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Post Production on Portraits
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I figure this’ll generate strong opinion from both sides of the fence & its certainly far from my intention to start an argument.
What are people’s opinions on the use of Photoshop on Portraiture? I’m aware that the amount is very much dependant on what the end use of the image is to be.
Regards
TimMy own view is I think post-prodction that enhances the qualities of the person is fine, but alteration is not. The end product doesn’t matter a whit to me either, and would have no time for airbrushing/ body alteration/ digital slimming/ digital facial alteration, or any of the nonsense that is used to project images of perfection, ala the fashion/ magazine industry.
Anyway, there’s your first strong opinion ;)
Re: photoshop, I don’t think its so much the tool, but rather the intention of the one using it, or what it’s used for.
Did a course on off camera flash portrait work which also included an afternoon looking at the post processing and the rule of thumb he had was that apart from whitening the whites of the eyes and sharpening eyes, hair he did not touch permanent things. So for example if the model on the day had spots or bags under her eyes from a night on the beer :) he would remove these but he would not touch freckles, moles etc.
I think this is a perfect approach as a model is looking to get photographs of her looking great but still wants to look like the person in the photo.
He didn’t touch eye shape or size, body or limb size. The liquify tool was never used. Just layer masks, brush and blend modes.
One thing he did explain to us was that artificial lights such as flash have a tendency to add a touch of redness to Caucasian skin so his tip was to add a Hue/Saturation layer, select the red channel and reduce the saturation by about 10-12 to make the skin look more flesh coloured.
Mark.
I admit I’m fairly liberal on my use of photoshop, but its usage is based on the end use of the image in question. Something for a Model, Hair Stylist or MUA portfolio is going to receive less post production beyond crop & colour correction then something I’d be putting in my own.
Removing blemishes & dust (if any), generally smoothing the skin, dodging & burning, brightening eyes, addition of catch & kick lights, removal of stray hair. I’m not comfortable with the liquify tool, so tend to shy away from it. That said, I’m finding my portraiture more geared towards Fashion & Glamour.
markst33 wrote:
the rule of thumb he had was that apart from whitening the whites of the eyes and sharpening eyes, hair he did not touch permanent things.
That’s actually quite a great and succinct rule of thumb, I shall have to remember it – thanks for sharing it :)
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