Shooting someone with large nose question.

[Midnight Muse]

I am shooting a very, very beautiful young lady for her senior year tomorrow. She has amazing blue eyes and dark hair, so I definitely want to focus on those for a lot of shots, but she does have a large nose. She is really self conscious about it, so I want to make sure I de-accentuate it, but still bring out her eyes.
Anyone have advice or tricks? Anything is appreciated

[i speak in math]

Shoot from slightly above. Use a wide aperture to blur the face past the eyes. When side lighting, don't shoot straight on. Have her turn her head but not so far that her nose crosses the edge of her face. Try shooting straight on but with some soft even lighting so that the shadow from her nose is hidden below her nose. (hollywood/beauty/clamshell lighting)

[wulf]

An "Ann of Cleves" nose? Like Holbein, frontal views with the subject looking down a little, will minimise this feature. Or is it a part of her beauty? Perhaps try some shots that see her looking great without trying to downplay her nose; if she hates them, you can delete them but it may be enough so she can see herself in a different light.

Wulf

[Benji]

I would shrink her nose in Photoshop with the liquify tool, just don't go overboard and only do a couple of the absolute best shots, then see what she says after seeing them.

I have discovered that most people don't have any idea whatsoever what can be done in Photoshop. They think it is a retouching tool good for getting rid of zits and bags under the eyes, so when they look at an image of themselves if something looks bit amiss it doesn't occur that you "did something" to the image, especially since they are used to seeing their image in a mirror which is backward.

Benji

[i speak in math]

Originally Posted by Benji

I would shrink her nose in Photoshop with the liquify tool,
Benji

I would absolutely recommend against doing this

[Benji]

Originally Posted by i speak in math

I would absolutely recommend against doing this

Yeah, lose the sale instead. Then she can go to the photographer down the street and tell him she has a big nose and that the guy up the street said nothing can be done with her nose, and that her nose always looks big in photographs. Assuming he is a professional he will tell her that all noses look bigger in photographs because they are the closest thing to the lens and anything that is close to the lens will look bigger than what it really is. Also he will tell her that since she is convinced she has a big nose that is the first thing she looks at when looking at her images. She will see this photographer is obviously a professional photographer and will allow him to shoot her. He will use Photoshop, he will shrink her nose all that the lens added to its size and just a little bit more and she will buy her photographs from him instead.

Benji

[Car2n]

I'd shrink it.

[Benji]

Here is one I did recently. The first one is the unshrunk one.

Benji

[RLucas]

Originally Posted by Benji

Yeah, lose the sale instead. Then she can go to the photographer down the street and tell him she has a big nose and that the guy up the street said nothing can be done with her nose, and that her nose always looks big in photographs. Assuming he is a professional he will tell her that all noses look bigger in photographs because they are the closest thing to the lens and anything that is close to the lens will look bigger than what it really is. Also he will tell her that since she is convinced she has a big nose that is the first thing she looks at when looking at her images. She will see this photographer is obviously a professional photographer and will allow him to shoot her. He will use Photoshop, he will shrink her nose all that the lens added to its size and just a little bit more and she will buy her photographs from him instead.

Benji

I have to agree with Eric here. I would definately lose the sale. I do not agree with this practice whatsoever. It just quantifies this false ideal that symmetry is the essence of beauty. I think the liquify tool should be removed from PS. Period. End of story. If a photographer can't make his model feel comfortable and beatiful without having to resort to heavy post work to the point where she doesn't even look like herself anymore, then said photographer is not doing their job.

Self confidence trumps looks any day in my book!

[Benji]

With 8 billion dollars spent on make up every year in the USA it is rather easy to see not everyone agrees with your observation that "Self confidence trumps looks any day in my book" idea.

Benji