Retouching Portraits – Lightroom Tutorial
Are you ready to make your portraits pop? In this free lesson from our Portrait Retouching Course, you’ll discover how to make your portraits stand out using Adobe Lightroom. Whether you’re new to retouching or looking to refine your skills, this step-by-step guide will walk you through professional techniques you can apply right away— PLUS download our free worksheets below so you can follow along with your own photos!
NB: Below there are some affiliate links and TSOP will receive a small percentage of some purchases made.
Portrait retouching in lightroom tutorial video demonstrating how to do face retouching in adobe lightroom for beginners.
Retouching portraits in Lightroom
Although not a common practice, it is possible to retouch faces in Lightroom and utilise its AI features to expedite your workflow.
It is not as controlled as using Photoshop, and you will need a picture of someone with relatively good skin, but Lightroom does have a place in retouching, which we will explore in this lesson.
You can easily follow along with this tutorial using your own portraits via the instructions below or by downloading the in depth worksheets via the form above.
Before retouching in Lightroom.
After retouching in Lightroom.
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Retouching Portraits in Lightroom Step 1 – Crop and Spot
In the Develop module, you’ll be able to crop, adjust and remove spots and blemishes from your image using the Basic Panel.
1. Import the image into Lightroom.
2. Crop to suit.
3. Use the Remove Tool in Heal Mode to remove spots and blemishes.
4. Make adjustments such as white balance in the Basic Panel to suit.
Crop the image to suit your composition.
Adjust the settings of the heal tool to remove blemishes.
Remove skin imperfections, scars and dirt from the portrait using the heal tool.
Change the white balance, exposure, shadows, etc, when doing basic adjustments.
Retouching Portraits in Lightroom Step 2 – Masking
Use People Masking to create a mask of the entire person, and create general adjustments to lift shadows and darken highlights.
1. Open the Masking Panel.
2. Select People > Person 1 > Tick ‘Entire Person’ > Click ‘Create Mask’.
3. Rename mask ‘Entire Person’.
4. Adjust the mask parameters to suit your image.
Using Lightroom’s AI to create a mask.
Selecting ‘Entire person’ option on the mask.
Adjusting the mask settings to make the person stand out a bit more.
Selected area for the ‘Entire Person’ mask.
Retouching Portraits in Lightroom Step 3 – Eyes & Teeth
Add a mask to the eyes and teeth and refine these details.
1. In the Masking Panel, Select People > Person 1 > Tick ‘Eye Sclera’ and ‘Iris and Pupil’ > Click ‘Create Mask’.
2. Rename mask to ‘Eyes’.
3. Adjust mask parameters to suit.
4. Repeat the process for the teeth.
Tip: If you need to add or remove parts from the mask, you can do so by selecting “add to mask” or “subtract from mask” and using the brush tool.
Use the eye mask, to make the eyes of your portrait pop!
Whiten teeth easily in Lightroom with the Teeth mask.
Selecting the separate areas of the eyes from the person mask options.
Retouching Portraits in Lightroom Step 4 – Colour Grading
Colour grade the image and make any refinements for a final image.
1. Select the Colour Grading Panel.
2. Make colour adjustments to suit.
3. If needed, refine the image further by adjusting the masks as shown in the video.
Adjust the colour grading options in Lightroom to suit your own image.
Image after portrait retouching and colour grading.
Conclusion
Retouching portraits in Lightroom is quick and easy, especially with Lightroom’s AI features! The only downsides to retouching portraits in Lightroom are that there’s less control than in Photoshop, and you need a portrait of someone with quite good skin to start with. But if you’re looking to edit quickly, face retouching in Lightroom is an easy and simple way to get the job done.
You’ve just mastered making your portraits stand out with Adobe Lightroom, but why stop here? If you’re eager to take your retouching even further, join our Yearly Membership today for exclusive access to our Portrait Retouching Course!
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Thanks for watching and remember – Learn more at The School of Photography.
Marc Newton
