I. Planning and Inspiration
* Define Your Style: Before you even open Lightroom, consider the overall aesthetic you want to achieve.
* Mood: Warm and inviting? Cool and dramatic? Soft and ethereal? Bold and vibrant?
* Color Palette: Do you prefer natural skin tones, or do you want to manipulate colors to create a specific atmosphere? Consider popular color grading trends like teal and orange, desaturated hues, or specific color accents.
* Contrast & Clarity: Do you want a smooth, low-contrast look, or a sharp, detailed image?
* Examples: Browse photography websites (500px, Unsplash, Behance), Instagram, and Pinterest to find portrait styles you admire. Save examples for reference.
* Consider the Subject & Lighting: Presets should complement the subject and the existing lighting conditions. A preset designed for bright, outdoor portraits might not work well for indoor, low-light shots. You may need different presets for different scenarios.
II. Lightroom Adjustments: Building the Preset
Open a sample portrait in Lightroom that is representative of the types of photos you typically edit. Adjust the following settings to your liking, keeping your defined style in mind:
1. Basic Panel:
* White Balance: Crucial for skin tones! Use the eyedropper tool on a neutral area of the skin (forehead, cheek) or a neutral element in the scene, or adjust the temperature and tint sliders manually. Aim for natural, pleasing skin tones.
* Exposure: Adjust the overall brightness of the image. Be careful not to overexpose highlights, especially on the skin.
* Contrast: Affects the dynamic range. A lower contrast can create a softer, more dreamy look; higher contrast adds drama.
* Highlights: Control the brightest areas of the image. Reducing highlights can recover detail in overexposed skin.
* Shadows: Adjust the darkest areas. Lifting shadows can reveal detail in the background and add a sense of openness.
* Whites: Determines the brightest white point in the image. Subtle adjustments can significantly impact the overall brightness and contrast.
* Blacks: Determines the darkest black point. Adjusting this impacts the contrast and richness of the blacks in the image.
* Presence (Texture, Clarity, Dehaze): These are powerful tools for adding or softening detail.
* Texture: Fine-tunes detail without adding harshness.
* Clarity: Adds mid-tone contrast, making details "pop". Use sparingly, as too much can look unnatural.
* Dehaze: Reduces or adds atmospheric haze. Can be used subtly to create a more ethereal or dramatic look.
* Vibrance/Saturation: Control the intensity of colors.
* Vibrance: Affects the intensity of muted colors more than saturated colors, resulting in a more natural-looking boost.
* Saturation: Affects all colors equally. Be careful not to oversaturate skin tones.
2. Tone Curve:
* Point Curve: Create subtle contrast adjustments. An S-curve typically increases contrast, while an inverted S-curve reduces it. Experiment with different curve shapes to achieve unique looks.
* Channel Curves (Red, Green, Blue): Advanced color grading. Adjust individual color channels to create specific color casts or shift color tones. For example, lifting the blue channel in the shadows can create a cool, cinematic look.
3. HSL/Color Panel:
* Hue: Shift the colors. Subtle adjustments can drastically change the mood. Pay close attention to skin tones (reds, oranges, yellows).
* Saturation: Control the intensity of individual colors. Desaturating specific colors can create a more muted or vintage look.
* Luminance: Adjust the brightness of individual colors. Making skin tones brighter can create a softer, more glowing effect.
4. Color Grading Panel (formerly Split Toning):
* Shadows, Midtones, Highlights: Add color casts to these tonal ranges. This is where you can create distinctive color grading effects like teal and orange.
* Blending: Adjust the smoothness of the transition between the color casts.
* Balance: Control the dominance of the shadow or highlight colors.
5. Detail Panel:
* Sharpening: Add sharpness to bring out details. Use moderate amounts, and pay attention to the masking slider to avoid sharpening noise in smooth areas like skin.
* Noise Reduction: Reduce noise, especially in high-ISO images. Be careful not to over-smooth the image, as this can reduce detail.
* Color Noise Reduction: Remove unwanted color blotches.
6. Lens Corrections:
* Enable Profile Corrections: Automatically corrects for lens distortion and vignetting. Generally recommended.
* Remove Chromatic Aberration: Corrects for color fringing around high-contrast edges.
7. Transform: (Optional)
* If your portrait has perspective issues, use these tools to straighten lines or correct for converging verticals.
8. Effects Panel:
* Grain: Add film-like grain for a vintage look.
* Vignette: Darken or lighten the edges of the image to draw attention to the subject.
III. Saving the Preset
1. Click the "+" button in the Presets panel (left side of the Develop module).
2. Select "Create Preset."
3. Preset Name: Give your preset a descriptive name that reflects its style (e.g., "Warm Portrait", "Cool & Moody", "Natural Skin Tones"). Use a consistent naming convention to keep your presets organized. Consider using prefixes for different subjects (e.g., "Portrait - Warm", "Landscape - Cool").
4. Group: Choose a folder to save your preset in. Create custom groups for better organization.
5. Check boxes for the settings you want to include in the preset. Important Considerations:
* White Balance: *Usually* included. If you always shoot in similar lighting conditions, this can be helpful. If lighting varies a lot, consider *not* including it so you can adjust it per image.
* Exposure: It's often best *not* to include Exposure, as this is highly dependent on the original image. You'll likely need to adjust it for each photo.
* Local Adjustments (Adjustment Brush, Graduated Filter, Radial Filter): *Never* include these in a preset. They are specific to a particular image.
* Lens Corrections: *Usually* included, as this is often a standard correction for your lens.
* Transform: Only include if you are always fixing a similar perspective issue.
* Profile: Including a specific camera profile will lock your preset to that camera model. Omit this to make the preset more flexible.
6. Click "Create".
IV. Testing and Refining
1. Apply your new preset to several different portraits, taken in various lighting conditions and with different subjects.
2. Analyze the results critically. Does the preset consistently achieve the look you intended?
3. Make adjustments: If the preset needs tweaking, apply it to a photo, make the necessary adjustments in the Develop module, and then:
* Right-click on the preset in the Presets panel.
* Select "Update with Current Settings."
* Select which settings you want to update within the preset. This is crucial, so you don't accidentally overwrite settings you want to keep.
4. Repeat steps 1-3 until you are satisfied with the preset's performance.
V. Tips for Creative Portrait Presets
* Focus on Skin Tones: The most important aspect of portrait editing is getting skin tones right. Pay close attention to the Hue, Saturation, and Luminance sliders for reds, oranges, and yellows. Use the eyedropper tool to sample skin tones and analyze their color values.
* Experiment with Color Grading: Use the Color Grading panel to add subtle color casts to the shadows, midtones, and highlights. Try complementary color combinations for a more dramatic effect (e.g., teal and orange, blue and yellow).
* Use Radial Filters for Selective Adjustments: Create a subtle vignette around the subject to draw attention to the face. You can also use radial filters to brighten the eyes or smooth the skin.
* Don't Overdo It: Subtle adjustments are often more effective than dramatic ones. Avoid over-sharpening, oversaturating, or over-smoothing the image.
* Consider Black and White: Black and white portraits can be incredibly powerful. Experiment with different contrast levels and tonal ranges to create different moods.
* Create Variations: Once you have a base preset you like, create variations with slightly different settings. This will give you more options to choose from when editing your photos.
* Use Adjustment Brushes for Fine-Tuning: For very specific edits like dodging and burning (selectively lightening or darkening areas), sharpening eyes, or smoothing skin, use the adjustment brush after applying your general preset.
* Layer Presets: Apply one preset, then another on top of it, but be cautious, as this can lead to over-editing. Reduce the opacity of one of the presets for a more balanced look.
* Study Other Photographers' Work: Analyze the editing styles of photographers you admire and try to recreate their look.
Example Preset Ideas:
* Warm & Glowing: Increase warmth, lift shadows, soften highlights, add a slight glow to the skin.
* Cool & Moody: Decrease temperature, add a blue or teal cast to the shadows, increase contrast.
* Vintage Film: Add grain, reduce saturation, create a slight vignette, lift the blacks.
* High-Key: Increase exposure, reduce contrast, brighten highlights, create a clean, airy look.
* Black and White Dramatic: Convert to black and white, increase contrast, darken shadows, sharpen details.
By following these guidelines and experimenting with different settings, you can create unique and personalized Lightroom Develop Presets that will elevate your portrait photography and save you time in post-processing. Remember to always prioritize natural-looking results and to tailor your presets to the specific needs of each image. Good luck!