In this blog I will answer a commonly asked question about my photos. How do I get such soft and colourful images? Of course, not all of my work has that character, with a large percentage of it not being so colourful. However I’d like to believe that all my work has a nice softness to it, which I can assure you does not involve any external filters.

Light

Before getting into the weeds, I need to get some basics out of the way, and I apologise in advance if I sound like a broken record here. Shooting in the right light will do 90% of the work for you. If you head out on a sunny July day at lunchtime, you will have to deal with extremely harsh light. If you shoot with the light source behind you, then you will have to deal with a lot of harsh detail and a flat look. While you can use some techniques I will cover soon to make these images appear softer, you will just have a tougher time compared to picking good light and a better lighting technique.

In short, you want to shoot at times when the light is a little softer. Since we are soon heading into summer, for me it would be anytime from around 07:00 until about 11:00. I would then have a break and shoot again from around 14:00 until about an hour before sunset. I tend to avoid golden hour as it’s not my cup of tea, hence I don’t mention it. Shooting in the mornings also tends to result in softer images due to any haze that might have formed.

In terms of positioning, whatever lighting condition I am shooting in, I always want to ensure the source of light is coming anywhere within a 180 degree radius in front of me. This creates the most dynamic lighting and adds natural contrast.

Composition

This isn’t a blog about composition, so I will keep it on topic. You want to ensure your photos are as minimal as possible and avoid unnecessary details. While this has zero impact on actual softness and colour, it can give the appearance of a softer image when there’s less clutter and information. This is the most ambiguous and subjective part of this blog, so feel free to ignore it. However in my experience, the simpler the photo, the better it looks.

Aperture

If I am going for soft images, I will try to shoot at wider aperture values. If the lens is an f2, then I will try to stay below f2.8. Typically lenses are at their sharpest anywhere between f5.6 and f11. When shooting at or close to the maximum aperture, lens performance softens up, thus resulting in softer images.

Exposure & WB

Now we can dive into the editing part of this blog. I’m assuming you’re shooting in RAW with your exposure and white balance being set to auto, thus making them roughly right. These two adjustments are probably the biggest levers you have when it comes to setting a strong baseline to edit from. While you might have technically correct settings, they might not necessarily reflect reality and how you felt being there. For example, on a harsh sunny day, the RAW file can appear underexposed and unnaturally cool.

The first thing I do is fix these issues and bring them closer to how I felt being there, not what is technically correct. I like bright warm images, so in most cases I increase the warmth and exposure.

Sharpness & Clarity

We will start with the most obvious adjustments that make a huge difference. When it comes to sharpness, I always leave it on the default setting except the masking adjustment. Masking allows you to target any sharpening only to the areas that actually have detail to sharpen. I set mine to 90 as I only want it applied to the extreme edges of any detail. In Lightroom you can visualise this by holding the Alt key on your laptop and moving the slider. On iPad you can touch and hold the screen while adjusting the slider to get the same visualisation.

Clarity I almost always reduce to -20 as a starting point. On some images -30 works best, while on others -10 is all that’s needed. This does a lot of the heavy lifting in creating a softer look, but take care not to overdo it. It can go from tasteful to weird very quickly.

If you have some detail that you need preserved, then use selective adjustments such as a brush to gradually add clarity or texture back into any area that needs it. In Lightroom I like to add texture back in as it tends to preserve the softness.

Grain

Adding a bit of grain can give your image texture and make it feel less digital. Naturally grain also softens the image by making the details appear a little more fuzzy.

Profile

Lightroom and most decent apps now have a profiles tab where you can change the starting point of the image. If you shoot with Fuji cameras, this is where you can set a specific film simulation as a starting point. Even if you use Adobe’s default profiles, you have some choice on which look to start with. Neutral will give you a very dull and desaturated look, while Landscape will give you a soft and saturated appearance.

I tend to use the Landscape profile a lot, however if it’s too much, then Adobe Portrait is my next choice. If I’m editing a Fuji file, then Astia or Nostalgic Neg are my go to profiles.

Tone Curve

Tone curve can be used to exclusively edit and colour grade a photo, as it’s one of the most complete editing tools out there. However for the purpose of this blog, we will only use it to add some softness into the image.

The first thing I do is slightly increase the black point. This will add a little fade into the blacks and make pure black a little more grey. I would then do the same for highlights, with the goal of making pure white appear off-white.

If the image feels a little flat, you can add a subtle S curve to bring it back. This curve helps remove harsh black and white parts of the image.

Calibration

If you’re a Lightroom desktop user, this will apply to you. If not, then feel free to ignore it. The Colour Calibration tab in Lightroom is pretty unique in how it impacts colour. Effectively you’re changing the definition of what a colour is. The HSL tool that we will cover shortly will change how a certain colour appears. So it can take red and shift it to orange. The calibration tool changes the RGB components of a colour, thus changing how the entire image looks.

This is a pretty complex and niche topic, so I will save it for a dedicated blog in the future. For now I will share my typical adjustment that I apply to most of my photos below.

HSL

This is where the bulk of my colour work is done. This tool impacts the hue, saturation, and luminance of any colour you select. I typically boost saturation of warmer colours while reducing it in the cooler tones. I usually shift blues slightly towards teal, and reds slightly towards orange. Greens and yellows will depend on the scene.

As for luminance, I usually darken the warmer tones and brighten the cooler colours, however this also depends on the scene. These are generic guidelines I start with and a lot of adjustment is done depending on the image.

Colour Grading

Colour grading doesn’t change any of the colours in the photos, instead it injects colour into the image. There are two primary ways to do this. The quick and easy way is using the Colour Grading tab, while a more advanced and precise way is to use the curves. Having used both methods, I personally prefer the simple colour wheels.

This can vary considerably depending on the image but in most cases I will have three distinct looks. Cool shadows and warm highlights. Red shadows and cool midtones. Green shadows and warm highlights.

My Little Photography Book

If you found this blog helpful and wish to learn more, may I suggest picking up a copy of My Little Photography Book. This contains everything I know about photography. With a one time purchase, you get free lifetime updates as new chapters are added.

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Lightroom Presets

Everything I talk about can be seen in these Lightroom presets. They are a result of years of editing and experimentation. While I don’t encourage you to rely on them for your photography, instead opting to develop your own style, I would recommend them to learn my editing approach and as a starting point.