A step-by-step guide (for beginners) on portrait editing in Adobe Lightroom (classic)
Hey all this is Sam Reid here and I will be showing you a step-by-step process for editing a clean and sharp portrait image.
Before we get started let's talk about some key things that you should consider when editing your photos. Number one is to have a clear mindset and I guess to have a goal when your editing. This will help to create a vision and a picture of what you would like your photos to look like. Second thing is to shoot your photos in a RAW or CRAW format (i cannot emphasise this enough). This will allow for your photos to be shot in greater quality, with higher clarity, colour and contrast (it will really enhance your photos and just make your images better in general). The difference between shooting in a cRAW format compared to a Raw file is that your images will be compressed, enabling you to save more memory on your memory card without losing any quality of the photo.
What I've found when editing is sometimes you can get carried away with your edits and colouring. The key is to not over edit your photos, especially when editing portraits of people. The main steps that we will be focusing on today are the use of lighting, gradient curves, effects, details, optics and cropping. Let's begin with lighting.
You do not want to have too much clarity or texture when editing your photos, only because you want to keep them as natural as possible. What I often like to do is turn the texture up and the clarity down ever so slightly so it creates a nice glossy and lustrous effect. When editing portraits I also like to increase the sharpness of the subject to create a clear and distinct image. The sharpness will establish a more visible outline of your subject
Obviously, you can use the healing brush tool as well to touch up on your subject if he or she has noticeable acne or spots. By following this step-by-step guideline on how to edit portraits, your edits should result in clean, sharp and detailed photos
Here are the results:
Before edit: After edit:
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