#Portrait retouching in lightroom movie#
#Portrait retouching in lightroom skin#

Lightroom reduces the value of the Clarity and Sharpness sliders, effectively lessening the strength of the Soften Skin preset. Hold the left mouse button down and move the mouse left. If the effect is too strong, hover the mouse over the Adjustment Brush pin (a grey circle with a black dot in the middle) until a double arrow icon appears (below). The Soften Skin preset blurs the area that you paint in with the brush. Make sure Feather, Flow and Density are set to 100, use the square bracket keys on the keyboard to adjust the size of the brush and paint over the areas under the eyes. Lightroom sets Clarity to -100 and Sharpness to +25. Select the Soften Skin preset from the Effect menu.

They’re a natural part of the skin’s texture and it will look unnatural if they are not there.Ĭlick on the Adjustment Brush icon to activate it. The idea is not to eliminate these completely (unless you’re going for the heavily retouched, airbrushed look) but to minimize them. There may also be wrinkles, and some people have a strong crease along the lower eyelid. The skin here is thinner than the rest of the face which is why people get dark patches there. I like to start with the area underneath the model’s eyes. Retouching with the Adjustment Brush should be left until last, so you know what you’re working with. On the other hand, you can move the Exposure or Highlights sliders right to brighten the skin, making wrinkles and skin texture less obvious. Increasing Contrast and Clarity, for example, will emphasize skin texture, wrinkles and blemishes. It’s important that you have already made the required adjustments to tone and contrast in the Basic panel before you get to this stage. Now it’s time to look closely at the portrait and decide what other retouching is required. In this case Lightroom’s healing algorithm worked perfectly, but if it doesn’t then click on the circle representing the sampled area and move it to a location where the skin matches the tone and texture of the area to be healed (right).

To do so, click on the Spot Removal tool icon to activate it, adjust the size of the brush with the square bracket keys on the keyboard, and click on the spot you want to remove.Ĭlick on a blemish with the Spot Removal tool (left). The first step in portrait retouching is to remove any blemishes with the Spot Removal tool. There are exceptions of course, sometimes skin smoothing is not necessary, especially if your model has good skin and you shoot in soft light, or use a wide aperture to throw some of the face out of focus. When retouching portraits of women it is conventional to use a skin smoothing technique to make the portrait look more flattering. That’s definitely my approach, and it fits with my preference for natural light and for creating portraits that capture character.Įither way,the Adjustment Brush in Lightroom can accommodate your needs. Others will go for a more natural effect, and use the retouching tools with a light touch.

#Portrait retouching in lightroom movie#

It’s a style you see used a lot in commercial photography or movie posters. Some photographers seem to like the airbrushed, almost plastic look of heavy processing. It’s worthwhile taking some time to think about your personal approach to portrait retouching. For high end retouching purposes you can go to Photoshop. For most photographers Lightroom’s retouching tools all are you will ever need. I have tried out quite a few, and the truth is that the Soften Skin preset in Lightroom does just as good a job as any of them. You have probably seen several portrait retouching programs advertised in magazines or online, and wondered if they were worth buying.