# How Does the Preset Know Where to Go??



## StarkmanAlive (Sep 21, 2014)

Hello all,

So, I'm watching a Youtube video portrait adjustments with Lighroom and, specifically, a set of presets used. The Portrait is of a gal against a traditional portrait-taking background; i.e., nothing. The fellow doing the adjustments clicks a "Skin Softener" preset along with a few other preset adjustments. He never makes adjustments to the presets; they've all done what he wanted.

My question is how can a skin softening preset know to soften just skin (which, obviously, it can't)? I mean, apparently, the preset was composed of a drop in clarity, maybe a bit of sharpening, this, that and the other, but the point is that the fellow never compensated for, say, the clothing, the hair or anything like that. How can that be?

Thanks,

StarkmanAlive


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## Hal P Anderson (Sep 21, 2014)

As far as I know, "Soften Skin"  is only useful with the Adjustment Brush. You use that preset and "paint" over the skin you want softened.


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## StarkmanAlive (Sep 21, 2014)

Hal P Anderson said:


> As far as I know, "Soften Skin"  is only useful with the Adjustment Brush. You use that preset and "paint" over the skin you want softened.



No, these weren't Lightroom presets; they were presets developed by the user (Pye at SRLounge.com).

Oh, and further, it wasn't an Adjustment Brush preset; it was a simple click on a preset over on the left-side panel.


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## Hal P Anderson (Sep 22, 2014)

In that case, I have no idea. Perhaps you'd do better to ask the user who developed the preset. (I'd be happy to hear what he/she has to say.)


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## erro (Sep 22, 2014)

As far as I know, general presets (wether developed by Adobe or someone else) affect the entire photo. So if someone creates a "soften skin" preset, it will apply to the whole photo, regardless of if there is skin or not.

A preset is nothing more than values for a one or several sliders in the develop panel.


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## clee01l (Sep 22, 2014)

The "Skin Softener" preset if applied to the whole frame may have a color mask which causes the defocusing (softening) to only be applied to those colors associated with flesh tones.  If these tones are present in other areas of the image, that part of the image will be softened too.  The preset will probably not work if the person is not of northern European heritage and has flesh of a different tone.


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## StarkmanAlive (Sep 22, 2014)

Alright, thanks folks. I'll see what I can find out from the developer of the presets.

Thanks again,

StarkmanAlive


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