Portraiture + Photoshop

Today's Class Overview:

Portraiture using window light- Demo/ Exercise
Review of Camera Raw processing, exporting as Hi-Res Jpgs.
Intro to Photoshop (tools and basic adjustments)
Basic Portrait Retouching

PORTRAITURE

Portraiture can mean many things. Environmental portraits of people show someone's surroundings and close up portraits can be more about a personal's expression or emotion. Stories are told in different ways.

environmental portrait by Joel Sternfeld

close-up portrait of Picasso by Richard Avedon (notice the side lighting)

Lens Choice:
Lens Length Impacts Portraiture!
In taking pictures of people choosing a longer lens (like above 50mm) is generally more flattering. Try standing farther away from your subject and zooming in if you have a zoom lens.

Image on left is a wide angle (like a 18mm lens). Image on right is a longer lens (like 85mm) Image credit here.

 In Class Demo Exercise: Taking a Portrait with Window Lighting

1.) SIDE LIT: Take a photo with side lighting from a window. Take one with and without a fill card.   Try having the subject's face pointing toward  and then away from the light.

Examples of (what could be) window side-lit portraits:

by Annie Lebovitz

by Annie Lebovitz

 When shooting portraits, pay close attention to the direction the light is coming from and the quality of the shadows.

2.) BACK LIT:
Try taking a picture with your subject's back to the window. Camera faces window. How does this affect your exposure settings and the light on the face?

3.) FRONT LIT:
Try taking a picture of someone where they are facing the camera and the light is hitting their face directly (window behind the photographer, subject looking out window)

PHOTOSHOP TOOLS OVERVIEW:
 (see the tools overview in previous post)

Retouching a portrait:
Process the RAW file and open it in Photoshop.
-Layer 1 (bottom of stack) = Background
-Layer 2 = Background Duplicate (Duplicate the background, call it "retouching" or "patch and clone stamp". Fix skin here) You may also like the Healing Brush Tool for skin.
-Layer 3 (top of stack) = Curves "brighten layer" for brightening under eyes, whites of eyes, teeth, etc:

Retouching: -->

1. Before doing anything, make a duplicate copy of the background layer and call it Retouching (control click layer, choose ‘duplicate layer”). Zoom WAY in! Work at least at 100%, but maybe even at  200% or more. Using a combination of the following tools, Clone Tool, Healing Brush Tool, Spot Healing Brush Tool, Patch Tool and filling with content aware to rid of all blemishes and stray hairs. Turn brush hardness all the way off, to 0% so that your brushes are soft. Experiment with the opacity of each tool as well.  (Clone & Healing brush tools also work on empty layers if you choose “sample all layers” from the bar at the top.)

2. To add slimming: Duplicate the “retouching” layer and call it “Liquify” -Liquify minimizes double chins, chubby cheeks, odd facial angles, crooked bangs,  bunched up clothing, etc. Set Brush Size and Brush density to “17”- this is a good starting point.

3. Brighten Teeth, Under Eyes or Whites of Eyes with a curves mask. Make a curves adjustment layer and brighten the whole image by moving the curve toward the upper left corner. Invert the layer mask so it’s black (command i). Use a very soft white brush (hardness = zero) and paint over the area you’d like to be brighter. Adjust opacity of layer if needed. (Similarly, you can take the yellow out of teeth with a “selective color” mask.)

WHEN DONE....Save as TIFF to maintain layers. Save another copy as a JPG to be able to email it, make a print, upload it, etc. The TIFF is your Master File and if you want to make any edits layer, you'll go back to the TIFF.