amount: -5 to -15, Midpoint: 30-50) to draw the viewer's eye to the center of the image. Roundness should be around 0.
* Grain: Adding a *very* subtle grain can give a film-like quality, but be cautious – overdoing it ruins the softness (Amount: 5-10, Size: 25-30, Roughness: 50-60). This is usually best left off.
8. Calibration Panel (Optional):
This is for advanced color tweaking. You can subtly adjust the Red, Green, and Blue primaries to fine-tune the overall color mood. Generally, minor tweaks here are enough.
9. Save the Preset:
* Click the "+" button in the Presets panel.
* Give your preset a descriptive name (e.g., "Soft Portrait Lr4").
* Carefully select the settings you want to include in the preset. *Critically*, make sure you uncheck "Process Version" to ensure compatibility with other Lightroom versions. Also, consider whether to include settings like Exposure, White Balance, or Crop, as these are often image-specific. It's generally best to only include the settings that directly contribute to the "soft" effect. Key settings to include are: Basic Tone controls (Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, Blacks), Tone Curve, Sharpening, Noise Reduction, HSL, Split Toning, and Effects.
* Click "Create."
Important Considerations:
* Image-Specific Adjustments: Presets are a starting point. You'll still need to make image-specific adjustments to exposure, white balance, and other settings.
* Subtlety is Key: The best soft portrait presets are subtle. Avoid overdoing any one adjustment.
* Skin Tone: Pay close attention to skin tones. Use the HSL/Color panel to fine-tune them as needed.
* Experiment: Experiment with different settings to find what works best for your style and the types of images you typically shoot.
* Local Adjustments: Don't be afraid to use the Adjustment Brush or Graduated Filter for localized adjustments. For example, you might use the adjustment brush to selectively soften skin or dodge and burn specific areas.
* Process Version: Using the latest process version in Lightroom allows for the best possible image quality. However, for broader compatibility it is best to uncheck the "Process Version" setting.
Example Settings (Starting Point - Adjust to Taste!):
* Exposure: +0.3
* Contrast: -30
* Highlights: -35
* Shadows: +20
* Whites: -5
* Blacks: +5
* Tone Curve: Very slight S-curve
* Sharpening Amount: 20
* Sharpening Radius: 0.8
* Sharpening Detail: 10
* Sharpening Masking: 70
* Luminance Noise Reduction: 20
* Luminance Detail: 60
* Color Noise Reduction: 15
* Orange Saturation: -10
* Orange Luminance: +10
This comprehensive guide will help you create your own "Soft Portrait" preset in Lightroom 4 and achieve beautiful, flattering portraits. Remember to experiment and adapt these techniques to suit your individual style and the specific characteristics of your images. Good luck!