Beauty shot

[spcandrew]

This was shot using a Canon 5d Mark II w/a Canon 70-200 F/2.8 IS II L lens. ISO 100, 140mm, F/11, 1/160sec. Lighting set-up was a "clam-shell" with a beauty dish as the top light and a small softbox as the bottom fill light.

The first thing I do is determine where I want to go with a photo. In this case I just wanted a clean, beauty style photo. Then, I identify everything that I want to fix. In this case, it was the following: hair (loose hairs, reshape, etc.), bags under the eyes, skin, reshape ear, thin out neck, crop image, take out the black bra, take out the hair pin.

In Lightroom 3, first I adjusted levels, white balance, etc. for the skin and opened it up in PS CS5. Then I went back into LR3 and made adjustments in the photo for the hair/eyes then added that in PS as a layer. Finally, I made 1 more version of the photo in LR3 for the hair and added that as a third layer.

In CS5, I then brushed in the eyes/lips and the hair to my 1st version. Next was the skin. Basically, the goal is to retain skin texture without using a heavy gaussian blur technique that destroys all the texture. Long and short of this part is you set up a group of 2 layers (bottom layer gaussian blur/top layer w/an apply image blending "add" and w/linear light), then edit on the top layer. Then, you spend awhile using a small healing brush fixing up blemishes and uneven skin texture. After that, I merged all of the layers and fixed up what I needed to on the skin w/the clone stamp tool.

Next, I used the clone stamp tool to take out the stray hairs. I also used the clone stamp tool set to Darken to fix some of hairs that were crossing over other hairs. Finally, I copied a piece of the hair, used free transform to shape it, then moved it to add some hair where I wanted it and blended it in.

Using Liquify, I made the neck a touch thinner and reshaped the ear slightly.

Finally, I used dodge and burn selectively to shape the highlights and shadows.

I would say that this photo is about 85% done as there are still some things I would fix with the hair, and a few areas where I'd even out the skin tone. But, I get distracted easily so this is where this photo will probably stay for awhile!

[3bayjunkie]

i like the PP. very clean. I'm not sure how i feel about the removal of her dress. her right breast seems to be showing too much and doesn't look right.

[klam]

I dig it. Sweet job

[ArmySoldier777]

Originally Posted by 3bayjunkie

i like the PP. very clean. I'm not sure how i feel about the removal of her dress. her right breast seems to be showing too much and doesn't look right.

I agree with 3bay on this one. Overall, it's a great edit. But her right breast just doesn't look natural that way. Maybe crop the bottom up just a tiny tiny bit to remove the left edge?


David

[Gulf Coast Girl]

Nice! I like what you've done in post and you've given a good description of your edits.

I'm new to photography so I have a question (not a critique) and that is, in this type of photography do you want the catch lights in the eyes? Her left eye seems to have 2 and the one in the iris seems like it should not be there but I honestly have no idea if it should or not as I'm a total beginner.

So for those of you in the know.... for this type of photography would you leave catch lights as-is or soften them or remove them altogether. If the answer is to soften them or remove them, what tools / steps in Photoshop would you take to accomplish that?


TFS

[katia]

i much much much prefer the original. the edit makes her look sort of like ET. it looks like she was cut out and pasted onto a different background.

[spcandrew]

Generally you want catch-lights in the eyes as it livens them up more. Eyes without a catch-light tend to look more dead and lifeless so if anything, usually you add them to eyes if they don't have them rather than remove them. The reason the left eye has 2 catch-lights and the right only 1 is due to the positioning of the 2 lights in relation to the head. I did not alter or change the placement of the catch-lights in the eyes at all. Many times you can use the placement of the catch-lights in the eyes to figure out the lighting set-up used by the photographer.