I am not sure this shot quite fits here, hopefully it does, but I am keen to learn from your specific skills in beauty photo-editing and so, well, read on please.
This is a test shot done using my new and first ever beauty dish. My old Elinchrom 66 head, a 1982 model, has just 3 stops of power reduction available, so even at 4 feet or so the widest aperture available was f10. I now have a newly arrive ELB 400 HS, so in the future will be able to reduce the power and open up as required. However, this is a first test, I have played in Photoshop, a bit, but I think the next stage should be D&B, please correct me if that is wrong, and there I am out of my depth. So now am looking for expert advice as to the best posible workflow for such shots, be it for portraits, headshots or beauty shots. And specifically regarding beauty Workflows and D& B. Any expert training films on YouTube etc, that you can recommend as best in class, or at least very good, would very helpful. Much to learn and so little time.
Early stage development practice piece
I played some more. I think D&B comes next, unless you guys have any better ideas. Need to learn D&B etc. as mentioned above.
to be honest, i didn't get your question exactly, I'm not sure if you are looking for an specific technique like D&B ? or just an overall idea to finish your retouch on this image...
if you are looking to learn more about dodge and burn, there are soon many ways that it can be done, it can be done by curves adjustment and masking In & Out, or you can use 50% gray layer and work on that, or you can just dodge and burn on actual image...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8G9W_zS_kk
here you can watch my workflow in timelaps of a 4hour retouch i've done by dodge and burn only on one 50% gray layer, i used dodge tool on midtones and exposure between 5% up to 25%.
if you want to learn about other techniques of dodge and burn you can watch "Julia Kuzmenko McKims" (Group moderator) videos or Michael Woloszynowicz (Vibrant Shot) videos. they do have some videos teaching how to do that. and they are pretty easy to follow.
if you are looking for ideas what to do next, i might say you can work on exposure a little, darken the background to draw more attention on the models face, do some dodge and burn on her neck, fill the missing parts in her hairs, there is just a little bit lightness difference in her eyes, i don't know if the depth of field is real or fake, but i you did it manually, i guess its better if you remove it from her hairs and ear. you can also liquify her teeth if you want to make it perfect at any point.
Thank you. I think you covered my enquiry. I am looking to learn the workflow, ie what are the different stages to take such an image through from beginning to end and then to learn the techniues employed so I know the entire process.
The shallow depth of field was made in the edit. In future it will be in camera, so not too worried about that point, as this is just a first apprentice piece. My next test will be at a more reasonable f4 or f5.6 or some such, so depth of field will be natural. I'll check out the films you suggest including the one above. Thank you very much for the information.
I'll do some watching then do another shot then apply the techniques best I can. Then, brace yourself, I'll be back. Thanks again.
I'm sure Julia and Michaels videos will help you with the retouching process
btw... if you don't mind to buy some video courses, i can suggest you to check out RGG-EDU.com / Retouchingacademy.com / Karl Taylor video courses / Creative Live courses by Prati Naik, Lindsay Adler, Julia Kuzmenko, etc. which they go all the way from shooting to retouching several images.
Hi Ian,
For one thing, the background is quite distracting for a beauty shot.
Regarding workflow, I'm presuming you shoot in RAW. If you want the full gamut, then go RAW, lossless compression and Adobe RGB as the colour profile.
My workflow is as follows:
- RAW conversion in CP8 (adjust white balance, NR, clarity and exposure);
- Output as TIF (for screen only I use 8 bit) in Adobe RGB
- Retouching in Affinity Photo (Frequency Separation, D&B using 50% gray layer, colour grading, curve adjustment and sharpening)
- Convert colour profile to sRGB
- Output as 8 bit JPG sRGB for web and social media
Also, are you using a Wacom for editing? I highly recommend it. I recently had to switch back to a mouse for one job and it was very tedious...
I think this page should start you off for resources to learn about retouching - https://fstoppers.com/bts/complete-guide-retouching-portraits-photoshop-...
Hope that helps.
Thank you very much. I'll study the page you provided a link to and I take on board your advice.
I shoot Canon, so Canon Camera RAW. I have been thinking about a Wacom but so far still riding my mouse., not good I know but life has been expensive and I have had much to learn to catch up, so there are several things on my to do list which I have not got to just yet.
What is CP8? I use LR for conversion and then Photoshop of course. I do have Capture One, v8.3, but so far not used it or learned anything about how it works. I seem to have a lot of catching up to do after 25 years away from stills, shooting TV. Still I am up for the challenge.
This shot was simply a picture of opportunity, my daughter was all dolled-up ready for her evening out, but he was late. I had just taken delivery of my first ever beauty dish and so we had a quick trial run. It was not intended to be specifically a beauty shot, I don't have a studio or much space, but I did want to use it to start learning the skills needed to edit to beauty standards, as well as make a good portrait/headshot from the image.
Thanks again.
Sorry my mistake. I meant Capture One, so CO 8 :)
I did have a look around at your background that you mentioned in your profile. It must have been a great adventure being in TV for that period of time.
You don't need a studio to start playing around with lighting. Just a white or plain wall will do. I started off learning lighting with my small speedlight chained to the camera. I had no idea what I was doing but eventually got the settings right and could work backstage at fashion shows to grab portraits of the models that look like they were made in the studio.
It's still a learning process for me. There's always something new to learn or something that I've learned before that needs refining.
Feel free to ping me with any questions you have. Happy to help!
i was kinda lost too when i started using capture one
Capture One works similar to Lightroom, maybe even better with many other powerful features built-in
if you wanna learn how to use it, i recommend you to check out the phase one website or their channel on youtube, they did lots of video tutorials about how to use Capture One Pro 8 & 9 which of course helped me a lot on getting started and enjoying the program i used to hate for a while