Portrait Editing Advice

Photo Plod

Photo Plod

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Chris
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Hello everyone,

My general area of interest is very much in sports photography, but I have started getting into portraiture and studio work. This shot was taken during my first attempt at "going solo" rather than part of any organised shoot. It's not meant to be anything artistic - my friend, an actress, wanted a new headshot and I offered to do it for her.

There are over 500 photos shot during the session, and by no means do I offer this up as the best - it's just one that I'm working on right now as one of my "picks". I've never really had to do much PS work on shots before (a few adjustments for sports), so I'm coming to you for advice on this. My concern is over the model's hair - I used a fan set on a very gentle setting, just to give it a little lift away from her face, but are the strands of hair at the edge of the portrait distracting? Should I clone them out? I'm looking primarily at the left side, extreme right and top of the head.


Amanda-Jade by Photo Plod, on Flickr

Advice and suggestions would be very welcome :)
 
Rather than you have no response I can give you my thoughts although I am definitely not an expert.

If you are aiming for formal headshots recognising the actor requirement I would be inclined not to have blowing hair, I guess you have some other shots for this purpose. To make these kind of more glamour hairblown shots work in my experience you simply take quite a number of shots to get the one that looks natural. This one doesn't quite make it due to the larger amount of hair on the left and that curls up against the flow of the shot. Cloning this out I suspect would not work?? The hair on the right looks better to me but not ideal.

Brighter catchlights in the eyes would enhance the shot and in this type of shot take care not to let the shoulder dominate the face, possibly tone down??

As stated I'm not an expert it's all IMHO but it may prompt others to give you a more considered view perhaps.
 
Its probably fine as a headshot, you say shes an actress but what is a "normal headshot" varies between theatre, tv, film or whatever. If you plan on doing this more have a word with casting agents and see if you can get them to spill on what they are looking for in a headshot.

As to editing, the hair doesn't bother me at this size. It probably isn't a huge task to clone out the ones on the right but i wouldn't bother with the small whispy ones. I would darken the closest shoulder a bit so its not quite as attention grabbing and maybe fiddle with the red channel a little (not got photoshop here atm to check so not sure)

I probably wouldn't do much with regards to skin, especially if you aren't sure its the pick of the bunch, not that i'd do much to a headshot anyway.
 
one thing that i love in portrait people is the sharpness and clarity. If you have too sharpness and clarity, the portrait will not look smooth. :) , i think that your photo is abit too sharp and so much of detail. :)
 
maybe whiten the backround with dodge tool (hihlites and about 5% opacity) and remove some of the stray hairs.
like this.
5749776325_65b0ddaf39w-1.jpg
 
Last edited:
scottthehat said:
maybe whiten the backround with dodge tool (hihlites and about 5% opacity) and remove some of the stray hairs.
like this.
5749776325_65b0ddaf39w-1.jpg
Click to expand...

I personally prefer what you have done here. Really think the stray hairs distract myself when looking at the photo. Much neater with what you have done here. :)
 
Any actor going anywhere is going to want their pictures in 'Spotlight' - so it's as well to look at their guidelines before shooting actor headshots! Head and shoulders - no photoshopping - show them as they are - or you're wasting the casting agency's time.

http://www.spotlight.com/artists/multimedia/photoguidelines.html

There are also loads of examples of good headshots around from photographers who do a lot of this work.
 
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