Portrait editing is about guiding the viewer's attention directly to the subject’s face, and Lightroom Classic has powerful tools specifically designed for this purpose. Learning how to subtly enhance facial features and manipulate backgrounds can significantly elevate the visual impact of your portraits.
Coming to you from Aaron Nace with Phlearn, this practical video offers a detailed demonstration of portrait editing techniques in Lightroom Classic. Nace first emphasizes the ease of starting with Lightroom’s auto adjustment feature, a quick step that instantly balances your highlights and shadows. But the real magic begins when he dives into the masking tools. By cleverly inverting masks, he illustrates how to separately edit subjects and backgrounds without complex selections. For instance, Nace matches a distracting background color to the hue of flowers within the frame, creating a cohesive visual flow. This technique alone can dramatically improve your images, making them appear thoughtfully composed right from the camera.
Next, Nace introduces targeted masking for enhancing the subject's face. By strategically brightening only the facial area, you draw the viewer’s attention exactly where you want it. Conversely, slightly darkening and desaturating the surrounding area reduces distractions. Nace’s method is subtle but extremely effective, ensuring edits remain natural-looking. He emphasizes moderation: pushing sliders too far can easily make edits obvious, detracting from the photo’s authenticity. This advice is crucial, helping you maintain realistic portraits while still emphasizing the key areas you wish to highlight.
Beyond basic exposure and color adjustments, Nace reveals techniques for detailed edits focused specifically on the eyes—often the most impactful feature of a portrait. He demonstrates using the brush tool to subtly enhance brightness and clarity, explaining crucial settings like feathering and flow. The explanation of flow, in particular, is beneficial: it allows gradual layering of edits, offering more nuanced control over the final appearance. He also tackles sharpening selectively, enhancing irises and eyelashes without exaggerating skin texture or wrinkles.
The video further expands into quick retouching tips for removing minor blemishes or distractions using Lightroom’s healing brush. Importantly, Nace distinguishes between using simple spot removal tools for minor issues versus employing generative AI for larger edits, such as removing unwanted objects. His demonstration clarifies when and how to use each technique effectively, ensuring you’re equipped to handle various editing scenarios seamlessly. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Nace.
If you would like to continue learning about the art of portraiture, be sure to check out our range of tutorials on the subject in the Fstoppers store.
