I LOVE fireworks.  My favorite holiday is the Fourth of July and a good fireworks display can stop me dead in my tracks.  So I find it incredibly fortuitous that approximately half of my forty weddings per year involve pyrotechnics!  I guess my clients love fireworks just as much as I do, and it’s just another reason that I absolutely adore my couples!

One of the questions I am often asked is how to photograph fireworks when you are trying to include the couple in the frame.  Now, there is more than one way to skin a cat and there are certainly a lot of ways that you can capture great photographs of fireworks at a wedding, but this week I am going to tell you how I do it.

First, it is important to understand that not all fireworks displays are created equal.  When you find out that there are going to be fireworks at your wedding, there are some very important questions that you need to ask.  Where are they lighting the fireworks and in what direction are they planning to shoot them?  How long will the show last, or (even better) how many are they planning to light?   Where is the closest spot that the couple can stand?  Maine, like many states, has very strict laws governing the use of fireworks and there will be a clear line that may not be crossed legally.

Next, you will need to make some observations.  Which way is the wind blowing and how hard?  If it is really windy, this may affect the accuracy of the placement.  In that case, you may need to choose a spot for your couple that gives you more flexibility to move and frame them.  How much moisture is in the air?  If it is humid or foggy, the light will bounce off of the moisture in the air creating an interesting effect and giving you more available light to play with.  How close will the couple be standing to a light source?  If they are near a building, lamp, or a video light it will affect your exposure and how you balance the light on the couple with the light from the fireworks.

Finally, I prepare my couple for the display.  I tell them that I will be shooting at a low shutter speed and I ask them to remain still (hugging each other, of course) for at least a few moments during the display.

Okay- now for some of my favorite fireworks photographs from this year (I will follow it up with an explanation of the camera settings and camera/lenses used):

Most of the time my favorite fireworks photographs include no additional lighting.  I love shooting fireworks with the light given off from the fireworks themselves and from any additional light sources that are close to the couple (the venue, for example).  However, because the fireworks may end up (due to wind or poor placement) farther away from the couple than is ideal for providing the right amount of light, I always have my flash mounted on my camera and I will take at least half with my flash as well.  I have enabled one of the function buttons on the front of my camera to disable my flash so that I don’t have to bother turning my flash on and off- I just hold the button down and the flash will not fire.  The photographs in the top two rows were taken with existing/available light while the photographs in the bottom row were taken with a flash firing.  They provide very different looks, so it all comes down to preference.  I prefer the photographs in the top two rows, but I like to provide my couples with a variety (and occasionally I will surprise myself and like one of the flash photographs better, too).

I shoot with the Nikon D3s, so I am very happy with the camera’s files at 6400 and I set my camera’s ISO to 6400 for the fireworks display.  I use my 14-24 2.8 because I usually shoot fireworks in the 18mm range and I like the flexibility that the zoom offers.  (This is actually the only zoom I use, and I bought it specifically to use for fireworks and sparkler displays although it has crept into regular reception use now as well.)

When I am photographing the fireworks without a flash, I generally shoot at 1/8 of a second at 2.8.  I’m comfortable holding my camera steady at 1/8 of a second at 18mm, but you will definitely want to test yourself before you try it out on a job.  When I am photographing the fireworks with a flash I try to bounce it behind me (onto a building or tent or even a person standing there) to provide some directional light.  Occasionally nothing with be available and I will point the flash up with a white card (to provide a tiny amount of light bouncing forward).  With the flash on I often photograph at 1/25 of a second at 2.8 with my flash on manual.

Obviously those settings are where I start and I take some test shots prior to the start of the display and adjust once the fireworks start if need be.

~Michelle

Back in the day you would shoot your event, drop off your film, and pick it up from the pro lab.  The lab would individually correct each photo to ensure accurate and consistent color.  Or so I’ve been told…

I began with digital, and one of the things that I have struggled with is how to get accurate and consistent color in the digital “darkroom”.  With the auto white balance settings of most modern cameras easily fooled by scenes with artificial light, I spent hours fiddling with the white balance sliders trying to correct for the camera’s skewed vision.  I needed something that would make color correction quick and easy.

That’s when I found the ColorRight Max tool.  The ColorRight Max disc is two tools in one.  The first tool allows you to take the white balance from a scene the way that traditional white balance tools work.  Simply take a shot with the disc held up to your camera lens, and use the shot to set the custom white balance on your camera.  Flip the ColorRight over, however, and you find a white balance target a variety of colors that allow you to choose from 8 different white balance zones to suit your preferences.

I use the ColorRight as a white balance target.  During a shoot, I leave the camera on the Auto White Balance setting.  Whenever I move into an area with different lighting, I shoot the ColorRight target.  With its quick release lanyard, it’s a cinch to take it from around my neck and move it into the frame.  It takes 5 seconds.  Then, when I’m processing the photos, I use the eyedropper tool in my RAW  processing software to select the zone in the target frame that gives me the color that I want.  Unlike other white balance tools, the different zones of the ColorRight tool allow me to process the photos with a slightly warmer than neutral skintone that I prefer.  It’s that easy!

On a portrait shoot, I ask the client to hold the ColorRight while I shoot a test frame.

Then, in my RAW processing software, I use the eyedropper tool to select from the 8 different white balance zones:

Compared to the Auto White Balance setting of my Canon camera:

At a wedding, I have to deal with multiple types of light throughout the day.  Five seconds with the ColorRight in each of these settings yields accurate, consistent color that is easy to achieve.  Where the ColorRight really shines for me is in the too-warm artificial light that you find in most household lamps.

I’m a big fan of tools that help me spend less time in front of my computer.  That means I’m a big fan of the ColoRight tool.  The one small knock I have against the tool is that it is made of thin glass, as I found out when mine shattered in my camera bag.

Despite the early demise of mine, I still wholeheartedly recommend the ColoRight Max.  I bought mine from the ColorRight website: http://www.colorright.com/

–Jamison Wexler

DISCLAIMER : This is my 2c and experience. Nothing more. YMMV.

I started writing this article as the old debate between RAW and Jpg and why I always have and always will shoot RAW. Kinda boring, right? Well, in playing around a bit, I found something pretty interesting. I took 4 RAW files and converted them my usual way in Lightroom. I then took those same original files, converted them to Jpg and then synched my Lightroom settings from the first batch of RAW files. I was really surprised at how different they processed!

But first, here’s the textbook stuff :

I’ve always consider RAW file format to be like a negative of an image, whereas a Jpg file to me is the printed photo. If you need to make adjustments to the image, wouldn’t you rather adjust the negative rather than scanning a print and adjusting that?

Technically, RAW files hold the raw sensor data. They need further processing. This may sound like a pain to die hard Jpg shooters, but that extra processing is where RAW files shine. White balance, contrast, blown highlights, blacked out shadows, are all far more recoverable in RAW.

It’s about freedom to play with a file and recover mistakes.

Some thoughts to consider : I use Photo Mechanic to cull my RAW files and it’s lightning quick. No time lost here vs Jpg culling. Yes, when you work with RAW files, there is an extra step, you have to process them to Jpg. One point for shooting Jpg. You can fit less RAW files than Jpg onto a card and they take up more memory on your hard drive. 2 more points for Jpg.

Here are the images that needed a bit of saving/playing in Lightroom. A few blown highlights, some hard shadows, a little HDR and some of my favorite Totally Rad! Lightroom Presets. Here are my surprising findings, follow me….

18,000 points for shooting RAW. In my opinion, of course.

The images speak for themselves. In my past experience I’ve always found editing Jpg files in Lightroom to yield frustrating results. My examples here show that not only do you get better results in processing from RAW files, but that they process SO differently as well. Just food for thought. That’s all. Not telling anyone their business or anything. ;)

~Zofia

by Andree Kehn

Once upon a time, in what feels like another lifetime, my house burned to the ground. I had my camera and a half a bag of clean laundry in my car, but other than that I lost everything. My college portfolio, the actual film-negatives from my sister’s wedding, all the photos I had shot in my lifetime. All gone. If we’re ever drinking a beer together and you want to hear how stupid one person can be, I’ll bend your ear.

But for now, realize that everything I do regarding backing up my client’s work, I do with the aim of having my business survive another house fire, a burglary or lightning strike.

Backing up files is ridiculously important but still one of those geeky things I don’t want to spend any more brain power on than necessary. I wanted to set my system up so I could establish a back up routine and then forget about it.

Here’s how I keep track of my images from the moment they are shot until they are stored.

I shoot onto individually numbered cards so I can keep track of the cards without popping them into a computer. I write my name and cell phone number on each card, to maximize the chances the images will be reunited with me in the remote yet horrifying prospect that my cards are separated from me before they are backed up.

My first priority is to make a copy of all of the images and physically separate it from the originals. If I am working with my trusted assistant, she will download my compact flash cards onto a small portable drive while we are still at the wedding. I use an old 80 gig Lacie drive with the awesome orange bumpers. I think of it as a really big thumb drive.

My assistant wears a very uncool fanny pack and the shot cards stay in the pack unless they are in the card reader. I impressed upon her early in her career that if the venue went up in flames, all I wanted to do was run over and grab her, confident that the cards were strapped to her body. She’s my niece; so a little drama makes for great comedy.

She knows no matter how many conflicting things I am yelling at her to do, or what I am asking her to balance on her head, that her A1 most-important-job-in-the-universe is to protect those cards. She never ever leaves them unattended. She’s quite a bit calmer than me, so this is pretty easy for her. ☺

Each card gets downloaded into its own numbered folder on the drive that corresponds to the number written on the surface of the card. Later on, when I am reviewing the images, if there ends up being some corruption of the files, this step makes it easy for me to isolate the problem card and re-import or attempt image recovery.

Eventually, you will have a corrupt card on your hands. It’s nerve wracking, but I use Photo Rescue, image recovery software, and, knock on wood, I have always been able to save corrupted images.

My primary goal is to never have every copy of my work in a single physical location (see photo one). As soon as I can, I make a copy and separate them. If my assistant has backed up to the portable drive while we are on location, then that copy stays in the glove box of my car when we stop to eat or sleep on the way home. The cards stay on me. Yes, the instant we walk out of the venue, my assistant hands the dorky fanny pack back to me. With great sigh of relief.

If I haven’t brought my assistant with me, when I get to the office, I download the images to my computer and walk the compact flash cards back out to my car, where they stay until I have made an off-site back-up of at least all of the RAW files. Otherwise, I just download the portable drive to my desktop computer.

I do my actual work on the internal drives of my Mac Pro desktop (tower) and back up to a tower of back-up drives. All four drives on my Mac Pro are mirrored to an identical set of drives in the Burly enclosure system.

A lot people use RAID, as a part of their back-up regime, but I can’t wrap my head around it. I need to understand my back-up system in order to be comfortable with it. I simply copy everything from my working drives to another set of drives. Then copy them again.

I back up my work with Super Duper, which is “Smart Update” software. If you’ve only done minor changes to your files, the backup is very fast. You can schedule the updates to happen automatically, or choose to manually back up at your discretion.

It’s very simple. Select the drive you want to copy and then select the drive you want to copy it to. I name my drives so the copies all start with the same letter. It’s one less thing to confuse myself with. :)

After the job, all my RAW files get burned to DVDs, marked with a media safe pen with the date of the shoot and the clients name. I then store the discs on a spindle by year. (Each job contains up to a dozen dvds worth of RAW images.) There is some debate as to the wisdom of piling dvds on a spindle as a storage solution, but my plans are to never access these dvds again. This is the ultimate oh-my-god all three drives failed at once scenario.

On the drives, I archive all of the “Good” Raw images, finished-for-client jpgs, album layouts, the lightroom catalogue and a folder of high-res “favorites” that I use for blogging, giving to vendors, entering in contests and for updating my website. After I deliver the work to the client, I rarely go back to any other folder than this favorites folder.

I organize my files the same way for every job. I have a folder with the client’s name and inside that folder is a folder for every different type of file I create such as Keepers, Rejects, Album, etc. To stay consistent and speed things up, I have an empty master version of this folder that I use as a template. I copy and rename it with the wedding date and my clients’ names. Then I drag the Raw files to this folder.

Before I format my compact flash cards, I take the back-up drives out of their Burly enclosure system and bring them to my friends house (the “off-site location”) where I have a third set of mirrored drives just sitting on a shelf, waiting for me. I bring the off-site drives back to the office and run my back-up software to bring this final copy up to date. There is now a copy of the clients files in two different locations, and I am free to retrieve the cards from the glovebox of my car and format them for reuse.

This process keeps a total of three mirrored copies of all of my data in two separate locations. I back up my operating system and applications the same way.

It’s boring and dry to think about, but getting a system that runs smoothly will take a huge load off of your mind.

I would love to hear how some of the rest of you back your data up!

What is YOUR black and white?  I truly believe that black and white images are completely subjective.  Personally, I like black and white images that don’t have blocked up shadows; rather, I like to see shadow detail instead of straight black.  I also like a flatter, warmer image with a touch of grain, and I have worked hard to create and to find actions and presets that will help me achieve the black and white look that I want.

My workflow consists of a combination of Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop.  Most of my work is going to occur in Adobe Lightroom- in fact, many of my images will be processed in Lightroom and nothing else.  Keep in mind that I deliver high- anything from 750 to 1250 images per wedding and 100-250 per portrait session, and I’m only fine-tuning a handful of those in Photoshop.  I want to do most of my work in Lightroom and only finesse the images that I really love in Photoshop.

My first step is to import the photographs into Lightroom.  I have three black and white presets that I have developed (one of the great things about Lightroom is the fact that it is incredibly easy to develop presets that give your raw photos the “look” that you like).  All three of the presets create a black and white with less muddy skin tones, but still a fairly flat black and white since I don’t want to lose all of that shadow detail by adding a lot of black or contrast.  The great thing about Lightroom is that you can mix your black and white to taste in the grayscale mix section of the Develop module- I like my skin tones to be a bit creamier, so I lighten my red and yellow tones (because the skin is made up of red and yellow) while darkening my blues.  My Lightroom black and white presets will give me a file that I am happy to show the client, but one that can be improved upon once I take the file into Photoshop.

Now for the Photoshop bit- I like to create my own actions and play around in Photoshop, but when it comes to black and whites I go with the one of the masters.  I have to admit, I’m a Photoshop action junkie.  I’ve tried almost everything out there because I love and adore Photoshop and I get a kick out of trying new actions.  I discard most of them, but occasionally I will find something that I really like, and I love some of the black and white actions created by  Jeff Ascough.  They are customizable and they add a little punch to my black and white image straight from Lightroom.  (Now would be an important time to mention that ANY action will give you a bad result if your file isn’t properly exposed- garbage in, garbage out.)

Finally, I occasionally run a specialty action to “season” my black and white images.  I like them to be a bit grainier, with a subtle vignette and blurred edges.  I also like a touch of a warm tone, and a more subtle contrast shift.  There are two actions that I really like when it comes to seasoning my black and white images, and both of them come from the Totally Rad Action set (one from the original, the second from the remix set).   The thing I love about these actions is that they are completely customizable.  So many action sets out there flatten your images or make the adjustments to the background layer, leaving you unable to tweak them.  The TRA set is different- the layers are left open, letting you play with the opacity of each layer to come up with a look that is your own.  My favorite is the Old Skool action (the set has several)- I run it and then lower the opacity to anywhere from 20 to 40%, but usually closer to the lower end.  (Keep in mind that I am starting with an image that has already been adjusted with a Jeff Ascough black and white action.)  This gives my images just a touch of grain, vignette, and tone.  The second action that I use to season my black and white images (used less frequently) is the Homestead black and white.  Once again, I change the tone and compression layers and then lower the opacity on the overall effect.  For me, it is important to add just a touch of these actions.  I don’t want my images to scream “TOTALLY RAD OLD SKOOL ACTION” or any action at all; rather, I want the effect to be more subtle than that.

The great thing about Lightroom and Photoshop is that MY black and white may not be YOUR black and white.  Just as you can choose your favorite black and white film, there is no need to be limited by one set way of converting a black and white in the digital age.  These two programs will give you endless options for coming up with your own look, especially if you choose actions and presets that are customizable and will allow you to play in order to find your look.

I’ve been doing a lot of model shoots recently, which means a lot of skin retouching, so I thought I’d share some of the basics of how I approach retouching a face. Well, actually, all the techniques would be the same if I were retouching arms, legs, or other skin, but I figured that I’d start with the face as that’s the most important part of person.

The example I’m going to be using for this article is a photo I took of my favorite model, Rachel. Looking at her, you might wonder why in the world you’d need to retouch her at all. In all honesty, if all you were going to do were post a small image on the web, you might not have to do anything at all. But if you plan on printing the image large, you’ll start to find things that just jump out at you. They are often things that you wouldn’t even notice in real life. You only notice them when you have time the study the image.

In general I try to keep my retouching natural-looking. I try to avoid anything that screams “Hey, look at the photoshopped face!” Because of this, I can’t rely solely on any of the actions and filters or plugins for Photoshop that intend to make skin look softer.

I’ve found that for the most part they are too noticeable for my taste. They cause the image to lose detail and make face look plasticky. For my work there’s no substitute a bunch of detail oriented editing. That doesn’t mean these tools don’t have their place, in fact there are a couple I use all the time for part of my retouching process.

So let’s get into it. If you want to follow along, I’ve posted a high resolution version of the image I’m working on here:
http://shootstyle.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/skindeep/skin_deep_example_original.jpg

Another way to follow along is to watch the following QuickTime slideshow, which has a closeup from every major step along the way:
http://shootstyle.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/skindeep/retouchslideshow.mov

After I open an image in Photoshop, the first thing I do before working on it is to duplicate the background layer and duplicate the background layer by typing Command + J. I rename the resulting layer ‘retouch’.

Working on this retouch layer allows me to revert back to my original image if I make a mistake at any point.

The first thing I attack when retouching a face is small blemishes, pimples, flakes of makeup, or any tiny dark spot or bump on the subjects skin. To get these little buggers, I select the Spot Healing Brush Tool. by typing the letter ‘j’.

One of the best ways to speed up your retouching, or any Photoshop activity, really, is to learn to use the shortcut keys associated with the tools you use most frequently. Click and hold on the Spot Healing Brush Tool and a menu will pop up allowing you to choose any of the related tools in this group including the Spot Healing Brush Tool, the regular Healing Brush Tool, the Patch Tool and the Red Eye Tool.

Notice that next to each tool is the letter J. This is to let you know that you can select the currently visible tool in this group at any time by clicking j on your keyboard. Even better, if you hold down the Shift key and press J repeatedly, you can cycle through and select any of these tools without having to click on the icon in the toolbar. This is a HUGE time saver.

So if you’re following along, type shift-j-j-j until the Spot Healing Brush is selected.

Now go to the Options Bar above the tool bar and set the painting mode to Lighten. This will cause the brush to make darker area lighter while having little or no effect on lighter areas.

I like to work at 100% size so I can see actual pixels when retouching. To quickly zoom to 100%, type Command + Option + 0.

With the Spot Healing Brush, you just click on spots you want to fix. It works best if the brush size is about the same size as the spots you are clicking on.

Here I’m using a brush size of 20. You can change the brush size by clicking on the Brush menu in the Options Bar, or even easier by using the bracket keys [ and ] on you keyboard. then just go around and click on any dark spots or blemishes you see. Here is an example of all the spots I clicked on:

The white dots show both the location and the sizes I used for the brush.

Now let’s switch the Spot Healing Brush to Darken mode and click on any dark spots, like stray glitter or shiny bumps.

After getting rid of small spots on the skin, I work on wrinkles. When working on wrinkles, I duplicate the retouch layer by typing Command + J. This gives me the ability to quickly restore some of the lines I remove later.

Because these lines are bigger, I use the Patch Tool instead of a Healing Brush to remove them. So if you’re following along, type shift-j-j-j until the Patch Tool is selected.

You can also click on it in the tool bar. (But why would you when typing shift-j-j-j is so fast?)

Also, make sure the Patch Tool is set to Source in the Options Bar.

Let’s start by working around the eyes. Type Command and the + key to zoom in to 200%. Using the Patch Tool, draw a selection around a line near the eyes. Make the selection close to the line.

Now drag the selection to an area of smoother skin to patch it. You’ll see that the selected area now takes on the appearance of the area of skin that you dragged to.

The key to making the patch tool work well is always dragging to an area that has a similar skin texture to the region you are patching. Also, don’t always drag to the exact same area or you’ll end up with a skin texture that repeats and looks photoshopped.

Continue the process by selecting each line around the eyes and patching it.

Go ahead. I’ll wait. :)

Done? Great! Now that we’ve removed all those lines and wrinkles, it’s time to bring them back… somewhat. Having some wrinkles and lines is a part of the personality of the face, and to eliminate them totally can look a little too botox-y. We did all of this patching on a copy of the retouch layer so that we could easily turn the opacity of the entire layer up and down until we find the perfect amount amount of smoothness.

For me that turned out to be about 50% opacity.

Now that we’re satisfied with the skin around the eyes, type Command + E to merge the top layer back down into the retouch layer.

The other area of the face that has lines I often want to reduce is the forehead, so let’s work on that next. This will be very similar to the process we used for the eyes.

Start by duplicating the retouch layer by typing Command + J.

Draw a selection around lines on the forehead and drag to areas of the forehead that have a similar texture. Don’t try to select long lines all at once – break them up into multiple smaller selections. Also, some wrinkles and lines you may not want to touch at all.

For example, the wrinkles above Rachel’s raised eyebrow really need to stay there for her expression to look natural.

Just like with the eyes, once you’ve removed all the lines and wrinkles from the forehead, it’s time to lower the opacity of this layer to bring them back a little. I’ll bet an opacity of around 65% works great. If you agree, type Command + E to merge the top layer down into the retouch layer.

While I have the patch tool selected, I’ll go around and patch other things that draw my attention, like the bright spot to the right of the nose, the dark spot on tip of her nose, the dark spots on chin, and some faint lines and spots on her neck. This is also a great time to patch all the things you missed way back at the beginning when you were working with the spot healing brush.

This brings us to the eyes themselves. Rachel’s eyes present a number of challenges. They are slightly bloodshot and a little red and in shadow.

Type l to select the lasso tool.

Or click on the Lasso tool in the Toolbar.

Now click and drag a circle loosely around one eye to select it. Hold down the shift key to add to the selection and drag a circle loosely around the other eye to select it as well. Your selection should look something like this:

It’s fine if you’ve selected a little extra, but make sure you have all of both eyes selected.

So far, every other time we created a layer using Command + J, we got an exact duplicate of the layer we were working on. But now we have something selected. Type Command + J and notice that instead of getting a duplicate layer, we get a new layer that’s blank except for the eyes.

We’re going to be doing some detail work here, so if you’re not still zoomed in, zoom way in to 200% or 400%.

The first thing to retouch about the eyes are the red veins. To remove these let’s type S to select the Clone Stamp Tool. In the Options Bar, set the painting mode to Lighten, and set the opacity to 50%. With the Clone Stamp Tool, you Option + Click on an area first to tell the tool what part of the image you want to sample. then you click and paint somewhere else on the image. Whatever you option-clicked gets painted into the area you are working on. Here’s how we’re going to tackle cloning out the veins in the eye:

Using the bracket keys [ and ] on you keyboard, set the size of your brush to be about the same thickness as a vein. In the diagram above, the green circles are areas you are going to sample by Option-Clicking. After you Option-Click, start painting at the point where the yellow circle is located and move in the direction of the arrow. Your opacity is 50% so it may well take more than one stroke to cover a line.

You’ll notice that you are sampling areas very close to where you are painting, and when you are painting near the eyelid, you are sampling a similar edge of the eyelid and then painting out into the eye.

Use the Clone Stamp tool to remove the veins from both eyes.

You may have some weird transitions left over which you can clean up with patch tool.

With the veins removed, we can now remove the overall red cast from the eyes by desaturating them a bit. Command-Click on the eye layer’s thumbnail in the Layers Palette. This selects everything that is not transparent in the layer.

Now from the Layer Menu, choose New Adjustment Layer–>Hue/Saturation. In the new Hue/Saturation layer, turn the saturation all the way down to 0. This will look weird as the eyes will go black and white.

That’s OK for now as we are going to paint out the areas of skin that we don’t want affected on the layer mask. To get ready to paint on the layer mask, type the following:
B – to select the Brush Tool
D – to default the colors to black and white
X – to switch the black and white swatches in palette so you’ll be painting with black

With the Brush Tool selected, paint on the areas of skin around the eyeballs as well as the irises and pupils. As you paint in black on the layer mask, the area you paint will return to full color. Once you’re done, lower the opacity of the Hue/Saturation layer to whatever feels right. You want enough color so that it seems real, but not so much that it looks too red. For me 30% seemed to work well.

Type Command + E to merge the Hue/Saturation layer down into eyes layer.

Now let’s brighten the eyes a little. Again we’ll Command-Click on the eye layer’s thumbnail in the Layers Palette to select everything that’s not transparent in the layer.

Now from the Layer Menu, choose New Adjustment Layer–>Levels. In the new Levels layer, move the middle gray arrow to the left to brighten the eyes to taste. It’s OK to make them a hair too bright as you can lower the opacity of the layer later.

That helps the eyes pop a lot without looking too fake. It’s affecting part of the skin too, so with the Brush Tool still selected, paint on the layer mask of the Levels layer to hide the areas of skin around the eyeballs.

When it looks good to you, type Command + E to merge the Levels layer down into eyes layer, then type Command + E one more time to merge the Eyes layer down into the retouch layer.

Remember way back at the beginning of this article, I said that there were some skin softening plugins and actions that I would use as part of my retouching workflow? Well this is were I use them. Now that I’ve done all of the intricate detail work on an image, a lightly applied filter that evens out the remaining skin tones a little can be useful. The plugin I find myself reaching for most often these days is the Portraiture Plug in from Imagenomic.

The reasons I like Portraiture are:

1) It targets skin tones and leaves objects with other colors in the photo alone.
2) It retains a lot of detail in the areas it targets for smoothing.
3) I can tell it what color the skin tones in my image are.
4) It creates a layer that is transparent except for the areas it is softening, making it easy for me to further tweak the softening by erasing it from areas of the image or changing the opacity of the entire layer.

The above image shows both the default (lowest) setting for Portraiture and the highest setting. As you can see, it retains a lot of detail and avoids looking too plasticky even at it’s highest setting.

Finally, I’ll do a little dodging and burning, selectively lightening and darkening areas of the image to finish it off. I could use some of the dodging and burning techniques I demonstrated in my earlier Blending Fun article, but instead I think I’ll plug another maker of cool Photoshop Tools. Yin/Yang is a dodging and burning action that is part of the Totally Rad Actions Set, Volume one. This set is chock full of insanely useful actions like Yin/Yang that I find myself using all the time.

Yin/Yang creates two layers called Yin and Yang. Paint on the layer mask of Yin to darken areas of your image, and on the layer mask of Yang to brighten parts of the image. You can see from the image above that I used Yin to darken the edges of the image and to darken the red wall a little. I used Yang to brighten up the black feathery area of the hat and to brighten some of the shadow areas of Rachel’s face.

And that’s about it. But before we go, here’s a before and after of the image.

And here’s a link to a high res version of the final image:
http://shootstyle.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/skindeep/skin_deep_example_final.jpg

I know there are a million ways to ’skin’ this particular cat :). I’d love to hear how you approach retouching faces in your workflow. Let me know in the comments. Also, if you have any questions, ask them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them for you.

headshots are interesting images to create. not quite portraits, yet with many of the qualities of portraits.

you want the eyes to ’speak’ to the viewer, drawing them in. making them think, ‘yes, i do want to know more about this person!’ sort of a visual calling card. actors, business professionals, models … practically anyone with a head could one day need or want a headshot.

so what are some tips we could offer you when heading out to shoot images like this? first, find out the way in which the client will be using the headshot, is it for commercial filming, theatre, professional marketing purposes? each of these may require a different approach. for instance, when photographing someone that may need a shot for theatre work, you may want to create a shot with controlled studio lighting and a simple black backdrop.

commercial uses, i have found now-a-days, rely on color images created in natural environmental settings. typically i’ll take a client to a nearby park or down a city street to capture a laid back relaxed image of them. i’ve had moments where the out of doors just won’t work, for instance when it’s pouring rain out (like New England likes to do time & again). i do use my studio and the space within my building in times like this.

however, if you do not have a studio space available to you, try contacting a local hotel. lots of the providence area hotels are quite accommodating, as are some of the cafes in the area. a number of the lobbies have a great amount of natural lighting and interesting furniture & artwork you can incorporate into the scene.

for corporate pieces, i will create an image of the client in their own environment, closer to a portrait. utilizing their everyday surroundings that will help illustrate to those viewing what type of work they are involved in. for instance, a banker, i may set up an image within the lobby of their bank. a chef, maybe somewhere within the kitchen of their restaurant. anything that best illustrates their daily goings on.

when creating headshots, i tend not to just jump right in and start shooting. i like to talk with the client first, not fiddle with equipment. a lot of folks are not comfortable in front of a camera. to just start snapping away may make them nervous. which will translate into the image.

make eye contact, ask about their work, their field, what they did that day. become comfortable with conversing with them. be aware of when they seem stiff, when they are holding their breath. that’s a cue to take the camera away from your face and reconnect with the person in front of you. tell them to take a break. make them aware of the fact that they can say ‘ i need a time out’ at any point during the shoot.

let them ease into the shoot, know that the first few frames (or more) may only be practice. that’s okay. no one is counting. what’s important is making certain that your client can breathe easily once you really start to create an image for them and that they trust in you and your abilities to not only produce a working photo of them, yet also trust that you care about the process + outcome.

share with us some of your tips when creating headshots. we’d love to hear from you!

I know. I wish this article were about margarita recipes too – ohhh for the research I’d have been able to do. But the blenders I’m talking about today are Photoshop’s Blending Modes. Please folks, try to contain your excitement.

There are a lot of ‘ah-ha!’ moments that come with learning Photoshop. A couple of the big ah-ha’s for me were how working in layers allows you make changes to your image without committing to them permanently, and how working with layer masks lets you selectively hide or show just the parts of a layer that you are interested in. These two concepts really hit home with me because they appeal to both my inner laziness (I don’t like to have to do things twice) and inner control freak (I like to make my images as perfect as possible).

If you’ve experienced the thrill of the layer and layer mask ah-ha’s, it’s time to strap in and get ready for using blending modes to really do some useful wild things to your images.

But before we go there, you might be wondering what in the Sam Hill blending modes are. The simple answer is that when you have one layer on top of another, Photoshop uses blending modes to determine how a layer visually affects the layers underneath it. You can find list of blending modes on top of the Layer Palette:

The default blending mode is called Normal and it just shows you every pixel in the top layer, effectively hiding all the layers below it. Not very exciting.

But what about some of those others, like say Multiply? What do they do?

You probably know that digital images are made up of pixels and that each pixel is a color represented by three numbers, usually in RGB (red, green and blue) format, and that each of those numbers can be anything from 0 to 255. The purest red is represented as 255,0,0, the purest blue is 0,0,255, and so on. Everything that Photoshop does is basically just fancy math applied to those RGB numbers.

When you choose Multiply as a blend mode, Photoshop takes the numerical value of each pixel in the top layer, and multiplies it by the value of the pixel below it. It then divides the result by 255 so that the final value falls between 0 and 255.

I’m going to guess that you don’t read blogs to learn about math so let me just show you what it looks like. Here is an image in which the background has just been duplicated to a new layer. The blend mode is still at the default setting of Normal.

But when you switch the blend mode to Multiply, look what happens.

The image gets markedly darker since each pixel has been multiplied by the pixel directly underneath it. This technique might not seem incredibly useful at first, but what if we were starting with an over-exposed image? (Which I never take of course.) Below is an over-exposed image on the left and that same image copied to a new layer and set to Multiply on the right.

You can see that Multiply brought life back to the picture, recovering some of the lost detail in the trees, and making the gray dress black as it should be.

If you only need to darken your image a little, you can adjust the opacity of the top layer to dial in the amount of effect that suits your taste. If you need to darken it more, you can duplicate the layer again and have two or more layers set to multiply.

The opposite blending mode to Multiply is called Screen. The math is funkier, but the effect is that pixels in the top layer make pixels in the bottom layer lighter. Here’s that first photo again and then a version in which background has been duplicated to a new layer and set to Screen.

Again, maybe not super useful on a well-exposed image, but it can really help an image that was underexposed when it was shot.

In all honesty, I’d never use blending modes to adjust my exposures these days. There are much better tools like Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw for that part of my workflow. But I do use techniques like this all the time on almost every finished image I produce. What for? Nondestructive dodging and burning.

The real beauty of this technique comes by combining a Multiply layer and a Screen layer with a layer mask, so that you can selectively control which areas of the image to lighten or darken. Here’s how I set it up:

1) Duplicate the background (command-J on Mac/control-J on PC).

2) Name the new layer Darken or something similar.

3) Option-click the Add Layer Mask button on the bottom of the Layers palette (On the PC it’s Alt-click)

4) Set the blending mode of the layer to Multiply.

5) Duplicate the Darken layer (command-J on Mac/control-J on PC).

6) Name the new layer Lighten or something similar.

7) Set the blending mode of the layer to Screen.

At this point my layers palette will look something like this:

8) Choose the brush tool. (Set the brush color to white, the opacity to 20% and the brush size to whatever feels right).

9) In the Layers palette, click on the black layer mask’s thumbnail of the Darken layer to select it.

10) Now in the image, burn in areas by painting with the brush anywhere you want to darken the photo.

In my image, I want the model to stand out more, so I’m going to burn in the areas of the truck, the road, the sky, and the construction machinery in the background.

Looking at the white areas of the layer mask’s thumbnail, you can see the parts of the photo that I burned in.

11) In the Layers palette, click on the black layer mask’s thumbnail of the Lighten layer to select it.

12) Now in the image, dodge areas by painting with the brush anywhere you want to lighten the photo.

In my image, I just wanted to make the shadow side of the model’s face a touch lighter.

You can see the areas that I dodged as the white parts of the Screen (Lighten) layer mask’s thumbnail.

The best part of dodging and burning this way is that I can change my mind about what I did later. Let’s say I was up all night editing images. (Again, not something I ever do.) The next day I’m reviewing my files and I notice that I went waaay overboard on some of the dodging and burning. No problemo! I saved the images as Photoshop files thus preserving all the layers, so all I have to do is open the offending images and paint in black on the layer mask where I want less of a dodging or burning effect.

So, Normal, Multiply and Screen are only three of the twenty-five blend modes available in Photoshop, you’re probably wondering what all the others do.

Well, I’m not going to tell you.

Kidding. Well, I’m sort of kidding. This article would be crazy long and cause your eyes to bleed if I tried to discuss and give examples of every blend mode.

The best way to understand what all the different blend modes do is to play around with them. Experiment, have fun, and just explore the effects of each different mode. You’ll find that you have some favorite ones that you go to again and again. Here are some of the ones I use over and over.

Overlay is a cool blend mode because it takes the dark parts of your image and makes them darker while at the same time making the light parts of your image even lighter. The effect is that it adds contrast and increases saturation giving the image a definite pop. In fact, it’s usually too much pop, so I invariably have to reduce the opacity of the overlay layer to lessen the effect.

The Soft Light blend mode is Overlay’s suburban cousin. It also adds contrast and increases saturation, but not as dramatically as Overlay. Because it’s not as strong an effect Soft Light can be run at 100%. I’ll often jump back and forth between Soft Light and Overlay to see which works best with the image I’m editing.

In all of the examples I’ve demonstrated so far, the top layer has been the same as the bottom layer. This doesn’t have to be the case. You can create interesting effects with blending modes when the top layer is different than the bottom layer. A common example of this is adding texture to an image.

Let’s use this texture to grunge up the image of the model in front of the truck.

When working with textures you will find that you have to tweak and experiment with every image. For this image I put the texture in a layer on top of the photo. I set the texture layer to the Hard Light blending mode. Hard Light is similar to Overlay, but it adds even more contrast.

I had to play with the opacity of the texture layer to get the amount of texture I wanted. In this case it turned out to work well at 50% opacity. I also had to add a layer mask and paint the effect off of the model. People just don’t look good with textured skin.

When working with textures, I will often use the Soft Light, Overlay, Hard Light or Multiply blending modes.

And finally, here’s an effect that reminds me of an image that’s been reproduced on a bad photocopier. (Don’t ask me why I’d want an image that looks like it was reproduced on a bad photocopier… this is art!) This technique uses the Hard Light blend mode as well, but in this case I’ve desaturated the top layer. This gives the image a lot of contrast, but plays with the colors in peculiar ways. Again the top layer needs to have it’s opacity reduced. I might finish an image like this by adding some noise for grain or even by adding a texture added on top.

Do you have unique effects that you’ve created using blend modes? Bust them out in the comments section.

One of the most fun parts of being a wedding photographer is not knowing where you will be shooting from week to week. One week you could be photographing a wedding in a lovely shaded garden, with diffused golden light filtering in through the trees and stone benches perched perfectly between the trunks of beauty trees, and the next week you could end up in a dark hotel with dark walls and dark windows covered in dark curtains. Here’s a quick tip for finding great portrait backdrops no matter what your location looks like.

Put on your pith helmet and EXPLORE!

I’ve photographed weddings at a LOT of country clubs. You know the kind with a pretty little gazebo out back that they have designated as the photo area. If I can share a little secret with the hundreds of millions of people on the internet…I don’t like gazebos very much. So I always try to arrive at a location a little early and explore. When I get to the bride’s parent’s house where she and the girls are getting ready, the first thing I ask is if I can look around the house, and I look into every room. When I arrive at a new hotel, I do the same thing. Since I am not a gazebo photographer, I am looking for locations ha are unique to the venue, and different from what other photographers are capturing there. Spots with great light, but more importantly with a great story to tell about the location…or just an interesting background to make the photo look cool. I look for interesting geometric shapes, or interesting colors. Most of all, I look for places that I’m pretty sure no other photographer has ever used!

I took this photo at College Ave United Methodist Church in Somerville MA. This church was probably built around the 1920’s and was definitely in need of a little updating. When I arrived, however, I put on my pith helmet, and discovered several very cool locations, my favorite of which was an 80 year old gym on the third floor.

This wedding was at a conference center with a pretty little garden area that was just a little plain. After doing all of the family photos in the garden area, I asked the bridesmaids to bustle the bride’s dress, and followed a little path to the back of the building, where I found…a dumpster!

This wedding was at the Hawthorne Hotel in Salem MA during a blizzard. I had just finished up with the family photos and was about to head on to the ceremony when nature called. Answering the call, I noticed this cool opaque window and asked the bride in to the Men’s room.

Another weather snafu on this wedding day, this time it was rainy and we were stuck inside the country club. Adjacent to the bridal suite was the ladies locker room, and, after sending a bridesmaid inside to make sure the coast was clear, I found this cool little ottoman in front of the antique looking wooden lockers.

This wedding took place at a resort on the Cape. I convinced them to wander across to the little cluster of shops across the street from the resort where they were married. The shop outsides provided great backgrounds, but it was this little ice cream shop that caught my eye. I poked my head in and was instantly invited in by the owner.

This wedding took place at a reception venue that was lovely, but a little plain. As I was exploring, however, I found a hall that led to a dance club at the back of the building. The staff was just setting up for the night, and were gracious enough to let us in!

This reception took place at the Ballroom Veronique, which has no shortage of wonderful locations. I wanted to create a contrast to the elegance of the location, though, and decided to look around a bit. In the staff hallway behind the ballroom, I found the Laundromat.

As you can see, if you are looking to create memorable and unique portraits on a couple’s wedding day, it pays to explore. And here’s another little secret: you have an all access pass in a white dress following behind you. People can’t say no to a bride on her wedding day! So get out there and explore. You’ll be surprised what you find.

PS – those of you joining us for the next shoot, I will be discussing the details of what I look for in a great indoor location, and what I do when my exploration is fruitless! Can’t wait to see you all.

~ Jamison Wexler

One of my favorite Photoshop add-ons is Dirty Pictures from Totally Rad Actions.   I am a big fan of adding textures and overlays to my images- some are obvious, others are subtle (the average viewer would not know that there was a texture/overlay involved) and add a three dimensional feeling to a pop of color to the images.  Dirty Pictures comes with 21 custom textures, but it isn’t the textures themselves that make this one of my favorite Photoshop filters.  Frankly, it is the interface which is brilliant (and you can add your own textures to the interface, so if you are like me and you already have favorite textures that you have shot or purchased, no worries- you can add them in).

Here is a screen shot of the slick interface:

And here are a few images with those textures applied:

~Michelle