Pixiq

Portrait Retouching / Facial Analysis

Every face is different and requires unique approaches to retouching in order for the work to be appropriate for the face, the style of photography and the end goal for the image. Faces are retouched differently depending on whether the portrait is for photojournalism, family portraiture or fashion. In this session we will examine a face and discuss the options for all three styles of photography. We’ll be working on a “real person”, a middle-aged woman with no make up. As we retouch her in future sessions, we will get to use all of the retouching tools in Photoshop as we bring her all the way through fashion retouching, including applying digital makeup. Here is our subject:

She is considered “high key” as her skin is pale and her hair is light. She has been photographed against a solid white background. The lighting is professional – umbrellas, butterfly lighting. It is the equipment and style of lighting many family portrait studios use. Good retouching artists know photography and lighting, and if you do not; learn it. Her hair is lightly pulled back though little attention has been given to developing a style. She is wearing a casual knit top. This portrait would therefore be considered a family style portrait. It’s not a spontaneous snap of the camera that a photojournalist would capture, nor is it pre styled and polished like a fashion photographer would create.

Our goal for the retouching of this portrait in a real world circumstance will be to remove small spots, veins and discolorations, shape the lighting so it flatters every facial feature in accordance with the butterfly lighting pattern. Then, minimize lines and shadows that make the subject look tired, or stressed. A knowledge of how the body changes as people age and information regarding things that “bother” nearly everyone during the aging process is helpful in deciding where to focus retouching efforts. Most people don't like the way their skin droops and they become sensitive of the wrinkles on their necks so we will lift some of the skin that is beginning to droop on her neck and jaw line, plus minimize the wrinkles on her neck.

The subject has good posture but she is beginning to develop a bit of roundness at the base of her neckline and shoulder area. As people age, their shoulders become smaller and rounder and necks get shorter. A feeling of youthfulness can be achieved by gently restructuring the shape of the upper body. We will start this job by redefining the shape of her neck, shoulder and jaw line. At the same time, since we will be using the Liquify Tool, we’ll take advantage of the time we are in the window to make some simple hair improvements.

That’s the general plan, now let’s look at specifics:

Zooming into the face, notice that the subject is getting a little hairy along the jaw line. We will want to remove that hair – she probably doesn’t know she has it and it shows up in photographs a lot more distinctly than it does in real life. In fact, many things do because in life, the face is always moving and changing. Photographs offer us the time to examine the face intimately and notice many things we would normally not see.

Examining the chest area we can see skin discolorations caused by years of sun exposure upon her fair skin. We will remove the large spots and soften the blotchiness without removing the idea that she has some freckles here and there. The lines on her neck are emphasized by the direction the subject’s head is turned in relationship to the angle of the shoulder and the slight downward tilt of the chin. We will shorten and soften, but not remove these lines.

Let’s look at the skin on the subject’s face. With no makeup, you can easily see small veins on her cheeks,nose and chin, a reflection of a small scar, probably not visible in “real life” on her right cheek, and exaggerated pore structure in the specular highlights. According to the Five Lights of Nature, natural texture is represented in the diffused highlight area. Therefore, the texture within the specular highlights should me modified to match that of the diffused highlight. The texture of the diffused highlight area should be left alone.

Her skin is slightly oily – notice the distinct value change between specular highlight and diffused highlight. Because oily skin is highly reflective, highlights spread easily so we will want to re contour them to identify the shapes of the cheeks, forehead, nose and chin in a more flattering way. Perhaps we will also need to tone them down (add value to them) but we will reserve that decision for later. The subject has good teeth. There will be no corrections there as far as whitening, re contouring a chipped tooth or bringing forward a receded one.

The subject has wrinkles under her eyes. Good. She should have some wrinkles; she is 54 years old (and looking very good for it aye!). She was very generous to pose for us without make up so we could learn how to retouch using her face but zooming in we see that she couldn’t resist wearing just a touch of eyeliner and mascara - like she was going to fool us! Ha! Anyway, we can see how the skin begins to droop just a bit on the upper crease of the eye and how “crows feet” are darker up next to the eye and fade gracefully away as they extend further from the source.

The speckled skin under the eye up close to the nose is caused by slight oiliness combined with delicate texture of the thin skin on the under eye areal. You can see that the wrinkles she has under the eyes have captured a specular highlight, diffused highlight and shaded side so you can sense the roll and folding of the skin. Again, the wrinkles are deeper in some areas than in others.

When we begin to work on the eye area, the last place we will work, we will be careful to bring out the illusion of her skin looking tighter and younger without changing her characteristics. It’s a delicate task and a little bit of well placed artwork is worth more than a lot of art that doesn’t mean anything but we will bring out the soft joy you can already see in the expression of her eye.

Once we get this far, we’ll be finished as far as family portraiture is concerned, but since we want to know how to do ALL kinds of retouching, from there I will show you how to do a fashion contour, add makeup, create eye enhancements and strengthen the contrasts and details of the portrait using fine art techniques in Photoshop. We will be going ONE STEP BEYOND BEAUTIFUL! See you soon!

Jane

PS – Do you want to learn about the Five Lights of Nature? Let me know and I will include it here!

Jane Conner-ziser is one of the world’s top retouching artists and instructors with over 35 years of professional experience. She is an innovator in digital retouching and fine arts whose techniques of facial retouching and enhancement are emulated by artists, trainers and photographers throughout the world through her live, online and dvd training. When she is not teaching (schedule online at janeconner-ziser.com) you will find her exploring and learning about the incredible world we live in.