Shooting Makeup

[faisal]

Meeting a client tomorrow who is a make up artist and wants images for her website and basically wants to discuss what exactly she wants and if I can do it.

She wants some shots of her doing the makeup and some portraits of the models once the makeup is done. Do I approach this shoot any different from any other portrait shoot or should I be thinking off camera flash with umbrella (which I still don't have but I think I can borrow one) cause this would be my first proper indoor portrait shoot as I've only done outdoor stuff. Don't have the $$$ to buy another flash+stand+umbrella combo so it'll have to be a single flash plus reflector if needed job...

Any advice welcome as usual....

[adam75south]

if you can pull off the umbrella(s), go for that. but if you can't, do it a couple of hours before the sun goes down. go in tight on her face without throwing any shadow across it. use a reflector to throw either a hair/rim light or fill in any shadows you need filled in. if you do it right you'd never know it was sunlight. but for a makeup shot, i would imagine you'd want her face square on with the key light whether you're shooting her from the front or the side.

this girl has some nice makeup shots in her portfolio, i just happen to run across her page today.
http://www.modelmayhem.com/pics.php?id=471801

[faisal]

Can't view modelmayhem.com..it's blocked.

I doubt I'll be allowed to shoot outside as it is close to 47'C in the afternoon and that'll mess up the make up I suppose.

If I had to go square on I'd imagine the flash mounted on camera bounced of the ceiling with a bounce card would do the trick or the mount the flash off camera with an umbrella and put it right above my head. Both situations with a reflector placed at chest level to fill in the area of the neck/chin. Is this the right idea or not??

[faisal]

Had part one of the shoot. Got 4 more days to go. Managed to get some decent shot but there is just too much detail in the skin if you know what I mean. The healing brush won't do as there isn't a smooth enough section of the skin that I can heal off. Any ideas apart from the paint brush??

[D Thompson]

Hard to give you a method without seeing what you're dealing with. Post a crop or send me a pm where I can d/l the orig.

[faisal]

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q121/faisal7/Others/IMG_4535.jpg

Here's a resized 2400*1800 version. Let me know if you want me to send you the original also....

Thanks

[Rooz]

soften the light a little more if you can fais that will fill in some of the skin blemishes. is your umbrella a shoot thru ? looks like your reflector may be silver ? thats alot of light reflected there.

[faisal]

It is a shoot thru umbrella but there was no reflector used. Didn't have a assistant to help me out...

By soften, do you mean less power or something else...???

Its a cheapo umbrella cause the one I'm getting from the US is not here yet so got this for $13 as the good ones was setting me back by $50....

I kinda decided to drop the clarity a lot and use the lightroom brush over the skin. Does make the blemishes soften up a little...good idea/bad idea??

Will post an example in some time....

[Rooz]

diffuse the light more. the larger the light source the softer the light and the more it wraps around things and fills in cracks etc.

[faisal]

okay...got it!!! Thanks...

[faisal]

So had a part of the shoot today. It was meant to be a wedding makeup shoot. But the make up artist rung up a friend who happened to be in town who happened to be a wedding photographer who happened to have more experience than me. That's a lot of happening. So anyway I decided to step back and observe this guy do the shoot. Learned a few things...

Anyway I took a few shots myself, the time I got while this guy was setting up. Here's the best shot...

I know the lighting is a bit messed up but this was a quick moment of brilliance i.e. Flash mounted on camera bounced off the floor that had a cream coloured rug which I was hoping would give a slight creamish tint to the flash which might not look so out of place with the tungsten lighting in the hotel falling from the top. Risked motion blur by dragging the shutter which is slightly evident I think or is that just bokeh from using a f1.8. I'm not sure.... :eek:

Anyway I think it works. Only adjustments is levels and contrast. I also darkened the background in photoshop.....C&C welcome....

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q121/faisal7/400D/IMG_4576_copy.jpg
85mm, 1/40, f1.8, ISO 200

EDIT: just noticed the slightly blown out area next to her right eye...should I fix that??

[D Thompson]

Here's a resized 2400*1800 version. Let me know if you want me to send you the original also....Thanks
Yep, the lens put that one out nice and sharp. I'll mess with the jpeg later tonight for a little bit. If the jpeg is only resized and nothing else then it'll be ok, of course the original is always better to work on ;).

diffuse the light more. the larger the light source the softer the light and the more it wraps around things and fills in cracks etc.

Rooz gave some good advice for the capture. As far as converting the RAW file I would completely zero any sharpening, no sense in adding to the work. You can drop the Clarity 10-15 which will help a little, maybe even drop the Contrast ever so slightly as well as Saturation a point or so. Once in PS there are several ways to go about it.

Got some things to do first, but will play around with it later.

[D Thompson]

It's not perfect, but I need to quit tonight. Gives you an ideal and if you spend a little more time could get some of the spots I haven't got to yet. There are several other ways to attack this one also, this was my choice tonight.

Anyway.........workflow :
The jpeg was saved and opened in ACR. All settings at 0 except Brightness (25), Clarity (-16), Contrast (-4), and Saturation (-7). Brought as 16bit into CS3. Blank layer which I used the spot healing brush on some of the more obvious spots. Merged to a new layer and applied a Gaussian Blur (sometimes you just gotta :(). Created a snapshot and then undo the GB. Set the History state to the snapshot and with the History Brush set to about 12% flow and 100% opacity, set brush mode to Darken and blend in the skin tones. Lower flow a little and set brush mode to Lighten and more blending. Brush mode to Darken, more blending. Lower flow and continue to blend alternating between the 2 brush modes. Set the History State back to the main and created a 50% grey Softlight layer and with soft brush set to probably at most 4% flow dodged and burned to even tones out more. Merged all to a new layer, layer mask to hide all, and painted white at about 30% opacity, 100% flow over the skin. This help soften the GB somewhat. Created new 50% grey Softlight layer, added noise, emboss, gaussian blurred - this creates a little "fake" texture. Some more d&b blending and finally merged all to a new layer, sharpened, convert to 8bit, sRGB, resized, and saved. Should've spend some more time on the d&b layer, but............

Hope this helps.

Fullsize (http://photos.imageevent.com/dennisthompsonphotography/rp01/faisal_rt_fullsize.jpg)

[faisal]

Thanks for the edit and steps Dennis. I like what you've done, better than what I managed....

I tried to replicate what you said and failed miserably at the dodge and burn part. Shall try it again once I have more time. Could you elaborate on what to dodge and burn cause I was totally lost there....

Thanks again... :)

[FLiPMaRC]

:eek: Wow Dennis! :cool:

[D Thompson]

:eek: Wow Dennis! :cool:
Thank you.
Thanks for the edit and steps Dennis. I like what you've done, better than what I managed....

I tried to replicate what you said and failed miserably at the dodge and burn part. Shall try it again once I have more time. Could you elaborate on what to dodge and burn cause I was totally lost there....

Thanks again... :)
You're welcome and I'm glad you liked it. I hate using any type of blur on a retouch, but sometimes you have to. This is about the best method I've found using the History brush with blur. The part using the History brush set to either darken/lighten is kind of like dodging and burning as well. It's a little confusing at first so let me know if that's where you're having the trouble. It should be looking pretty good after that step.

D&B - Create a new layer set to softlight and filled with 50% grey. Brush size goes all sizes depending. Use a soft brush, 100% opacity, 2-4% flow with the brush mode set to softlight. This method takes a little longer, but I feel I have more control. D&B takes time, no way around it. Zooming in - at times I'll zoom in to 800, even 1600% to do a small section, probably most of the time I'm at 100-200%, sometimes I back out to 50%. You can be zoomed in too much where you can't see the overall effect. You want even transitions so that determines whether your color is black or white. Slowly build up to where there is not an extreme change.

A trick I've learned is to create a levels adjustment layer at the top of your layer stack and go to extremes. Then go back to the d&b layer and adjust accordingly. Once you're satisfied delete the levels adjustment layer.

D&B on a softlight grey layer is a simple concept. It does, however, take a lot of practice to get the technique down. I never use the actual dodge/burn tool, altho they're supposed to be a little better in CS4. Practice, practice, and practice. Just ask if I haven't explained anything clearly and I'll try to answer.

Here's a copy of my d&b layer on your image.

[michaelb]

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q121/faisal7/400D/IMG_4576_copy.jpg
85mm, 1/40, f1.8, ISO 200

EDIT: just noticed the slightly blown out area next to her right eye...should I fix that??

Very nice faisal.

I wouldn't bother with the "blown out area" - looks fine to me.

:eek: Wow Dennis! :cool:

Ditto. ;)

[faisal]

The history brush process I understood but the dodge and burn part was going over my head but your explanation does help. Will try it out again today evening and get back to you. Hopefully I'll be able to do it right. Thanks again...

Michael...thanks...