We are all inherently unique—it’s one of the most beautiful aspects of being human. If you take the time to study people’s faces, you’ll quickly realize that we all have different eyes, noses, lips, and jawlines. Even the length and width of one’s face can vary from person to person. Each of these specific attributes can also change, depending on your age, weight, and so on. This uniqueness is what I want to explore throughout this book, and I’ll discuss techniques that you can use to complement every subject ( Figure 3.1 ).
In this chapter, I’ll begin by dissecting and discussing the nuances of various face shapes, along with lighting, lens, and editing decisions that you can make in order to better accentuate every subject’s unique features. While I would not necessarily fixate on critically analyzing every subject’s face, you should have a firm idea of how to approach lighting and editing everyone’s unique characteristics.
Let me be clear. My emphasis when it comes to defining face shapes is to direct the viewer’s attention to the central-most part of a person’s face—the eyes—while simultaneously enhancing their best qualities and drawing attention away from other features. For example, if your subject is slightly self-conscious about their rounder features, you don’t necessarily want to use a wide-angle lens, because it will make them look even wider than they really are. Alternatively, if your subject has beautiful cheekbones, you may not want them to look flat in-camera. These are all considerations that you should keep in mind before photographing any subject for the first time.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I’m a firm believer that we are all beautiful on the outside. If you’re willing to spend the time, you’ll see that there is something uniquely and inherently beautiful about everyone.
Unfortuntately, not everyone feels that way. Most women and even men don’t see their outer beauty. We all inevitably obsess over our own perceived flaws, even when others don’t see them. Our job as photographers should be to focus on finding that beauty and putting it on display. Your goal should be to make each and every woman and man look and feel their best. Throughout many of the chapters, you’ll find that there are many instances where I will mention correcting a “perceived flaw.” I assure you, I do not voluntarily fix those on my own, without prior consent of my subject. My only exception would be during fashion and commercial portraits, when those flaws are expected to be removed by the client.
In this chapter, I will discuss several approaches to compensate for someone’s “perceived flaw” in-camera, and if necessary, I’ll include a tip on how to fix it in postproduction. I’ve seen well-respected photographers hide their subject’s “flaws” intentionally and in an inappropriate manner, for example, hiding larger subjects behind walls, shrubbery, or doors; and some have even opted to use other subjects to hide that person’s physique. That’s not okay, nor is it appropriate. To be a great photographer, you need to set aside your own personal biases and focus on making every subject look her best.
Let me also be clear; I do not draw attention to flaws, unless the client or subject directly mentions them. For example, in Photographing Men , I discussed how most men who are self-conscious about their baldness would generally wear a hat on set. In that same respect, most women who are self-conscious about a flaw will inevitably either mention it or try to hide it. Learning these little cues can go a long way as a portrait photographer.
Throughout this book, you’re going to see many different faces from a variety of different backgrounds and ethnicities, who all have different skin tones and color. You’ll also notice that many of these chapters include topics like matching makeup to skin color and how to capture the vibrant color of makeup in every image. Unfortunately, many photographers struggle with capturing correct skin tones and makeup color. Yes, even professionals.
If I would blame this on one thing, it would be misinformation surrounding the topic of color management. Now, before you stop reading, color management isn’t terribly difficult to understand. It’s pretty straightforward. Simply put, color management is the process of ensuring that the colors of your image do not change from the time you take your photograph to the time that you deliver your file, whether that’s physically or digitally.
Why is that important in portrait photography? Well, skin tones don’t always render correctly in-camera because of a combination of lighting, lens choice, camera choice, and so on. This is especially true when photographing subjects with darker skin tones, as most darker skin colors are actually composed of dark red pigments and not brown. You also don’t want to offend anyone because you chose to change the color of their skin to what you thought was visually appropriate. Instead, we’re going to rely on a couple of tools and techniques to achieve consistent color.
Let’s agree that red is red, blue is blue, green is green, and so on. Computers have the capability to visually translate colors into a simple binary sequence called a hex triplet. The numbers in the sequences represent red, green, and blue components of a particular color. For example, the hex code for the color red is #FF0000. The hex code for the color green is #00FF00. The hex code for the color blue is #0000FF.
This sequence of hexadecimal (6-digit) numbers is used to display web pages and allows your computer to visually translate the colors that your eyes see into a digital format. You’re probably familiar with hex numbers already, because they are one of the default ways that Photoshop allows you to select brush colors.
Why is this relevant to image-making? Well, unless you’re photographing with film, your camera is a digital device that captures information and uses coding to translate that information into a visual representation of that code. Certain factors, like lighting, lens choice, and camera choice, can directly influence the way that your camera depicts those colors. In addition to this, the greatest influence would be what color space you choose to use.
A color space is a restricted range of colors that your computer and camera will display. For example, if you’re shooting RAW format, then you’re simply photographing data. When that data is uploaded into Adobe Lightroom or Capture One software, that data is then translated into a color space called ProPhoto RGB, which displays the broadest range of colors available in a digital format. At the time that this book is printed, most devices only display sRGB, which has a substantially smaller number of colors available in its range, as you can see in Figure 3.2 .
FIGURE 3.2
In order to better understand color, you’ll also need to understand that our eyes depict color as a combination of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet; everything we see as human beings is a combination of these seven colors. Most visual media, however (TV screens, monitors, cameras, and so on), depict color as a mixture of red, green, and blue; and most printers print images as a combination of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. To complicate things further, most monitors and printers are only capable of depicting a fraction of the available color span.
So, where does that leave you?
Well, most photographers shift color spaces throughout their workflow. Because you understand the basics of why colors are shifting between color spaces, I’m going to provide you with a easy-to-replicate workflow to ensure that your colors are not shifting throughout the process.
sRGB—For digital only. This is the most common color space traditionally used by monitors. By default, most digital cameras will display your image in sRGB, and the colors will often look more saturated than AdobeRGB. If you’re NOT printing your work, sRGB is the color space you should consider sticking with so that your colors do not shift.
AdobeRGB—For professional-quality prints. This has a greater range of colors than sRGB, especially in the cyan and green areas of your image. You have the ability to work with many more colors in postproduction and can still convert your final output to sRGB. Most high-end inkjet printers have the capability of printing these additional colors, and therefore, it is generally better for professional prints. If you work with 16-bit images and require the additional color range for more vibrant colors, this is the color space you should work with.
CMYK—For newspapers and magazines. This is used in the printing process. It uses cyan, magenta, and yellow (when combined to create black) ink to subtract color from white to display an image. CMYK is generally used by newspapers, magazines, and most large commercial printers. It has the most limited number of colors that can be produced.
ProPhoto RGB (closest to RAW)—For the color perfectionist in you. This color space covers the largest range of colors, beyond what human eyes can see. If you are a color perfectionist and print with high-end printers that use the entire spectrum of color, this is the color space for you. For 99.9% of photographers, this color space is overkill.
In theory, proper color management dictates that you should view both your digital and physical images under the same lighting conditions. If you’re looking at the back of your camera in 5000K light (daylight), you should be looking at your print in 5000K, not 3000K light (tungsten), because our eyes will adapt to the difference in color cast.
Don’t believe me? Take a look at Figure 3.3 . Would you say that the gray circle on the left is lighter or darker than the gray circle on the right? The answer is that they’re both the same color. The sole difference is the colors that surround them, which directly influence the way we perceive the neutral circles. Be very conscious of the lighting conditions around you as you’re looking at the back of your camera; the slightest change in the color temperature will influence the way you perceive color in your images.
FIGURE 3.3
By default, most DSLRs will display images in sRGB on the back of your camera. Remember that every sensor in every camera can vary slightly; there is not a 100-percent standard depiction of color throughout a camera line. As your LCD ages and fades over time, this fact will become more evident. You shouldn’t be judging your images from the back of the camera LCD, but this is the way to ensure that you have the closest accurate depiction of what you’re seeing when you import your files into an editing program like Adobe Lightroom or Capture One.
Even with that in mind, it’s also important to note that the images we see on the back of our cameras are a small JPEG interpretation of the image and not the image that will be imported onto your computer. As you import files into third-party software like Adobe Lightroom, the color space, color profile, color saturation, contrast, noise reduction, sharpening, and so on will not be applied to your RAW files on import. This is why many photographers choose to tether their cameras to a color-corrected monitor to judge color and contrast.
Save yourself the headache and invest in a color checker ( Figure 3.4 ). It will save you a ton of time in postproduction trying to accurately depict proper white balance. A color checker is designed to accurately reproduce true-to-life color; what you see is what you get. But be aware that a color checker alone is not enough! Companies like X-Rite create software to analyze the color checker in your image and then create a custom color profile to accurately depict true color. For example, red is red, green is green, blue is blue, and so on.
FIGURE 3.4
When used properly, the software will correct for lighting, camera choice, and lens choice, so you’ll want to use a color checker every time you change one of these factors.
Here are a few tips and tools to help make sure you get the colors you want in your images.
All monitors are not made equal. At the time that this book goes to press, most monitors on the market are not displaying AdobeRGB. If you want the full gamut of colors that AdobeRGB can offer, you’ll need to invest in a screen that displays AdobeRGB. This is extremely beneficial if you intend to edit and refine detail in areas of extreme color saturation in your image, which would be helpful if you wanted to print your image.
To be clear, the only time you would enjoy the benefits of the AdobeRGB color space is when you’re using editing programs like Photoshop and Lightroom. The colors of the images depicted online can shift depending on the browser you select. This is why it’s recommended to use the AdobeRGB color space only if your final intent is to print your image.
Both the ambient light and the color of the walls in your editing room will directly influence your perception of color. In a perfect world, you would photograph your subject in 5000K light (daylight) and edit your photos in a room lit with 5000K light, with all the walls painted a neutral gray. This would ensure that your eyes aren’t influenced by outside color casts. If your editing room is orange and the light is tungsten, all of your images could look cooler than they really are. Or, if you’re editing in the dark, the brightness of the screen may affect the way you perceive contrast in your image.
All of these factors affect your perception of color, which is why using a colorimeter is so important in your editing process. If your screen is correctly calibrated, DO NOT tinker with the white balance manually.
There is no bias when working with color. Red is red. Blue is blue. Green is green. Our eyes don’t always agree, however. Because our eyes adapt to color casts so well, we cannot solely depend on them to judge color and contrast. To make things worse, most monitors will not accurately depict color due to improper calibration of the contrast and color settings. Many monitors are not designed for color accuracy, and some may even cast a red or green tint to your image.
A colorimeter, like the X-Rite ColorMunki, makes an unbiased analysis of the colors depicted on your monitor versus what the computer is trying to produce ( Figure 3.5 ). It then corrects the monitor using an ICC profile to display the images trying to be displayed by your computer so that red is red, blue is blue, green is green. This is a great way to match skin tones. High-end color reference monitors, like the Eizo ColorEdge line, have a built-in colorimeter so that you can color-calibrate your monitor without the need for an external device. Even if you’re displaying your images online, you still want to properly calibrate your monitor to make sure that your image displays correctly on your client’s and audience’s monitors the same way.
FIGURE 3.5
Here are some tips and tools as you work through the delivery process for your images.
In order to make the right decision on color profiles, it’s important to consider your final delivery method. Simply put, if you’re planning to deliver your final image digitally and it will never be printed, stick with sRGB throughout the entire editing process. If you are either planning to or would consider printing your image, stick with AdobeRGB. This allows you greater flexibility if you later plan to deliver both digital and physical prints; you can edit your photo in AdobeRGB and export one file as an sRGB file for digital and a second file as CMYK for print.
Most commercial labs, such as Miller’s, MpixPro, Bay Photo, and WHCC, will request that images be sent to them in sRGB format. Rest assured that sRGB printers do not exist. So, why do these print labs request files in sRGB? This is because they are doing the color correcting for you and to make your life a little easier. Most commercial print labs have the systems and the staff to manually color correct your images and would rather have you spend your time where it counts: behind the camera. This can lead to some slight shifts in color between your edit and the print that you receive from the company.
If you plan to print your work in magazines, books, flyers, business cards, or newsletters, work in AdobeRGB and then export in CMYK. Because of the limited span of color CMYK is capable of displaying, sRGB will have a greater shift in color than AdobeRGB when converted to CMYK.
COLOR MANAGEMENT CHEAT SHEET
If you’re going to be delivering your files strictly in digital format (via Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, PhotoShelter, SmugMug, and so on), stick with exporting your files in sRGB because smartphones, tablets, computer monitors, and TVs are all capable of displaying the sRGB color profile.
If color consistency is of the utmost importance to you, most commercial printers will have a monitor calibration profile (ICC) that you can use to soft-proof your images before you send your digital files to be printed. The type of paper you use influences color, which is why programs like Photoshop and Lightroom offer the ability to view what your print would look like before it’s actually printed. Using a soft proof will allow you to load specific paper profiles that the printer is able to print on. This will then show you any colors that the printer is capable of printing versus any out-of-gamut (unavailable) colors that you’ve selected.
Whether your client or subject has an uneven skin tone or it’s completely blotchy, there are many different methods to reduce or eliminate that in-camera. However, I’ve found that a tactical combination of preproduction and postproduction is by far the most effective.
Whether your subject’s blotchy skin is due to a skin condition, sun exposure, or heredity, skin can be a pretty sensitive topic among women. Don’t believe me? The global beauty care industry is forecasted at around $265 billion by 2017. Obviously, someone cares what their skin looks like.
FIGURE 3.6
Remember that the tips in this section are useful for more than just skin blemishes. For example, the technique for correcting rosacea (discussed later) can be used to change the color of your subject’s shirt, their makeup, or even the sky. The basic retouching tools that I discuss in this section are built directly into the Adobe Photoshop software. I promise that I won’t go out and make you buy a third-party plug-in ( Figure 3.6 ).
Whether your client has had a long day or simply has dark circles under her eyes because of age, heredity, lifestyle, or stress, it’s not something that most people find flattering, and it can even make them look tired and older. Dark circles aren’t black or gray, like most people think. They’re a dark blue. Dark circles are a result of blood vessels under your eyes showing through the thin layer of skin. While we could literally spend hours talking about human anatomy, the takeaway should be that you’re not only going to focus on lighting eye bags, but also making sure that you’re adjusting the color to complement the rest of the skin.
The quickest solution to remove dark circles under a woman’s eyes is to use under-eye concealer. What you want to be certain of is that your client or subject has a palette that matches the rest of her skin tone seamlessly and subtly ( Figure 3.7 ). You don’t need to use tons of makeup under the eyes, and it’s less tedious to lighten under the eye than it is to remove clogged pores. If you have to choose between lightening them or retouching, always stick with lightening them.
FIGURE 3.7
There are a couple of methods to reduce or eliminate bags under the eyes. I have two different techniques that I’ll use depending on how dark the circles are. The first method is quite simple: using the Clone Stamp tool in Adobe Photoshop on a brand-new layer and painting a lighter color over the darker color. It’s a really simple process that I use a lot. Here’s how to do it:
FIGURE 3.8
FIGURE 3.9
FIGURE 3.10
FIGURE 3.11
FIGURE 3.12
Those are six simple steps to remove dark shadows under the eyes! (You can see the final image in Figure 3.13 .) If you find that you’ve gone overboard, consider either masking the area out, lightening the opacity layer, or simply starting over. The choice is yours.
FIGURE 3.13
Rosacea is a skin condition that causes redness of the skin. More than 16 million Americans are affected by rosacea, so you’re probably going to have to photograph a subject with redness at some point or another ( Figure 3.14 ). I personally approach both my private portrait clients and commercial models with the same mind-set: preproduction is as important as postproduction—and, in many cases, more important.
If you’re working with a makeup artist, he or she can use a mixture of foundations, concealers, and powders to hide or lighten your subject’s rosacea. In many cases, my private portrait sessions will also hire my makeup artist, who then follows the same regimen as she normally does on commercial sets. I know that won’t always be the case for many of you, and this isn’t a book on makeup—it’s a book on photography. For this reason, I’m going to avoid elaborating on blending makeup and contouring cheekbones and focus on how you, the photographer, can minimize redness.
In-camera, the easiest way to reduce rosacea is to use a flat or soft form of light to brighten the skin. Remember that darker areas will be saturated red pigments, and therefore, those areas will stand out more ( Figure 3.15 ). By using a mixture of a soft light and a reflector, you can reduce the redness substantially in-camera.
Figure 3.16 was photographed using a very soft light source, ensuring that I brought in as much light as possible so as not to completely flatten the image. While this technique does not eliminate redness altogether, it does a great job at lightening the saturation of red compared to that of Figure 3.15 . Now, in the event that your client or subject is still not happy with the amount of rosacea, it can be reduced easily in postproduction.
FIGURE 3.14
FIGURE 3.15
FIGURE 3.16
Figure 3.17 illustrates one of my favorite retouching techniques in Adobe Photoshop, because it works like magic. Removing rosacea can be done in six easy steps:
FIGURE 3.17
FIGURE 3.18
FIGURE 3.19
FIGURE 3.20
FIGURE 3.21
FIGURE 3.22
This is a technique that should take you mere seconds once mastered. You can see in the before-and-after images in Figure 3.23 that it makes clearing rosacea a breeze.
FIGURE 3.23
TIP You can also use this technique to change the color of clothing or makeup!
The way to remove most discolored or blotchy skin is to even or smooth out the color differentiation. Now, while makeup can remove the color differentiation quite easily, it doesn’t necessarily fix excessively red areas or rough textures. This is where Adobe Photoshop comes in quite handy.
Frequency separation is a technique used by professional retouchers to remove blemishes from the skin. This is a fairly simple technique to separate the skin texture from the skin color, and it’s intended to eliminate skin blemishes, while retaining natural skin textures ( Figure 3.24 ).
FIGURE 3.24
To use frequency separation, open the image in Photoshop and follow these steps:
FIGURE 3.25
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FIGURE 3.27A
FIGURE 3.27B
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FIGURE 3.32
Congratulations! You’ve successfully finished creating the base settings for the frequency separation technique. What you’ve essentially done at this point is separate your image into two separate layers that when added together, create a single image. The top layer is your texture. The bottom layer is the color in your image. Knowing this allows you to selectively alter the image strategically to remove blemishes. Now, let’s get to retouching.
There are a variety of ways to retouch your images—so many, in fact, that there have been entire books and videos created just to show how to effectively retouch any imperfection. Even though there are so many tools for retouching, I prefer to keep things simple and use a combination of basic tools in Adobe Photoshop to remove any unwanted blemishes.
Here is an overview of the basic retouching tools I use to remove unwanted blemishes.
The Healing Brush tool is every photographer and retoucher’s first tool for retouching ( Figure 3.33 ). If it were a lens, it would be the 18–55mm that came with your camera. Is it good? Well, it’s great in a pinch, but there are a ton of better options.
FIGURE 3.33
The Healing Brush allows you to correct imperfections by sampling data from one portion of the image and replicating the texture, lighting, transparency, and shading to the area that you’re trying to heal. It’s really similar to the Clone Stamp tool, but you don’t have the same control that you do with the Clone Stamp tool or the Patch tool. It’s a great tool to remove very small imperfections, like in Figure 3.34 , but the automation really doesn’t allow you to control the results of the correction.
FIGURE 3.34
The Clone Stamp tool ( Figure 3.35 ) is an awesome little tool for retouching. Simply put, the Clone Stamp tool copies information from one part of your image and applies it to another area. When you’re retouching skin, this is the perfect tool to replicate skin texture and hair. The trick is that you’ll want to be very cautious with “ghosting,” meaning that information from one area is loosely overlaid over another, leaving a ghosted version of that first area overlaid on the second. See Figure 3.36 for an example.
FIGURE 3.35
FIGURE 3.36
To avoid this, you’ll want to be very selective in how and where you use the Clone Stamp tool. For instance, when retouching hair, you’ll want to set your opacity to 100% in either Lighten or Darken mode on a new layer to replicate strands of hair. I’ll later show you how to use this technique to darken hair in the “White or Graying Hair” section in this chapter.
The Clone Stamp tool is one of the best tools used in conjunction with the frequency separation technique, as it allows you to eliminate inconsistencies in skin texture; for example, pimples, scars, and wrinkles can easily be removed from your image without manipulating the underlying color.
Let’s quickly dive into using the Clone Stamp tool to retouch skin. Select the Clone Stamp tool in the toolbar and follow these steps:
FIGURE 3.37
FIGURE 3.38
FIGURE 3.39
FIGURE 3.40
The trick to effectively using this technique is to use a small brush diameter so that you’re not manipulating large areas of skin. Focus on primarily using texture in areas where they should be. For example, the skin texture around your nose is not the same skin texture as the texture on your forehead. If you’re sampling skin texture from the nose to retouch your forehead, you’ll find that you’ll have inconsistency in skin texture. Another word of advice is to be sure that you’re using many different but similar areas of skin in order to retouch, as you do not want the skin to look flat or uneven. We all naturally have varying areas of skin texture, so perfection isn’t really neccesary.
As you can see, you can easily remove most of the blemishes in your image with some time and effort. Truth be told, this can be a very tedious technique, so you’ll probably want to limit the amount of perfection that you’d like to achieve to maximize your time.
Photographers and retouchers either LOVE the Patch tool or hate it ( Figure 3.41 ). I personally have a love/hate relationship with it, and here’s why: The Patch tool allows you to select an area you’d like to get rid of by replacing it with another. Adobe Photoshop’s algorithms then analyze the data you want to replace with what you’re replacing it with and then blend the two together in the area that you’re trying to remove.
FIGURE 3.41
That sounds amazing, in theory! However, it’s not always as seamless as it sounds. In fact, you’ll often find that the Patch tool will do a terrible job replicating skin texture, leaving you with a muddy patch that you have to fix manually. This is especially true for skin texture, as well as details in clothing, like the weaving in cloth.
So, why is it such a great tool? Well, used selectively (pun intended), you can really maximize your retouching time, instead of using the Clone Stamp tool. The Patch tool works wonders for removing discolorations from pimples in your Blur layer, and can also be used before frequency separation to remove obvious imperfections, like small black dots on the face ( Figure 3.42 ), as an example.
The trick to making the most of the Patch tool is to minimize the size of your brush. The content-aware algorithms in Photoshop’s software cannot discern or replicate large areas ( Figure 3.43 ). This is probably one of the only times in the world that you’ll hear, “Smaller is better.”
FIGURE 3.42
FIGURE 3.43
The Mixer Brush tool was introduced in Adobe Photoshop CS5 ( Figure 3.44 ). It’s a tool that simulates realistic painting techniques to mix colors. You can effectively create realistic paintings by using miscellaneous brush presets to manipulate your image. That’s important to know, because it’s the mind-set that you need to have in order to effectively use this tool for portrait retouching.
FIGURE 3.44
When you’re trying to retouch any photo, you’re inevitably going to be left with blotchy patches around the skin from all the various areas that you removed blemishes from ( Figure 3.45 ). What the Mixer Brush ( Figure 3.46 ) allows you to do is to blend those areas closer in color and smooth out the skin, resulting in a more seamless gradation from one color to the next.
FIGURE 3.45
FIGURE 3.46
To set up your Mixer Brush to the appropriate settings, you’ll want to do the following:
FIGURE 3.47
And that’s it! You’re ready to use the Mixer Brush! To effectively use it, you’ll want to press and hold Option and then click on an area that you want to use as a baseline color. Then start painting over areas that you want to remove. I’d recommend using a medium brush with 0% Hardness to get the most out of this tool. Simply start painting away, and you’ll notice blemishes begin disappearing.
I’ve used this tool primarily on skin, but as I mentioned before, you could also use it to color in areas where there is makeup missing. As a word of caution, be very sparing in how much you use the Mixer Brush, as your image can quickly turn into a painting, rather than a photographic portrait.
NOTE All the tools mentioned here should be used on the layer that you’re trying to work on. For example, if you’re trying to retouch skin color, work on the Blur layer. If you’re trying to correct skin texture, opt to use the Texture layer, unless otherwise noted.
We all have imperfections—that’s the great thing about being human! Who am I kidding? Most of us are unhappy with certain aspects of ourselves, which is truly part of being human. This is why I love quick fixes. They make my client happy, and they make the delivery to the client “easy as a breeze.” With this in mind, fixing acne, scars, wrinkles, or stretch marks should be a conversation that you have before you opt to voluntarily do so on your own ( Figure 3.48 ).
FIGURE 3.48
I say this because many people are okay with their scars, wrinkles, and stretch marks. (Notice that I left out acne? I’ve yet to meet anyone who wanted me to keep their acne in a photo, but I wouldn’t be shocked when that inevitable day comes.) Scars, wrinkles, and stretch marks are unique to every person. They are a permanent reminder of our experiences in life, and each mark has a unique story associated with it. Again, I implore you to always discuss removing them with your client before taking them away. This section is for the instances in which a client requests that you remove one or more of these perceived flaws. Note that I recommend that you try the in-camera techniques first before moving on to the postproduction techniques, as they’re a good skillset for every photographer to have.
Oh, acne. How you remind me of my adolescence. Awkward years and greasy skin. Again, who am I kidding? I still get a pimple or two—we all get them! It’s part of being human. With that said, drawing attention away from pimples and acne is an important skill that every photographer should know.
In person, acne is a skin inflammation, a whitehead, or a full-blown cyst. For a photographer, acne is simply mismatched skin texture and skin color. When you put it that way, it makes it easier to tackle. Why? Well, in the earlier section entitled “The Ultimate Tool for Retouching: Frequency Separation,” I taught you how to literally separate skin color from skin texture and how to retouch each individually. There’s no better blemish to practice on than acne.
In-camera, I would recommend using a concealer to cover acne, but be very sure that your client applies both moisturizer and primer to the skin before the concealer. That’s literally the most important step in applying makeup. Why? Well, remember that makeup generally dries upon contact with blemishes, leaving a hard film over the acne. Instead of hiding the acne, you’re literally clogging it with a colored film, drawing more attention to it in-camera. So, always, always, always use moisturizer before applying makeup.
I call scars “experiences.” They’re lessons learned. There hasn’t been a scar anyone has had without a story associated with it. It’s just that simple. This is why I don’t remove scars in photos unless I’m asked to. For example, my mother has a scar underneath her chin, which was the result of a roller-skating accident she had in her childhood. She’s had it for decades. Removing it would be like removing a piece of her life. I wouldn’t do that voluntarily.
I’ve had many clients ask me to remove small scars that they were unhappy with, but also many who have been bewildered by the thought of having them removed. I will never forget the time I photographed a model’s portfolio, as he needed more updated photos. He had a scar between his eyes, and I asked if he wanted me to remove it. He explained that he’d had a small accident as a child and that he’s had the scar for as long as he could remember. In his 20 years as a professional model, it was the first time that he had ever been asked that question. Think about that. Everyone assumed he wanted it removed or had removed it to achieve “visual perfection.” My point is, always ask rather than assume.
For the clients who want scars removed, know that it’s a really simple process. You could choose to cover them up with makeup that matches the skin, like we did with acne, or you could remove them in postproduction. In-camera, scars are literally just color and texture.
While acne may have a rounder and smaller texture, scars come in all shapes, sizes, and textures. They literally could be anywhere and they’re a breeze to fix.
First, let’s note that scars will have a totally different texture than uninjured skin. Skin has a very consistent pattern of texture throughout the body. For example, in Figure 3.49 , you’ll see the textures of forehead skin, nose skin, and arm skin shown side by side. Each skin texture has its own unique patterns, and scars are no different. Ideally, you want to blend the pattern of the scar to match the pattern of the skin around it. For cases like these, frequency separation is the method that I would use.
FIGURE 3.49
For smaller scars, you’ll want to use the Clone Stamp tool on the Details layer, but for larger scars, I’d recommend using the Patch tool to lasso around the scar and replace it with skin texture that matches the “normal skin.”
Here’s an example:
FIGURE 3.50
FIGURE 3.51
FIGURE 3.52
FIGURE 3.53
In six quick steps, you were able to remove a scar from your subject’s skin. How easy was that?
A note on lighting: When you’re trying to reduce or eliminate scars and stretch marks, lighting is your best asset. Both scars and stretch marks are most apparent in harsh or hard-lit areas because of the contrast between light and dark. Ideally, you want to use softer light or position your light to fill in the shadows.
When using studio lighting, consider using softer and larger modifiers. Generally speaking, the larger the light source is relative to your subject, the softer the quality of light will be. The smaller the light source is relative to your subject, the harsher the quality of light will be.
Just like scars, wrinkles should be called experiences . Wrinkles are something that are inevitable with age, and as we get older, they’ll become more and more apparent. There’s a direct correlation of smoking habits, dieting, drinking, sleep deprivation, and sun damage to wrinkles. The point is, you’re going to photograph people with wrinkles, and drawing attention to those areas will make them look older than they are.
Preproduction is by far the easiest way to draw attention away from wrinkles. Aside from using makeup, lighting is the easiest way to reduce or eliminate unwanted wrinkles in-camera. That being said, unless you’re taking a character portrait, you want to be very cautious with how you approach lighting.
Simply put, wrinkles trap and block light, because they are small crevices in the skin. Yup, now you know there’s not only one place that the sun doesn’t shine. The higher or lower your light is in perspective to your subject, the more pronounced their wrinkles will be.
Here’s a simple exercise for understanding this concept. Take a flashlight (even the one on your phone) and walk into a dark room. Shine the light around the palm of your open hand, and notice that when your light is higher or lower than your palm lines, the more pronounced they are. By shining light directly at your palm, you can either reduce the shadows or eliminate them completely. Lighting to reduce wrinkles works the same way.
Now, I’m not saying that you always need to position light directly parallel to your subject, but it’s usually better to photograph them with the light slightly above eye level. Alternatively, using a silver reflector can also reduce or eliminate the shadows in the wrinkles.
If you apply the principle outdoors, you’ll want to steer clear of direct sunlight and focus on shooting your subjects in diffused forms of light. Find covered shade or open shade, or even consider using a scrim. Cloudy days are also amazing for photographing subjects with lots of wrinkles, because the light will fill in the shadows on the face.
Reducing wrinkles or drawing attention away from wrinkles in Adobe Photoshop is fairly simple. You’ll want to replicate the same technique that we used in order to remove bags under the eyes, as discussed in the “Skin Blemishes” section.
Looking back at my childhood, I feel pretty guilty about making fun of my relatives about their foreheads, because I knew how self-conscious they were. Yes, I was a mean child. (I love you guys!) Unfortunately, those are the little things that directly create self-esteem issues and also distort self-perception.
The truth of the matter is that many people will opt to use bangs in order to hide their foreheads, and they’re essentially hiding behind a curtain. The media doesn’t make it any better, as they can also perpetuate the “perfect” body image. Regardless of how you rationalize it, however, many women are still self-conscious about their “perceived flaw,” like my subject in Figure 3.54 , who thinks she has a large forehead. For those subjects, here are a couple in-camera techniques and ways to help in postproduction.
FIGURE 3.54
Lighting is the biggest obstacle when photographing a woman with a larger forehead, because any lights that shine on her forehead can broaden it in-camera and attract the viewer’s eye to that area. Whether you’re using natural light or artificial light, avoid having any direct light shine directly on her forehead.
You can see the difference lighting makes by comparing Figures 3.55 and 3.56 . In Figure 3.55 , the light is positioned too high, which draws more attention to my subject’s forehead. In Figure 3.56 , the light is positioned so that it is feathered away from her forehead and more so on her face. The trick is to lighten the face and darken the areas above the brow—not to complete black, but just a subtle difference works.
FIGURE 3.55
FIGURE 3.56
TIP If you’re photographing your subject in direct sunlight, any light overhead will reflect off her forehead first and then onto her face. If you can’t schedule your shoot on an overcast day, search for open or covered shade to minimize the amount of light shining down on her forehead or use a scrim.
Contrast can draw attention away from features that subjects want less attention on. The technique that I use on women with larger foreheads and also on men who are self-conscious about being bald is fairly simple. Photograph lighter-skinned subjects on light backgrounds and darker-skinned subjects on dark backgrounds. The lack of contrast will help you focus on your subject’s face, not her forehead. Look at the difference between Figure 3.57 and Figure 3.58 . Notice how much larger her forehead appears in Figure 3.57 because the background is stark white. The background in Figure 3.58 has tones closer to the subject’s face, which makes her forehead look smaller in camera.
FIGURE 3.57
FIGURE 3.58
Using a shallow depth of field is extremely helpful when you’re trying to photograph a subject who is self-conscious about her forehead. You can draw all the visual attention to your subject’s eyes, nose, and lips and blur her forehead. This is a really simple and convenient way of photographing a subject with a larger forehead, in the event that you cannot change your lighting or your background.
When you’re photographing a subject with longer or larger-than-normal features, like a larger forehead, make sure to avoid using lenses that elongate those features. Avoid photographing the subject with wider-angle lenses, such as a 35mm or 24mm lens, as these lenses can further enlarge those features.
The Liquify filter ( Figure 3.59 ) is an awesome tool in Adobe Photoshop to manipulate your images, if used the correct way. Unfortunately, many beginning photographers and even some commercial photographers use this tool incorrectly, and they’re quickly “hung out to dry” on “Photoshop fail” sites.
FIGURE 3.59
The key to using the Liquify tool is two-fold: subtle changes and large brush strokes. Large brush strokes ensure that you’re manipulating larger areas of your image to mask any changes in the image. Doing the opposite can lead to “wavy” lines, which will draw attention to the area that you liquify. Similarly, many drastic changes will draw attention to the areas that you’re manipulating, so subtle changes are important.
This is also the tool that I use in order to remove “love handles” or loose skin. Again, you’ll want to be very sparing with the way you use the brush, and also be sure to use a larger brush to make changes.
Even the thinnest of people can have a double chin because of skin elasticity ( Figure 3.60 ). Remember that a double chin is simply a layer of fat or skin that sags under a person’s chin. The great news is that you can reduce or eliminate a double chin in-camera without using Adobe Photoshop.
The first step to eliminating a double chin is to understand the principles of skin elasticity. Skin elasticity is the ability of the skin to stretch and return to its original position—and it is by far the best way to remove unwanted double chins in-camera. Anyone posed the wrong way will have a double chin, as shown in Figure 3.60 .
To reduce or eliminate a double chin, have your subject stick out her chin with her forehead slightly forward, as shown in Figure 3.61 . Many photographers will opt to use the term turtleneck to direct posing their clients to remove a double chin. Don’t do it.
FIGURE 3.60
FIGURE 3.61
Inevitably, your client is going to give you an awkward, exaggerated elongation of her neck. You don’t need to go that far. I’ve learned that by asking clients to bring their ears forward toward the camera , they are more likely to move their heads parallel to the camera and I’m able to avoid that awkward long neck. Even a subtle head tilt forward can pull the skin and reduce a double chin.
The easiest way to reduce a double chin is with the position of your light. Remember that broad lighting can make your face look wider than normal, whereas short lighting helps define the face and make it appear much slimmer. Short lighting also hides a double chin in shadow. Lighting is such a great tool.
When photographing subjects with double chins, if your camera is either parallel to or lower than your subject’s eye level, you’re likely to capture her double chin, even if she doesn’t have one, as you can see in Figure 3.60 . To avoid doing that, shoot from a slightly higher angle, as seen in Figure 3.61 . Shooting from even slightly higher than your subject’s eye level can make a huge difference. If she happens to be taller than you, have her either sit down so that you’re not photographing her below eye level, or stand on an apple box.
You can also opt to use a slightly wider aperture to draw attention to her face and not just the area under her chin.
Anyone who has worn glasses knows just how much they can impede life. I’ve been there, and it’s annoying. You can’t go to the beach without wondering if you’ll lose them if you get hit by a big wave. Doubling up on glasses while watching 3D movies is not as fun as you’d think—it’s pretty uncomfortable, actually. One word: humidity. Oh, the days of walking out into the humid heat, with your glasses instantly fogging up. These are the reasons that most people have a love/hate relationship with glasses. You cannot see anything without them, but they can impede everything.
Because photographing glasses can lead to unwanted lens glare or reflections, many photographers ask their subjects to remove them. You’ve now added your name to a list of things that impede their lives. Don’t be that photographer. The truth of the matter is that avoiding lens glare is really simple, as you can see in Figure 3.62 .
FIGURE 3.62
There are some really easy techniques that you can use to efficiently and effectively photograph people with glasses, but we’re just going to talk about the most convenient ones, because I’m all about simplicity.
A reflective surface, like glasses, has a catchlight ( Figure 3.63 ). You can determine where the catchlight will be using simple physics. (Yes, I just used the words “simple” and “physics” in the same sentence.) Light is extremely predictable. The angle of incidence is equivalent to the angle of reflection . That’s it! That’s all you have to remember.
FIGURE 3.63
I’m kidding. If that sounds complicated, it’s actually a fairly simple concept. That the angle of incidence is equivalent to the angle of reflection is the law of reflection of light. Simply put, light reflects off of flat, mirrored surfaces at the same angle that the light is positioned.
Think about it like your reflection in your bathroom mirror. Your reflection will always face an equivalent position and angle, but facing the opposite direction. For example, if you’re facing a mirror with your body turned 45 degrees, with your left shoulder closest to the mirror, then your reflection will have the right shoulder closest to the mirror and also facing 45 degrees. (Unless you’re a vampire.)
Take that same concept, and try positioning yourself near a mirror so that you’re not visible but so that you can still see everything in the room. Now try positioning yourself farther away from the mirror so that you’re not visible, but so that you can see everything else in the room. In both situations, you’ll quickly find that it’s possible to hide your reflection in the room, but being farther away may be slightly more difficult. In that example, you are the light, the mirror is your subject’s glasses, and your reflection is the catchlight in your subject’s glasses.
By studying the position of light, you can accurately predict where the catchlight will be and also determine how to reduce or eliminate catchlights by simply adjusting the position of your light, your subject’s head, or your subject’s glasses. It’s like magic.
When your subject is facing the main light, as in Figure 3.64 , the catchlight will be visible because the subject’s face and body are parallel to the main light. By turning your subject toward the camera, as seen in Figure 3.65 , you can eliminate the catchlight in the subject’s glasses. This method is applicable both in the studio and when using natural light.
FIGURE 3.64
FIGURE 3.65
The easiest way to remove catchlights in your subject’s glasses isn’t to position the light. Technically, that involves lifting the light and then repositioning it. Save yourself time, and just ask your subject to turn her head. When you’re photographing a subject with glasses, photograph her when the light is facing at an angle other than the direction that her glasses are facing, as seen in Figure 3.64 . The main light is positioned 45 degrees to the right of the camera, parallel to her chest. Turning her head directly away from camera removes the catchlight completely. Sorcery.
There are about 50 different places to find shade outside, but you’ll only need one in order to avoid catchlights. In the event that you cannot find open shade or covered shade, use a diffusion panel or flag to block light from directly reflecting off your subject’s glasses. That will reduce or eliminate the reflection of light. Try it; it works wonders.
The second-easiest way—and some would argue the first—to eliminate lens glare is simply to request that your subject move her glasses up or down in angle to eliminate glare. I find that this method takes more time than simply repositioning her head, because I start fiddling with the glasses so that they’re not at an awkward librarian angle. You know that half-awkward “Hey, I’m trying to look sexy” angle? Yes, that one. If you’re shooting a boudoir photograph, go for it! I wouldn’t use it for professional portraits, though.
Seriously. Deal with it. Stop being a perfectionist and have reasonable, realistic expectations. If you’re shooting a wedding and the bride wears glasses, you’re not going to have time to sit there and yell across the room to fix the catchlight. It’s just not going to happen. Things will not always go your way, so embrace what you can change and accept what you can’t. You can change the position of your lights in the studio, but if you’re on location and you can’t find a way to shade your subject, take a photograph of her with her glasses on and another without her glasses. We get it. You tried. That’s what matters.
Before I started writing the content for this book, I sat with many different female colleagues, friends, and neighbors and prodded them about their “perceived flaws.” Yes, I’m that weirdo who asks random questions. I digress. Until I started doing the research for this book, I didn’t realize that many women are unhappy with their “lack of symmetry.” For example, one eye is bigger than the other eye, one ear is bigger than the other, one breast is slightly smaller than the other, and so on ( Figure 3.66 ).
FIGURE 3.66
I was so intrigued, I started doing even more research. It turns out that biologically, women relate symmetrical faces to more desirable partners, according to research done at Stanford University. It also turns out that this is even true in nature! Bees are more attracted to symmetrical flowers and will, in turn, produce more nectar. This goes along with my discussion earlier in this book about the golden ratio . We’ve come full circle (pun intended).
The most interesting thing about this is that artists like Alex John Beck have created projects where an image of a person is mirrored so that the right side of the image mirrors the left side, and the subjects look drastically different. While it’s a compelling project, it’s not realistic. Mirroring your subject’s face will completely alter their whole appearance.
If your subject is self-conscious about having a smaller body part than the other side, position the smaller body part slightly closer to the lens than the other side. Because of foreshortening, you’ll be able to enlarge the smaller side closer to the size of the other side. This works with any body part. It’s a simple, effective way of fixing the perceived flaw in-camera.
As I mentioned before, I wouldn’t mirror one side of the face over the other to create symmetry. Your subject would look completely different. If your subject has a smaller eye than the other, you can use the Bloat tool in Adobe Photoshop to enlarge the eye. In order to do that, follow the next few steps:
FIGURE 3.67
FIGURE 3.68
FIGURE 3.69
And that’s it! It’s really that simple to enlarge features. You want to be very spare with how much you use the Bloat tool, as it can quickly start turning your eye into a convex blob.
This is also a great tool to use to increase bust or bum size, in the event that your client requests some enhancement.
Oh, the scent of ammonia and hair dye . . . how can anyone forget the unique smell of that concoction? I joke about this because I was raised around many women who may or may not have been trying to hide gray hairs. Yep, I’m outing you guys! The point is, graying hair is a normal thing. Many women will opt to either dye their hair or use colored concealer to hide those areas. I’d like to note again that I DO NOT ask clients about whether or not I should remove this “perceived flaw.” It’s like asking a woman her age; you don’t do it. Some women can be sensitive about their hair color.
Regardless of their ethnicity, women usually start going gray by the time they’re in their mid- to late thirties. So, how do you fix hair color in-camera? The truth is, you can’t. Even though concealers look great in person, they don’t necessarily darken the hair seamlessly, and that leads to needless retouching. Not to mention that, like mascara, the concealer can clump, which will show up in your image.
Unless you have the client dye her hair before a shoot or have a hair stylist on set, you’ll have three tools to your advantage: lighting, lens choice, and Adobe Photoshop ( Figure 3.70 ).
FIGURE 3.70
As with subjects with larger foreheads, you want to avoid using lighting that is focused on the hair, and instead feather the light so that it’s more focused on the face.
Using a shallow depth of field is a great way to reduce attention to graying hair. You’re effectively drawing all of the visual attention to your subject’s face and blurring out her hair. This is a really simple and convenient way to photograph subjects if you cannot change your lighting or your background.
Earlier in this book, I discussed various tools that you could use to retouch skin. One of those tools was the Clone Stamp tool that we used to remove unwanted blemishes in the skin. It also makes a great tool to remove minimal gray hair in a few simple steps:
FIGURE 3.71
FIGURE 3.72
As a word of caution, be sure that your opacity is set to 100% on both your layer and your brush. Changing the opacity on either can lead to ghosting, which is simply a lower-opacity version of one image on top of the other. While that is okay for skin color, with hair, you’ll start losing the detail of the individual strands.
