Classic Portrait

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Classic Portrait is a free Lightroom preset that thoroughly enhances portraits to bring out rich and deep tones. It improves every photographic element, from moderating color intensity to producing complex skin tones. It is specially optimized to draw out the best in headshots and fashion photography. With its thorough adjustments, you can easily give your photos a professional look and feel.

Contents hide

Warms and Brightens Portraits

Produces Rich and Deep Tones

Amplifies and Adds Complexity to Colors

Applies Fine Adjustments in Saturation and Luminance

Enhances Textures and Adds Vignetting

Classic Portrait is for Lightroom Mobile, Desktop and…

This is a versatile preset that you can use in both casual and formal scenarios, like day-to-day selfies and photoshoots. Classic Portrait is an all-around portrait preset, after all. You can use it as an Instagram filter, too, if you specialize in portraiture and want a cohesive look on your feed.

Warms and Brightens Portraits

Radiant Warmth. Classic Portrait preset first sets the foundation for its thorough adjustments. Here, it moderately warms the temperature of the image to replicate the natural radiance of sunlight. You can easily notice its effect on the woman’s face in the above After photo. Note how this simple adjustment already contributes to the enhancement of skin tone.

? TIP: Tweak the exposure slider in Lightroom to optimize the lighting of your portrait. Increase or decrease the amount of light in your photo as you see fit.

Produces Rich and Deep Tones

Bold Tones. One of the most striking features of this portrait preset is its well-defined tones. The preset creates an exquisite balance between brilliance and depth.

It first adds light to both light and dark areas of the image by brightening whites and blacks. Notice, however, that there are no overblown areas; the preset, after all, moderates the tonal extremities by softening highlights and lightening shadows even in the tone curve.

In the example above, notice how Classic Portrait illuminates the man’s facial features and expression. There are no unwanted shadows nor glaring highlights. We simply get to appreciate more of the subject.

Amplifies and Adds Complexity to Colors

Stunning Hues. Classic Portrait, like its tones, have complex and dynamic colors. It applies a series of enhancements to get such bold and compelling hues. It heightens clarity, vibrance, and saturation — the key is in blending these tweaks. The preset more finely tunes the intensity of hues by creating a custom tone curve with strong contrast and darker tones.

Applies Fine Adjustments in Saturation and Luminance

Portrait-Optimized Colors. To more effectively draw attention to the subject, the preset applies an even more thorough adjustment in saturation and luminance. Note that these improvements go hand-in-hand with the previous adjustments in color intensity.

Think of these as the preset’s finishing touches to further optimize colors for portraits. Classic Portrait lowers saturation and increases the luminance of each color, at varying degrees.

Enhances Textures and Adds Vignetting

Polished Look. Classic Portrait finally enhances textures in the image. It draws out the details and gives an overall polish. You can notice how it sharpens details in the above example. You can see more of the woman’s clothing, including the folds and creases of her outfit. To complement this adjustment, the preset also reduces noise and removes unnecessary grain.

Finally, it adds vignetting. Notice how the effect stylistically draws attention to the subject even more. It goes very well with the preset’s bold motif and helps frame the portrait.