I recently upgraded to Lightroom 2.0. In looking through the manual where it lists the types of adjustments you can do with the adjustment brush, I see a Soften Skin effect. However, no where in the Develop module of Lightroom 2 can I find the Soften Skin effect. Am I missing something?

Michael Fitzwater.

Michael Fitzwater.

Use the adjustment brush thingy and hit it with negative clarity and negative sharpen?

That is one way to do it. But page 103 of the lightroom manual lists the effects you can choose from. The last one listed is a soften skin effect. From the manual:

"Soften Skin Applies a combination of Clarity and Sharpness adjustments to make skin tones appear softer and more pleasing to the eye."

That sounds like a preset to me.

It's a preset under the "Effect" drop-down at the top of the Adjustment Brush slider panel (default is "Exposure"). it's merely -100 Clarity and +25 Sharpness.

It is in the effects list. Click on the brush. Click on whatever text is next to Effect. Listed is soften skin.

Already did that and it is just not there.

Then activate the brush, set the Clarity and Sharpness settings and save as a new effect "-100 Clarity and +25 Sharpness"

John

The point I'm trying to make is that the manual implies that the Soften Skin effect is a built in effect, not a custom preset. Why would Adobe list this and not actually include it in Lightroom?

Michael.

Sorry, Michael, I misunderstood. It is built in. I've also seen a few instances where the built-in smart collections don't appear, and maybe there is some bug in common. In each case users can easily recreate their own, and probably learn more from doing it, so it's not something I feel one should worry about.

John

Deleted

John,

I'm not worried about it, mainly just curious as to the discrepancy. Since you mention it, I don't see any built in smart collections either. More bugs for Adobe to fix.

Thanks for your time.

Michael.

I had the same problem and it turned out that, because I had had previous demos and betas, my version of LR 2.1 was pointing to the wrong preset directory. If you want to fix it, search of "soften skin" and, when you find the preset, point LR at that directory for all presets. Hope this helps. Better late than never....

Thanks. I'll give it a try when I get home today.

Michael.