Correcting Uneven Exposure for a Portrait in Lightroom 4

Pye Jirsa

Updated on:

Introduction

This tutorial is a demonstration of the SLR Lounge Lightroom 4 Preset System. With over 200 presets, the LR4 Preset System has been critically acclaimed as the most powerful and intuitive preset system available for Lightroom 4, click the link above to learn more/purchase.

Overview

In this week’s Lightroom 4 Edit, we have a wonderful portrait of a little girl that was submitted by one of our readers, David Hill. What we want to create in post-production is a bright, soft portrait-look that will bring out the girl’s expression in the image. We also want to correct the slight overexposure on the table and her arms, as well as the underexposure on portions of her face. The goal is to have a more balanced exposure between these highlights and shadows to make our subjects skin tones look more flattering.

You can quickly achieve this look by using the SLR Lounge Lightroom 4 Preset System. However, if you do not have the Preset System yet, we will provide the breakdown of the adjustments in the following video tutorial.

Before and After Images

Original
001 Original Girl Portrait by David Hills

Bright, Soft Portrait
002 Bright Soft Portrait by David Hills

Black and White Portrait
003 B&W

Black and White Film Portrait
004 B&W Film

Watch the Video Tutorial

LR4 Preset System Mixology

00 MY MIXOLOGY – 10 SOFT PORTRAIT > 14 SP Extra Soft Color
01 BASE ADJUST – 00 EXPOSURE > 06 Brighten +0.5
01 BASE ADJUST – 10 BASE TONES > 12 Portrait Flatten Base Tone
01 BASE ADJUST – 40 SHADOWS BLACKS > 42 Heavy Brighten
02 Burn (Darken) -1 Stop Adjustment Brush and Graduated Filter

To see all the tweaks and adjustments applied, please watch the video.

The Lightroom 4 Preset System

The SLR Lounge Lightroom 4 Preset System is designed to enable users to achieve virtually any look and effect within 3-5 simple clicks. From basic color correction, vintage fades, black & white effects, tilt-shift effects, faux HDR, retouching, detail enhancing, and so much more. The sky is the limit with what has been dubbed the most powerful and intuitive preset system available. Click the link above to learn more/purchase.

You can also purchase the LR4 Preset System as part of the Lightroom 4 Workshop Collection.