Portrait Practice – Smooth, Baby
September 17, 2008
Here is my second take on Kate’s portrait, this time with some skin edits. First, I cloned away a few blemishes. Then, I sampled some midtone skin and painted on a blank layer at a very low opacity to smooth the roughness in the skin. I didn’t want to go too far, she’s a kid after all. Also did a bit of low opacity dodging of the eye area per a suggestion by Jen, which I think helped tremendously. Finally, I added a small amount of contrast back in Lightroom.
Any other ideas about how to go about this type of editing? Or, thoughts on learning how to take this type of casual portrait in natural light? Your comments so far have been really helpful so don’t hold back!
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September 17, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Julie,
I really like your last edit – it looks very natural. As far as advice goes I would consult with Jen, Heather and Mike – They are far better portrait photographers than I.
September 17, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Thanks, Wolf. Natural is good!
I’m sure few of us would agree with your last statement…
September 17, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Your edit looks great to my “untrained portrait eyes.” I like the natural feel that you have maintained while enhancing the original image.
I have to agree with Wolf that Jen, Heather, and Mike appear to be the portrait experts in this little blogger group!
September 17, 2008 at 5:16 pm
I agree with Sue and Wolf on checking with Jen,Mike and Heather. You might want to check out chapter 9 in Scott Kelby’s book The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book for Digital Photographers. The chapter deals with faces, the retouching of portraits. I think you said you used Elements but there’s probably stuff in there that would be useful.
September 17, 2008 at 5:17 pm
I forgot to say I like what you’ve done so far and I like the expression that you’ve captured.
September 17, 2008 at 5:33 pm
I learn from all of you!
Thanks for the book suggestion, Bob. I’ll check it out…
September 18, 2008 at 10:08 am
The final looks great Julie – I do calibrate every two weeks and you colors look very natural – go print this 8×10 at a prolab and match it to your monitor – Its all about the light for me and you have that eye already for picking great light – I usually shoot portraits wide open , 2.8 with my zoom or I have a 85mm 1.8 that I have done some great stuff with. With groups I stick around F8 of 11, shoot in aperture priority with most portraits and keep an eye on shutter speed for a possible bump in ISO. I bought a book for some inspiration this past summer – the art of shooting people photography, by Cantrell Cohen – there is some great images with people in it.
September 18, 2008 at 1:36 pm
I think this portrait of Kate looks great, I don’t know anything about taking portraits to give any tips, so I can only offer a comment on your achievement. :0)
September 18, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Julie,
The final edit looks great!! I’m so happy the tip on the eyes worked. There are lots of methods but that one is easiest to share.
The skin looks nice and smooth and natural. You’re getting great at this!!
September 18, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Thanks Jen! I’ve always been sort of afraid of dodging and burning. It helped to have you give me ‘permission’ to do it!