Understanding the Soft Portrait Look
The key elements of a soft portrait look are:
* Reduced Harshness: Minimizing shadows and harsh lines.
* Smooth Skin: Blurring imperfections and creating a smooth texture.
* Subtle Colors: Softened and muted tones, often with a slight warmth.
* Highlight Emphasis: Gently emphasized highlights for a luminous effect.
* Overall Dreamy Quality: A slight softness and dreaminess achieved through subtle techniques.
Step-by-Step Guide to Creating the Preset
1. Basic Panel:
* Exposure: Adjust to achieve a well-exposed image. Usually, slightly overexposing (+0.3 to +0.7) can contribute to the soft look, but be careful not to blow out highlights. Experiment based on your starting image.
* Contrast: Reduce the contrast significantly. Try -20 to -40. Lower contrast reduces the harshness of shadows and highlights.
* Highlights: Lower the highlights. Start with -20 to -40. This recovers detail in bright areas and further reduces contrast.
* Shadows: Increase the shadows. Try +20 to +40. This brightens the darker areas, filling in harsh shadows and creating a more even tone.
* Whites: Slightly increase or decrease depending on your image. If your image has blown out areas, lower them. If it's too dark, raise them slightly. A range of -10 to +10 is a good starting point.
* Blacks: Slightly decrease the blacks. A range of -10 to -20 helps to prevent the image from looking flat and retains some depth.
* Clarity: This is crucial. Reduce Clarity drastically. Try -30 to -60. Clarity controls mid-tone contrast. Reducing it softens the image and minimizes texture, contributing to the smooth skin effect. Be mindful of going too far, which can make the image look blurry.
* Vibrance: Increase Vibrance slightly. Try +5 to +15. Vibrance adds subtle color without over-saturating skin tones.
* Saturation: Reduce Saturation slightly. Try -5 to -10. This helps to mute the colors for a more delicate look.
2. Tone Curve:
* Channel: Start with the "Point Curve" (if Lightroom 4 offers different tone curve options). You can also use the "Medium Contrast" or "Strong Contrast" presets as a starting point and then adjust from there.
* Gentle S-Curve (Optional): A subtle S-curve can add a bit of contrast back in while still maintaining the soft look. Raise the highlights slightly and lower the shadows slightly to create the S-curve. Be very subtle. A significant S-curve will undo the work you did in the Basic panel.
3. HSL/Color Panel:
* Luminance:
* Orange: Increase luminance slightly (+5 to +15) to brighten skin tones. Be careful not to overdo it.
* Yellow: Increase slightly if yellows are prominent in the scene.
* Saturation:
* Orange: Reduce slightly (-5 to -10) if skin tones appear too saturated.
* Yellow: Reduce slightly if yellows are too prominent or distracting.
* Hue: Usually, no adjustments are needed here unless you want to correct a specific color cast in the image.
4. Detail Panel:
* Sharpening: Reduce Sharpening significantly, even turning it off entirely. If you want some sharpening, use a very low amount (e.g., Amount of 20-30) and increase the Radius to around 1.0-1.2. The idea is to soften the image, not sharpen it.
* Noise Reduction (Luminance): Increase Luminance Noise Reduction. Start with 20-30. This smoothes out the overall image and reduces digital noise, further enhancing the soft look.
5. Effects Panel (Optional):
* Grain: Adding a small amount of grain (e.g., Amount of 5-10, Size of 20-30) can sometimes add a subtle texture and film-like quality to the portrait. This is a matter of personal preference.
* Vignetting: Add a very slight vignette (Amount of -5 to -15) to draw the viewer's eye to the center of the frame. Use a white vignette if it suits your style.
Saving the Preset
1. Click the "+" icon in the Presets panel.
2. Name your preset (e.g., "Soft Portrait").
3. Check the boxes next to the settings you adjusted. Crucially, only select the settings you *want* the preset to apply. For example, you *don't* want to include "Exposure" in the preset if you want the preset to work well on images that are already well-exposed. The typical settings to save are:
* Basic Tone
* Tone Curve
* HSL / Color / B&W
* Detail
* Effects
4. Click "Create".
Tips and Considerations:
* Experiment: These settings are a starting point. Every image is different, so you'll need to adjust the settings to suit the specific photograph.
* Subtlety is Key: Avoid extreme adjustments. The goal is a subtle, refined look, not an overly processed one.
* Skin Tone: Pay close attention to skin tones. Use the HSL panel to fine-tune them as needed. Don't over-soften skin to the point where it looks plastic.
* Selective Adjustments: For more advanced control, use the adjustment brush or graduated filter to selectively apply the soft portrait effect to specific areas of the image, such as the skin or background.
* Local Adjustments: Don't be afraid to use the adjustment brush to selectively dodge (brighten) and burn (darken) areas of the face to sculpt the light and create more flattering features. Softly brighten the catchlights in the eyes for extra sparkle.
* Before/After Comparison: Regularly compare the "before" and "after" versions of your image to ensure you're not overdoing the effect.
* Backup: Back up your presets regularly.
By following these steps and experimenting, you can create a beautiful "Soft Portrait" preset in Lightroom 4 that will help you achieve a dreamy and flattering look for your portraits. Remember that the best presets are those that are tailored to your personal style and the types of images you typically shoot. Good luck!