Hack 72 Soften Facial Lines

You've taken great care to capture your subjects in the best light. But sometimes, artistic lighting accentuates facial lines. Here's how to soften them for a more natural look .

I know from experience that the best light for photographing people comes from the front. [Hack #43] discussed this technique in detail, and it's a lighting rule I follow most of the timebut not always.

Sometimes, I like the effect of illuminating from the side. Certain models have a personality that is better expressed by more dynamic lighting. The downside is that illumination from a side angle enhances texture. This byproduct doesn't thrill models when facial lines that weren't there before now appear.

So, how do I get my dynamic lighting and satisfy the model too? I could spend more time and money on equipment to produce just the right effect. But I'm cheap and like to work quickly. So I go with my instincts while shooting and use a little Photoshop magic afterward.

For example, I used only two lights to shoot the portrait in Figure 6-21: one from the front and a hair light from the top. We worked quickly and finished the entire session in less than 45 minutes. By shooting at this pace, the model stayed fresh and brought plenty of energy to the camera. If I had spent a lot of time fiddling with the equipment, I might have lost her interest.

Figure 6-21. A two-light portrait

I really like this shot, but the side lighting does the model injustice by accentuating facial lines. She doesn't look like that in real life. Normally, you don't see the smile lines on both sides of her mouth, but my lighting has created that effect.

Fortunately, this is an easy fix in Photoshop CS. I can use the Healing Brush to eliminate the lines and then apply the Fade control to make my fix look natural. Here's how it works:

1. Open the image in Photoshop CS and use the Zoom control to magnify it to 100%.

2. Select the Healing Brush tool from the floating palette. It's the one with the Band-Aid icon.

3. From the contextual menu, choose an appropriate diameter for the brush tip. In the Mode drop-down box, choose Normal, and for Source, click on the Sampled radio button. You're now ready to go to work.

4. Option-click on an area of skin that has the texture you'd like to see applied to the problem area. The Healing Brush is a texture-replacement tool. It puts the texture you want in place of what's already there and then matches the tones around it. This tool is really amazing.

5. Click on the area you want to retouch and drag the Healing Brush over the skin that needs to be fixed. The tool will read the area you Option-clicked in the previous step and apply that smoother texture to the area being repaired. This takes a little practice. If you don't like your first attempt, select Edit Undo Healing Brush and try again. You might want to reposition your sampling area by Option-clicking on another part of the face. After a few tries , you'll get results that come close. And close is all you need, because the final step is the true magic of this hack.

6. Choose Edit Fade Healing Brush. Make sure the Preview box is checked. You'll see a slider bar that goes from 0 to 100% opacity. It will be set at 100%, showing the full effect of the adjustment you just made with the Healing Brush.

7. Slide the indicator in Fade Healing Brush slowly to the left. You'll see your adjustment fade and the original skin texture begin to appear. If you go all the way to 0, her skin will look just like it did before you applied the Healing Brush. We want something in between. The goal is to soften the lines, not eliminate them altogether.

8. Find the opacity percentage that makes your model look attractive and natural and then click OK. Repeat this procedure on other areas of the face as needed.

After applying this procedure to a few areas of the face, I was able to restore the model to her natural beauty, as shown in Figure 6-22, before I subjected her to my harsh photographic lighting.

Figure 6-22. After applying Healing Brush with Fade control

If the model's teeth need a little brightening, use the technique described in [Hack #70] . The key to all these adjustments is restraint . You don't want to change the subject's appearance. Instead, you're trying to compensate for the ill effects produced by photographic lighting.

All of us like to see ourselves in a favorable light. By using good photographic technique and a little Photoshop magic, we can give that gift to friends , family, and clients .