Using Adaptive Presets for portraits in Adobe Lightroom Classic

A lot of Adobe’s new updates are based on using AI technology. One of their latest features, Adaptive Presets for portraits, is no different. Gone are the days of attempting to brush in masks on portraits; these new presets allow users to select their portrait subjects, create masks and make quick changes with the click of a button.

Where to find Adaptive Portrait presets

First off, make sure you’ve updated Lightroom Classic to version 12.0. Then, you will find the Adaptive Portrait presets on the left side panel of the Develop Module. They are conveniently located just above the Adaptive Sky and Adaptive Subject presets.

Using Adaptive Portrait presets

1. Open a portrait image you would like to post-process in the Develop module of Lightroom Classic.
2. Click on one of the Adaptive Portrait Presets. The first time you do this, AI technology will take a few seconds to detect your subject and then apply the preset. Not only will AI detect your subject’s face, it will also detect separate components of your subjects face such as teeth, iris and pupil, face skin and lips, among others.
3. Finesse the preset amount by using the Amount slider at the top of the presets list. This allows you to increase or decrease the global intensity of your chosen preset.
4. You can finesse your edits one step further by fine tuning the individual components in your presets. For example, if you’ve chosen Enhance preset, separate masks for the teeth, iris and pupil, iris sclera (the white part of the eye) and face skin will all be automatically created. You have the ability to tweak or even delete each one individually as you see fit.
5. Add Adaptive Portrait preset masks as desired. For example, you might want to use Whiten Teeth with Enhance Eyes and Smooth Hair presets together on one image.

The eight Adaptive Portrait presets

1. Enhance Portrait: creates separate masks for the teeth, iris and pupil, iris sclera and face skin. This preset gives an overall subtle retouching to your portrait.
2. Glamour Portrait: creates separate masks for the teeth, lips, iris and pupil, hair, eyebrows, eye sclera and face skin. This preset gives a an overall retouching of your portrait.
3. Gritty Portrait: creates separate masks for the teeth, iris and pupil, eye sclera and face skin.
4. Enhance Eyes: creates a mask for the eyes that increases the highlights, whites, shadows, clarity and sharpness.
5. Whiten Teeth: creates a mask for the teeth that decreases the saturation and increases the exposure and highlights slightly.
6. Darken Eyebrows: creates a mask for the eyebrows that brings down the shadows and blacks while slightly increasing the texture, clarity and sharpening.
7. Texture Hair: creates a mask for the hair that slightly increases the exposure, shadows, clarity, highlights, sharpness and dehaze.
8. Smooth Hair: creates a mask for the hair that slightly decreases the contrast, shadows, blacks, texture, clarity and dehaze.

Overall, the Adaptive Portrait presets come as a welcome addition to the Lightroom Classic toolbox. The fact that users no longer have to spend the time attempting to brush their own masks into areas such as the eyes or face skin is a total game changer. And while the presets themselves make great subtle changes, users also have the ability to change or fine tune the built-in masks. This can be done by using the Amount slider, or by changing the individual masks within the presets. As always, any edits made in Lightroom are nondestructive. So go ahead and play around with the new Adaptive Portrait presets to see how they work for you!