# Shoot that model!! Part Deux...C&C Welcome as always



## KAikens318 (Mar 15, 2011)

Part two of the shoot, hooray for natural light! Much easier this time around.

1.






2.





3.





4.





5.





6.





7.


----------



## SrBiscuit (Mar 15, 2011)

these all look nicely lit and exposed.
how much skin smoothing are you doing, or rather, what's your process? some of them look a bit over smoothed for me, and the whites in the eyes seem too white.
#6 the bridge of her nose is blown.

#2 is my fave. it looks very natural and fun.


----------



## imagemaker46 (Mar 15, 2011)

They all look over-processed again. What software are you using? Frame 3 is the best one, nice simple background.


----------



## KAikens318 (Mar 15, 2011)

SrBiscuit said:


> these all look nicely lit and exposed.
> how much skin smoothing are you doing, or rather, what's your process? some of them look a bit over smoothed for me, and the whites in the eyes seem too white.
> #6 the bridge of her nose is blown.
> 
> #2 is my fave. it looks very natural and fun.


 

For the skin smoothing for her I use Portraiture on the lowest setting. She has some acne scars that show without the skin smoothing, but I haven't been able to fine tune it yet so that it is not doll-looking but still hides the scars.

I use CS5 and a basic rundown of my process is:

1. Sharpen the eyes
2. Smooth the skin
3. Bump up contrast a tad
4. Add a warm filter
5. Sharpen if needed
6. Play with curves a tad if needed to get the contrast a little more but trying not to blow out the skin, which I have done on some of these.

And that is pretty much it. When I am in the RAW editor, I bump up the blacks and a tiny tiny bit on the saturation, change the white balance if needed.


----------



## ghache (Mar 15, 2011)

What is your skin smoothing process? its a bit overdone. #7 is my favorite.

even if she has some scar and acne, you should be able to remove them while keeping her skin texture using the right skin smoothing technique.


----------



## KAikens318 (Mar 15, 2011)

ghache said:


> What is your skin smoothing process? its a bit overdone. #7 is my favorite.
> 
> even if she has some scar and acne, you should be able to remove them while keeping her skin texture using the right skin smoothing technique.


 
I open up portraiture, set it to Normal smoothing which is the lightest one, and then after it is processed I try to fine tune it with the dials on the side but I always make it look worse. I am still trying to figure that part out.


----------



## kasperjd4 (Mar 15, 2011)

Question as a CS5 newb. What is Portraiture in CS5?? is it under a drop menu or what is it??

I like all the photos, maybe a little bit too much PP for skin, and in #7 the whites of her eyes look super bright!! I really like the locations!!


----------



## gsgary (Mar 15, 2011)

They are all quite nice but as others have said over processed, also flash would have made them more dynamic and you could have made the background darker and brought out more colour


----------



## KAikens318 (Mar 15, 2011)

The locations were a lot of fun, but the last one we got yelled at for/ Apparently it was private property and we weren't allowed to shoot in front of the building. Oh well. It was a very old run down Texaco gas station on the side of the road that hasn't been touched in YEARS. There is a huge ugly blue dumpster out front but no one ever does anything to the building. I thought it would be the perfect place to have some texture in the background. Right as we were about to finish up this old guy comes out of the house across the street and starts yelling at us to get off the property. So we apologized and went. He watched us until we drove away....ah...breaking the rules all in the name of photography. We didn't see any signs so who's to know?


----------



## cnutco (Mar 15, 2011)

kasperjd4 said:


> Question as a CS5 newb. What is Portraiture in CS5?? is it under a drop menu or what is it??


 
I think it is a plug in for Photoshop and a few others...

Yep, here is a link on this forum asking the same thing.


----------



## RockstarPhotography (Mar 15, 2011)

pm me with your email address and I will email you some textures to use for skin after blurring.   Keeps the skin looking real.  (If i can send them through email.).


----------



## kasperjd4 (Mar 15, 2011)

Awesome! Thanks for the link, and I'll send you a pm Rockstar


----------



## KAikens318 (Mar 23, 2011)

My client had a meeting with the modeling agency today....

They took the entire CD of photos because they couldn't decide which ones they liked the most!!!  I even got a letter from one of the agents stating that they would like to see more of my work and possibly be on stand by as a shooter for other models that come through!!! Huge validation for me.


----------



## mmartin (Mar 23, 2011)

4 & 7 are my favorites, but I agree that some of the skin softening is a bit much for my taste. Overall, great job.


----------



## Dajuan (Mar 25, 2011)

The eye post work really jumped out at me starting with #5.  Glad the client and agency were pleased.  Did they received the same edits?


----------



## Alpha (Mar 25, 2011)

what are you doing shooting that girl in those clothes in those settings?


----------



## KAikens318 (Mar 26, 2011)

Yes, they got the same photos that you see here. #7 is the photo they chose for her main showcase photo on the site.


----------



## KAikens318 (Mar 26, 2011)

Alpha said:


> what are you doing shooting that girl in those clothes in those settings?


 
The agency wanted something fresh and urban, so that is what they got! Lol. It was actually a really safe place. It's a train tressle with an overpass which is where the graffiti is, right next to a church. We weren't in the middle of the ghetto or anything.


----------



## o hey tyler (Mar 26, 2011)

Why was your ISO on 400 the entire time? you had plenty of shutter speed leeway, you could have easily shot on your cameras native ISO to get better quality images.


----------



## Alpha (Mar 27, 2011)

KAikens318 said:


> Alpha said:
> 
> 
> > what are you doing shooting that girl in those clothes in those settings?
> ...



I'm not suggesting the area was unsafe. I'm suggesting that it doesn't work aesthetically. I can't argue with what her agency wants, but I think that if you're shooting on location, your model should either really jive with the environment or confront the environment in some way. To my eye, these just look like you shot a pretty girl in a pea coat in front of some graffiti, which is in a kind of aesthetic purgatory.


----------



## cdimitric (Jul 9, 2011)

Anyone have any links to a good tutorial on skin smoothing? I've found a couple, but I just can't seem to get the effect I'm looking for. 

I really like #2 and #5. Colors are doing it for me. 

As to your process of editing the photo, maybe you should do a tutorial. I'd read it!!!


----------



## twocolor (Jul 9, 2011)

KAikens318 said:


> ghache said:
> 
> 
> > What is your skin smoothing process? its a bit overdone. #7 is my favorite.
> ...



When I use portraiture, I first use the bandaid tool to elminate any severe scaring or acne, then I duplicate my layer and run portraiture on the duplicated layer. I then decrease the opacity of that layer so that the skin still looks normal. I then create a mask and paint the portraiture out of the eyes and mouth. That way the skin is still quite smooth, but still human looking!

I do really enjoy this series, maybe just toned down on the smoothing!  Great job!!!


----------

