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I was asked the other day to consider doing a paid shoot, a person I meet wants to get portraits done of themselves and their family. I have yet to discuss what they are looking for and the sort of money they wanted to spend but have decided I should do some prep work.

I dug out some shots I did of the family last Christmas and did some skin softening pp as I have not done this sort of pp before. A few short tutorials off the net, record an action in photoshop and presto, it done. It did not seem all that difficult so I would appriciate some feedback on the results. I was looking for a smoothish look but not a plastic look, can I please have some opinions of how I went.

Click on the photos for larger versions.

Before and After


Before and After


For those that are interested here is the setup, advice on the placement of the lights would be appreciated as well.




Thanks.

Steve,

I think these are good and will be more than acceptable to people who you will sell.

The improvements I could think of
1. Bring those lights in really really close. I would just try with one light first. Just the softbox. It should be almost touching the subject. This type of lighting may be more edgy than what you have used.
2. If you want to try two lights, perhaps try clamshell lights with the umbrella on the bottom as fill and softbox above as key.
3. Next step would be work on background, subject seperation. You can either do this with color, hair light etc.

How are the golden eagles treating you?

Postprocessing
1. If these are actions, they are really good! What are they??
2. If you want to push it further, sharpen eyes, make eyes and teeth whiter etc etc.. Depends on how long you want to spend on each photo.

surenj wrote:people who you will sell

Now, now, Suren. Last time I looked, slavery was illegal in this country

Craig.
I agree with Suren (except about the slave trade )
I think you have done a brilliant job of lifting the portraits without making them look plastic.

Bring the softbox light in much closer. You will need to dial it down to keep the exposure.
Use the umbrella just to soften the dark side. Though you may do better just using a reflector.
The hair highlight works well. perhaps just move it a little back.

I will start with the usual disclaimer about knowing nothing about portraits!

I found the dual catch lights in the eyes a little off putting. Once I noticed it, it was all I could look at.

ANT
You picked it. The catch lights need some PP to tone them down.
CraigVTR.....Nice lighting but there's something missing from these portraits....The hands. I think hands are so expressive and can be a great aid to composition when used well. Without hands portraits tend to look more like mug shots. Sometimes hands holding a small book or flower or feather will 'round off' the portrait. It also gives the subject something to do and often helps to relax them. In the current Alfred Stieglitz exhibition it's remarkable how many of his portrait subjects are holding apples. Corny....but it worked for him and he's a master. Also, keep a close eye on the edges of your image space. Sometimes curtains or flowers or some other device can help lock in your subject. With lighter backgrounds many photographers will darken the edges of the image in Photoshop to help trap the eye. It's more difficult with dark backgrounds. Another neat PP trick is to make a selection of the teeth and de-saturate them by about 80%. This removes any yellowing and freshens the smile. One last minor point. Don't crop the portraits too tightly. It cramps up the subject and adds tension to the image. Give your subjects room to live.

The catchlights will sort themselves out when you bring the lights closer....

I didn't notice the hairlight on my first look!

Great tips Matt. I have a learnt a few things just by reading your comments!

Greg, what Sl@very are you on about?

surenj wrote:Greg, what Sl@very are you on about?

In the following quote, you are talking about selling people (after they admire the photos). That smacks of slavery
A trailing "to" would have altered the meaning considerably. If I had my green cardy on, I would totally reconstruct the sentence to correct the grammar: ...people to whom you will sell

surenj wrote:I think these are good and will be more than acceptable to people who you will sell.

Greg, it's interesting how one "m" can change the meaning completely!

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

surenj wrote:1. Bring those lights in really really close. I would just try with one light first. Just the softbox. It should be almost touching the subject. This type of lighting may be more edgy than what you have used.
2. If you want to try two lights, perhaps try clamshell lights with the umbrella on the bottom as fill and softbox above as key.
3. Next step would be work on background, subject seperation. You can either do this with color, hair light etc.

I will be trying some shots on a friend next week with the lights much closer.

surenj wrote:How are the golden eagles treating you?

The lights are great. They do not get a lot of use but have so far proved reliable and adequate for my needs. I sometimes get random firing if the battery for the trigger is not fully charged.

surenj wrote:Postprocessing
1. If these are actions, they are really good! What are they??
2. If you want to push it further, sharpen eyes, make eyes and teeth whiter etc etc.. Depends on how long you want to spend on each photo.

The action is one I recorded yesterday. Basically it automates the creation of the various layers and addition of the apporiate noise filter with stops to allow for the healing of blemishes and the painting of the layer mask. The actual process for the pp I found on the net.

Mr Darcy wrote:Bring the softbox light in much closer. You will need to dial it down to keep the exposure.
Use the umbrella just to soften the dark side. Though you may do better just using a reflector.
The hair highlight works well. perhaps just move it a little back.

I have a good size reflector so I will give that a try as well.

Ant wrote:I found the dual catch lights in the eyes a little off putting. Once I noticed it, it was all I could look at.

I must have been concentrating on the sharpness of the eyes as I did not really notice the catchlights.

Matt. K wrote:Nice lighting but there's something missing from these portraits....The hands.

Would you believe me if I said they did'nt have any hands. It is not something I would of thought of but the hands are part of the person. I will keep the apple in mind, maybe a bananna or a pineapple, Iam in Queensland and affected by the heat.

Matt. K wrote:Also, keep a close eye on the edges of your image space. Sometimes curtains or flowers or some other device can help lock in your subject. With lighter backgrounds many photographers will darken the edges of the image in Photoshop to help trap the eye. It's more difficult with dark backgrounds.

I like clean plain backgrounds and I only have a black and a white one, but I will open my eyes to more possibilties in using background and other object to help frame the subject.

Matt. K wrote:Another neat PP trick is to make a selection of the teeth and de-saturate them by about 80%. This removes any yellowing and freshens the smile. One last minor point. Don't crop the portraits too tightly. It cramps up the subject and adds tension to the image. Give your subjects room to live.

I will give the teeth idea a try and shoot some shots a bit looser.


Once again, thanks for the ideas.