I. Understanding Your Vision and Defining Your Style
* Inspiration Gathering:
* Collect Examples: Find portrait photos that you love. Analyze what makes them appealing. Look at the colors, contrast, tones, and overall mood.
* Identify Common Themes: Are you drawn to warm and golden tones, cool and desaturated looks, or high-contrast black and whites? This will guide your preset creation.
* Mood Board: Create a mood board with your inspiration to visually represent your desired style.
* Consider Your Subjects and Lighting:
* Skin Tones: Think about how your presets will affect different skin tones. Ideally, create presets that are flattering across a range of complexions.
* Lighting Conditions: How will your preset perform in different lighting scenarios (natural light, studio light, golden hour, etc.)? You might need to create variations for different light types.
II. Editing in Lightroom & Creating the Foundation
1. Start with a Good Base Image: Choose a well-exposed, properly focused portrait as your starting point. This will make it easier to assess the effects of your edits.
2. Basic Adjustments (The Foundation):
* Profile Correction: Enable lens profile correction to remove distortion and vignetting.
* White Balance: Adjust the white balance to create the desired temperature. Warmer tones can create a cozy feeling, while cooler tones can be more dramatic. (Try using the eyedropper tool on a neutral area in the image).
* Exposure: Correct the overall brightness. Aim for a well-exposed image without clipping highlights or shadows.
* Contrast: Adjust for a flat vs punchy base to your edit.
3. Tone Curve (Adding Depth and Dimension):
* Experiment: This is where you can add a lot of character.
* S-Curve: Creates contrast and depth. A slight S-curve is often a good starting point.
* Flattened Curve (Matte Look): Lift the blacks and lower the whites to create a softer, less contrasty look.
* Custom Curves: Use the RGB channels to make specific color adjustments. For example, adding a subtle curve in the red channel can warm up the image.
4. HSL/Color Panel (Fine-Tuning Colors):
* Hue: Adjust the color itself (e.g., changing the hue of reds towards orange).
* Saturation: Control the intensity of the colors (e.g., desaturating blues for a vintage look).
* Luminance: Adjust the brightness of the colors (e.g., brightening skin tones).
* Targeted Adjustments: Focus on adjusting specific colors that impact skin tones (orange, red, yellow) to ensure they look natural and flattering.
5. Color Grading (Creating Mood and Atmosphere):
* Shadows, Midtones, Highlights: Use the Color Grading panel to add subtle color casts to these tonal ranges.
* Blending and Balance: Adjust the blending and balance sliders to control how the color casts blend together.
* Subtle is Key: Start with small adjustments and build up the color gradually. Overdoing it can look unnatural.
6. Detail Panel (Sharpness and Noise Reduction):
* Sharpening: Add a moderate amount of sharpening to bring out details. Use masking to avoid sharpening areas like skin.
* Noise Reduction: If your image has noise, reduce it gently. Too much noise reduction can make the image look artificial.
7. Effects Panel (Vignetting and Grain):
* Vignetting: Add a subtle vignette to draw the viewer's eye to the center of the image.
* Grain: Add a small amount of grain for a film-like texture.
III. Saving Your Preset
1. Clean Up Unnecessary Settings: Before saving, reset or set to "0" any settings that aren't directly contributing to your look (e.g., Transform settings, calibration if not needed). This makes the preset more versatile.
2. Click the "+" Icon: In the Presets panel, click the "+" icon and select "Create Preset."
3. Name Your Preset: Give your preset a descriptive name that reflects its style (e.g., "Warm Golden Hour," "Cool Matte Portrait," "High Contrast B&W").
4. Choose a Group: Organize your presets by creating a new group or adding it to an existing one.
5. Select Settings: Choose which settings to include in the preset. Commonly included settings:
* Basic Tone (Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, Blacks)
* Tone Curve
* HSL/Color
* Color Grading
* Detail (Sharpening, Noise Reduction)
* Effects (Vignette, Grain)
* Lens Corrections
* Important: Consider *excluding* settings that are highly dependent on the specific image, such as:
* White Balance (unless it's a core part of the look)
* Spot Removal
* Graduated Filters
* Radial Filters
* Adjustment Brushes
6. Create: Click "Create" to save your preset.
IV. Testing and Iteration
1. Apply Your Preset to Different Photos: Test your preset on a variety of portraits with different skin tones, lighting conditions, and compositions.
2. Adjust as Needed: You'll likely need to tweak the preset on each image to fine-tune the look. This is normal!
3. Iterate: Based on your testing, go back to the original preset and make adjustments to improve its overall performance. Save it with an updated version number (e.g., "Warm Golden Hour v2").
4. Look at before and afters Are you enhancing the photo or just applying an effect?
V. Creative Ideas and Advanced Techniques
* Skin Tone Presets: Create presets specifically designed to enhance and smooth skin tones while maintaining natural texture. Focus on HSL adjustments and subtle color grading.
* Film Emulation: Research the color palettes of classic film stocks (e.g., Kodak Portra, Fuji Provia) and try to recreate them in Lightroom. Use grain and subtle color casts to enhance the effect.
* Black and White Conversions: Experiment with different black and white conversion techniques. Use the B&W Mix panel to control the tonal values of different colors.
* Matte Looks: Create a soft, dreamy look by lifting the blacks and lowering the whites in the Tone Curve. Desaturate the colors slightly and add a touch of grain.
* Vintage/Retro Looks: Use Color Grading to add faded tones to the shadows and highlights. Desaturate the colors, especially blues and greens. Add vignetting and grain.
* High-Key/Low-Key: Create presets that focus on extremes of brightness. High-key will be bright and airy, while low-key will be dark and moody.
* Split Toning/Color Grading Extremes: Use Color Grading to add strong color casts to the shadows and highlights for a more stylized look.
* Use Local Adjustments (Brushes, Gradients) Strategically: While you generally *don't* include local adjustments in the *preset* itself, you might develop a preset that *suggests* specific local adjustments. For example, a preset might be designed to work best with a radial filter darkening the edges. Make note of these suggested adjustments in the preset's description.
Tips for Success
* Subtlety is key (generally): Start with subtle adjustments and build up the look gradually.
* Focus on flattering skin tones: Pay close attention to how your presets affect skin tones.
* Use references: Keep your inspiration photos handy as you edit.
* Document your process: Write down the steps you took to create each preset so you can easily recreate it or make adjustments later.
* Practice, practice, practice! The more you experiment, the better you'll become at creating custom presets.
* Don't be afraid to break the rules: Experiment with different techniques and find what works best for you.
By following these steps and experimenting with different techniques, you can create a collection of creative Lightroom Develop presets that will help you develop your unique style and streamline your portrait editing workflow. Remember to have fun and enjoy the process!