I. Understanding the Goal:
A soft portrait aims to:
* Reduce Sharpness and Harshness: Minimize fine details and textures to create a smoother skin appearance.
* Diffuse Highlights: Prevent blown-out highlights that can be unflattering.
* Gentle Tones: Create a subtle, warm, and inviting mood.
* Maintain Detail in Key Areas: Avoid making the image appear completely blurred.
II. Lightroom 4 Settings Breakdown:
1. Basic Panel:
* Exposure: Adjust this *last*. Aim for correct exposure, but be mindful of clipping highlights or shadows. Start with the existing exposure and fine-tune at the end.
* Contrast: Reduce slightly (e.g., -10 to -20). Lowering contrast softens the overall look and prevents overly harsh shadows.
* Highlights: Lower Significantly (e.g., -40 to -70). This brings back detail in bright areas like skin and clothing, preventing blown-out highlights which contribute to harshness.
* Shadows: Slightly Increase (e.g., +10 to +20). Opening up shadows reveals more detail in darker areas, balancing the image.
* Whites: Slightly Reduce (e.g., -5 to -15). Similar to highlights, this tames the brightest parts of the image.
* Blacks: Slightly Increase (e.g., +5 to +15). This lightens the darkest areas without making the image look washed out, adding to the soft effect.
* Clarity: Reduce Significantly (e.g., -20 to -40). Clarity adds mid-tone contrast and edge definition, the opposite of what we want for a soft portrait. Reducing it creates a softer, dreamier feel.
* Vibrance: Slightly Increase (e.g., +5 to +15). Vibrance gently boosts the saturation of the less saturated colors, enhancing skin tones without making the image look artificial. It's subtler than Saturation.
* Saturation: Adjust based on image. Typically, a slight increase (e.g., +0 to +10) is fine, but if skin tones are already strong, leave it at 0 or reduce slightly. Be very cautious with saturation; too much can look unnatural, especially on skin.
2. Tone Curve Panel:
* Point Curve: The most common approach is a *slight S-curve*.
* Lift the Shadows: Gently lift the bottom left point of the curve upward (a small amount, like 5-10%). This further brightens the shadows and enhances the softness.
* Tame the Highlights: Gently pull the top right point of the curve downward (a small amount, like 5-10%). This further softens the highlights.
* Create a Gentle Curve: You can also add a control point in the midtones and slightly lift it to create a smooth, gentle curve. Avoid creating a very steep or dramatic curve. The goal is subtlety.
3. HSL / Color Panel:
* Hue:
* Orange: Slightly shift towards red or yellow depending on skin tone. Adjust with *extreme* caution; even small changes can dramatically affect skin.
* Saturation:
* Orange: Slightly increase saturation to enhance skin tones. Again, be subtle.
* Yellow: Slightly decrease to remove harshness.
* Luminance:
* Orange: Slightly increase to brighten skin. Be mindful of blowing highlights.
4. Detail Panel:
* Sharpening: Reduce Sharpening or disable it entirely for the preset. The default sharpening is often too strong for soft portraits. You can always add a touch of sharpening back selectively if needed, but starting with less is better.
* Amount: Set to 0.
* Radius: Leave at the default.
* Detail: Leave at the default.
* Masking: Leave at the default.
* Noise Reduction: Increase Luminance Noise Reduction (e.g., 10-20). This smooths out any graininess and contributes to a softer appearance. Increase sparingly to avoid losing detail.
* Detail: Leave at the default.
* Contrast: Leave at the default.
* Color Noise Reduction: Leave at default unless there's noticeable color noise in the image.
5. Lens Corrections Panel (Optional):
* Enable Profile Corrections: Check the "Enable Profile Corrections" box if available. This corrects lens distortion and vignetting, which can improve the overall image quality. However, some vignetting can add to the soft feel.
* Remove Chromatic Aberration: Check the "Remove Chromatic Aberration" box. This corrects for color fringing.
6. Effects Panel:
* Vignetting: Add a *very* subtle positive (lighten) or negative (darken) vignette (e.g., Amount +5 to -10). A subtle vignette can draw the eye to the subject. Lighter vignettes create a brighter, airier feel, while darker vignettes create a more intimate feel. Experiment to see what you prefer. Adjust the Midpoint, Roundness, and Feather to fine-tune the effect.
* Grain: Avoid adding grain. Grain adds texture and roughness, which is counter to the goal of a soft portrait.
III. Saving the Preset:
1. After making all your adjustments, go to the Presets Panel (usually on the left side of the Lightroom interface).
2. Click the "+" icon at the top of the Presets panel (or right-click in the Presets panel) and select "Create Preset."
3. Give your preset a descriptive name (e.g., "Soft Portrait V1").
4. IMPORTANT: In the "Check All" / "Uncheck All" options, select only the settings you want to be included in the preset. Specifically:
* Uncheck "White Balance" (unless you want the preset to always apply a specific white balance). White balance is highly image-dependent.
* Uncheck "Exposure" (unless you have a very specific exposure adjustment you want to apply consistently). Exposure is also highly image-dependent.
* Uncheck "Lens Corrections" if you don't want the lens profile applied to every image.
* Check all the other settings you adjusted (Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Clarity, Vibrance, Tone Curve, HSL settings, Detail settings, Effects settings).
5. Click "Create."
IV. Applying and Refining:
1. Apply the preset to an image.
2. Critically evaluate the results. Every image is different, so you'll likely need to fine-tune the settings *after* applying the preset. Pay particular attention to:
* Exposure: Adjust as needed.
* White Balance: Adjust as needed.
* Orange Luminance and Saturation: These are most likely to require adjustment based on the specific skin tone in the image.
* Noise Reduction: Increase if needed, decrease if it's making the image too blurry.
* Sharpening: You might need to add a *very* small amount of sharpening back to key areas like the eyes. Use the Adjustment Brush with a small amount of Sharpening (+10 to +20) and paint over those areas.
Key Considerations:
* Start with a Good Image: The best results come from starting with a well-exposed, properly focused image. The preset can enhance, but it can't fix fundamental problems.
* Skin Tone is Crucial: Pay close attention to skin tones. Slight adjustments in the HSL panel, especially the Orange Hue, Saturation, and Luminance, can make a big difference.
* Subtlety is Key: The best soft portrait presets are subtle. Avoid overdoing any one setting.
* Experiment: Don't be afraid to experiment and adjust the settings to find what works best for your style and the specific images you're editing.
* Iterate: Create multiple versions of your soft portrait preset. Tweak and refine your presets as you learn more about how different settings affect your images.
By following these steps and experimenting with different settings, you can create a custom "Soft Portrait" preset in Lightroom 4 that produces beautiful, flattering results. Remember that the key is to be subtle and to tailor the settings to each individual image.