Creating  a striking portrait is teamwork. It’s about mastering the lighting, having a talent who’s able to convey your vision and the ability to put the talent in the right mind state.Finally, using the right editing techniques is key to achieve the result that you want in the end.

1. Light Setup

This light setup is pretty straightforward. It combines traditional butterfly lighting with the beauty dish just overhead of the model and two back lights very close for more contrast that will be used as hair light and to highlight the jaw line symmetrically. Having the main light around 1 feet from the model makes for a more contrast yet a very soft look. The diffusion sock on the  beauty dish makes it like a round softbox.

If you are curious about this lighting, please go and check Joel Grimes tutorial here. Joel is an amazing commercial photographer from  Arizona who creates stunning portraits using cutting edge techniques.

2. the shoot

Once the lighting is ready, time to bring the model. In that particular example, it wasn’t really a planned portrait session. Brent happened to drop by the studio. We chatted a little bit and I asked him if he’d like me to take a few shots of him. Brent is a unique character and I wanted to bring the intensity he had in him in the photo. As it happens sometimes, the first photo taken was the best one and the photoshoot lasted barely 5min! Having rapport with the model and making him/her extremely comfortable quickly is a key aspect of a successful portrait.

3. the editing

For that particular photo, I wanted to create an edgy look with contrast that matched the lighting.

So before going into details, here is the accelerated video of how I did this portrait in Photoshop. In real-time, getting this result took 37 minutes.

Just before I explain more into depth, I’d like to mention that all my editing is done using a Wacom Tablet (Intuos 3 – 9×12″ around 500$ or Intuos 4 – 4×6″ around 200$). If you think you’ll spend a lot of time editing, get one. Some models from Wacom are really cheap. Tthe tablet gives you the ability to map the opacity or thickness of the brush depending on the pressure and/or the angle of the pen. It’s really really powerful!

Now, the workflow I use is pretty straightforward

Step 1 – Removal of skin blemishes (done in Adobe Camera Raw – not shown here)

Step 2 -Removal of skin imperfections, small hair, red veins in the eyes. I use a lot the healing brush and the clone stamp (mostly in lighten mode to soften shadows).

Step 3 – Eye editing. I like to add a bit more light and contrast, the amount depending on the type of portrait done. It’s done using curves adjustment layers and using screen bending mode to lighten and soft light to add contrast.

Step 4 – Contouring. Contouring is a form of dodging and burning to create shape and highlight face features in a portrait. It’s done using curves adjustments layers and switching blending modes to screen (to lighten) and multiply (to darken).

Step 5 – General curves adjustments. I use levels and curves adjustment layers and a mask based on channels luminosities to affect mostly shadows and midtones and not highlights.

Step 6 – Tonal contrast adjustment. In this example, it’s done using a black and white adjustment layer and using the soft light blending mode. Using high pass sharpening helps also bring more contrast.

Step 7 – Sharpening. In this example, high pass sharpening was used.

The core of the workflow does not change. It’s pretty straightforward.

4. the final result

Here is the final image, with a few corrections compared to the end image of the video.

Thanks for viewing!

• Snowy backyard somewhere on the Plateau Mont-Royal

• Snowy alley of the Plateau Mont-Royal

I’ve always loved those lonely photo walks, listening to audio books, while trying to find secret places and different angles to what everybody has already photographed. I’ve had already come by that book store and taken a photo but never published it. On that night, it was really different, when I saw the bookstore again, with the yellow light coming from inside the store against the white snow and the blue sky, it really made an impression. It was the right moment to take a photo. After figuring out the perspective I wanted, I then set up my tripod in the middle of the road, took a look left and right to make sure no one would run me over and then took 3 different exposures (from 1.6 to 6s) with my Nikon D300 and a Sigma 10-20mm zoomed at 16mm and F/10.0.

I knew that this photo had something more than the others I took that night. When I get that feeling,  I usually like to wait a few days or months to process the photos, because I want it to reflect exactly the impressions I had that night. Like I say to my friends, it’s not about the technique, it’s about using the technique to reflect what your feelings were and just go with your intuition. Like demonstrated below, I don’t see HDR as a technique, my photomatix processing is really basic and the core of what I do is micro-contrast management using curves until I get the result that I want, without any second thoughts. This particular example mixed HDR and DRI and a bit of Photoshop. Enjoy!

• Final result:

• Baseline exposure:

• Making Of:

Book me for:

• a portrait session or a portfolio, or
  
• an assignment (architecture/urban landscape), or
  
• a Photoshop training lesson (english and french)

View my portfolio and contact me now!

Photos and videos are all rights reserved – David Giral 2010.

Photoshop portrait retouching is everywhere: in blogs, newspapers, magazines. With the development of online tutorials, plug-ins and actions, access to the skill has become easier than ever.

However, like all skills, learning how to balance each adjustment is not that as easy as it may seem and experience is key. It can also depends on the context in which the portrait has been taken (one just has to look at some of these editing disasters to see that trying to cut on the quality can really hurt you) .  Each client has his/her own opinion on how the editing should be done which can make it hard for the photographer to do his/her job properly. It is the photographer’s responsibility to find the right balance in editing. A good example being that an older woman might not like to have all her wrinkles edited or smoothed out, as it creates an unrealistic and unrecognizable version of herself.

In my opinion, retouching has to look effortless and not photoshopped. Attention to details is a must-have too. As beginners, we all made the mistakes of over-whitening the teeths and eyes, overs-moothing the skin or just remove all traces of imperfections. But little things that we might removed like birthmarks are what makes an indiividual in the first place.

Now let’s come back to this portrait. The model is Robyn, independant model/makeup artist/designer and owner of the blog fashionista514.com. She will also be featuring this makeover over on her blog so go check what she has to say on the subject.  It was our first time meeting each other and we only had 10 minutes for a quick headshot session. The very classic lighting setup consisted of a Alien Bees AB800+ Beauty dish on a boom above camera (butterfly lighting). Fill was provided by a 5in1 gold reflector held at the waist level by Robyn.  Robyn makeup was close to being perfect especially with a red lipstick (MAC Ruby Woo) featuring an amazing texture.

Now, before you watch the video and the final result on bigger scale, here is the breakdown of the retouching steps:

1. Blemishes removal and exposure adjustment (Adobe Camera Raw): 7min
2. Skin repair : 11min
3. Small hair removal: 8min
4. eyes cleanup: 5min
5. Difficult small hair removal part 2: 9 min
6. Wrinkles/shadows softening: 8 min
7. Necklace removal: 3 min
8. Eyes brightening: 8 min
9. Lips contouring: 3 min
10. Face contouring: 4 min
11. Contrast adjustments: 1 min
12. Skin softening: 4 min
13. Sharpening: 6 min
14. Digital makeup: 1 min

Total time:  67 minutes

Video duration: 9min33 (short version is available here) – music by Jansen: Staring At The Sun Feat Percy-Duke Dbn Remix.

As illustrated here, creating high quality photos takes time (30min to the very least for really high quality editing) and justifies the fees most photographers charge. Next time you book a photoshoot, make sure you ask what kind of retouching is provided.

Here is the final image:

Thanks for viewing!

The following photowas actually the first one taken that night afternoon using a Nikon D300 and a Sigma 10-20mm all zoomed out at 10mm. My main concern when I took this photo was to make sure I had the all shed on the right of the image along with the perspective of the alley.

• Photo after retouching

• Photo before retouching

Processing involved accentuating the lack of colors through a partial black and white conversion except for the rusted scene and make the scene feel more real and textured through contrast enhancement.

• Unedited video of the whole processing (Music by Guitar Flute and String, Moby) – real time 15 min:

Book me for:

• a portrait session or a portfolio, or
  
• an assignment (architecture/urban landscape), or
  
• a Photoshop training lesson (english and french)

View my portfolio and contact me now!

Photos and videos are all rights reserved – David Giral 2010.

The problem with HDR photos and panoramas is that editing strip the resulting files of their EXIF data.

Here is a simple video detailing the different steps to keep the EXIF data in your files.

The format that you use for saving does not influence the end result. I hope it helped.

Thank you for watching!

Happy new Year 2010!!