Pixiq

Although I believe that Photoshop and other image enhancing programs are a boon to photography, I also try to minimize my use of them whenever possible. As I’ve already written, if you shoot 100 eight-hour days a year as a professional photographer and spend 1 hour on your computer for every hour that you shoot, you are looking at 800 hours per year sitting in front of your monitor. Using a 40-hour week, 800 hours represents 20 weeks, and that in turn represents approximately 5 months of post-production computer time. 

Although some photographers may absolutely love the magic they can create during this computer time (as I do), given a choice, I would still rather be shooting pictures! I can also make much more money selling my work during that same five months of theoretical computer time. With these thoughts in my mind, I prefer to shoot “clean” whenever possible.

Shooting clean extends to more than just being technically correct with the photography part of a portrait assignment. In many cases, it also extends to making sure the subject is presentable before I even think about setting up a light or reflector, or pushing the shutter button. This means being aware of the advantages of using makeup to help your subject be the best that they can be. For those of you that may abhor the idea of altering your subject with the application of makeup, I can only ask that you follow along with me for a little bit.

The Rationale

Although some may not believe this, every politician, executive, spokesperson, candidate, actor, and actress you see in film, on television, and in print media has had makeup applied. In fact, other than a very few close confidants, nobody has seen the famous faces constantly gracing (or disgracing) gossip magazines without it! Many of the most successful stars of stage and screen have a makeup expert travel as part of their staff. Why should our portrait subjects be shortchanged by being treated differently? The average portrait subject who has nowhere near the raw attributes of the stars, rarely thinks about makeup before they come to a portrait session!

Believe it or not, using makeup can also benefit you financially. Consider that using makeup as part of your portrait session is something the subject can easily see and appreciate, which can contribute to how much you charge (you might be hearing a “ka-ching” right now). Conversely, sitting in front of your computer fixing a subject’s shiny nose is something they never see, making it harder to charge for. Although some may still find makeup application abhorrent, I find it more unpleasant to fix a shiny nose or forehead in 100 pictures on my computer when I could have taken care of the problem in 15 seconds before I pushed the shutter button. While including a professional makeup artist as part of your service is the type of thing that can help you justify a higher fee for a portrait sitting (remember that all additional services you sell should have a mark-up added to what it costs you), I believe that by applying minimal makeup when necessary, you can save countless hours of post-production computer time. Plus, the client will usually regard this as a valuable part of your services