Shiny face problems

Peter69

Peter69

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I keep getting shiny faces of people. I get the affect with or without flash.
Any idea what I'm doing wrong?
Other info is that its always girls & worse on PR/ pitgirls.
 
Tell us more about how you are making the photo? Which modifiers are you using and how are you positioning them? How are you metering?

Do you use a makeup artist? Was it a hot day/room?
 
Hi @JennyGW . These are not studio shoots more candid although I ask the people what I want. Light is normally just ambient. If I have to use the flash I use a SB910 off camera in ttl or even the built in flash. With the sb910 I use the wide angle diffuser regardless of focal length. In short I'm only in control of my camera (just) in most cases.
 
Hi Peter.I would just like to say I am not an expert at all and photography is not my proffession. I am guessing, as you say it's always girls so I am assuming it is the flash hitting the makeup and reflecting back ino the camera or in full sun the sun doing the same. If using the flash are you using it off to the side a bit so the light washing accross there faces ? If as you say ambient causes this too I'm stumped as a cloudy day ofwhich we have plenty should not yeild any shiny skin (in my opinion).
Like I say please ignore if this makes no sense.

Gaz
 
Unfortunately it's fashionable for some young ladies to wear makeup designed to make them look 'all shiny and glamorous', makeup specifically intended for photography is done completely differently. On Saturday morning you can watch wedding photographers hearts sink, when as soon as the professional makeup artist has finished their work, the bride sprays on the glitter (to make her look fab) :(

Short answer - they're shiny on purpose, if you can't get them into positions where the light source doesn't reflect, it's down to PP skills.
 
Phil V said:
Unfortunately it's fashionable for some young ladies to wear makeup designed to make them look 'all shiny and glamorous', makeup specifically intended for photography is done completely differently. On Saturday morning you can watch wedding photographers hearts sink, when as soon as the professional makeup artist has finished their work, the bride sprays on the glitter (to make her look fab) :(

Short answer - they're shiny on purpose, if you can't get them into positions where the light source doesn't reflect, it's down to PP skills.
Click to expand...

Exactly why I asked is a mua was on the shoot. A good mus is worth her/his weight in gold. Love mine, we've worked together for a while now and she really gets what I want.

Had to lol at the glitter spray, I had a comedian in for a studio shoot and after 45 mins with my mua she went to the bathroom and came back covered in glitter. Funny now, but at the time I could have cried!

OP,

Bring in a makeup artist for a shoot and see the difference :)

Using on camera flash you are asking for problems with bad reflections. Also, get your flash out of ETTL and into manual until you understand what it is doing, otherwise you will never learn and you won't know what to do to correct a situation where ETTL get it wrong. In my opinion, ETTL is fine for run and gun, but really not good for portraiture.
 
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Thanks for the info.
I use TTL for speed, there is never enough time to take readings - perhaps I should try and make the time?

Would adding a larger diffuser to the flash help?
 
Peter69 said:
Thanks for the info.
I use TTL for speed, there is never enough time to take readings - perhaps I should try and make the time?

Would adding a larger diffuser to the flash help?
Click to expand...
If you're using on camera flash, the biggest practical diffuser is the ceiling or wall behind or to your side, the practical difference between a bare flash and something like an onboard ezybox is non existant. ETTL was made for times when the conditions are dynamic. For me, the only time to switch to manual flash is when your position and that of your subject are nigh on static.
 
Thanks. I try to use the SB910 when I can in a sort of cross armed fashion so camera is in right hand but resting on left arm which is holding the flash to the right of the camera.
I had a disastrous time at the NEC bike show as first my bag broke, which must have upset the focusing when it all hit the ground. Then all the girls looked liked they'd spent all morning running away from me (all sweaty). So effectively only ended up with snaps :(
 
Posting an image showing the issue would be sensible, then we won't be guessing what the problem is... we'll actually see it :)

Can you post an example?
 
The one on the left looks fine to me, but the one on the right just has shiny skin/makeup.. you're use of direct flash isn't helping though. Avoid on camera flash used directly is the best way to avoid this.. Small hard light sources used directly will always give specular highlights to anything shiny. Can you use bounce flash? If so that helps, but in large venues there's often not much to bounce off. An assistant with a reflector to bounce flash off would help... but again not always possible.

If all else fails... retouch it out.

Can you not use available light? To be honest... the use of flash here isn't exactly flattering anyway... direct, on camera flash never is.

If you're working in one area... flashguns used with pocket wizards and brollies makes a nice, easy to move around studio set up.

The above example is definitely a lighting issue though.
 
Thanks.
I used the flash to get rid of weird shadows thrown by stand lighting. I obviously need to learnn to move the subject to the light as well.
 
Easy to retouch out though. Create a new layer in PS... pick up the heal tool and set "current & below" as the active sample layers, and retouch it out... then you can fade back the layer to allow some of the shine to come back through to avoid her looking plastic. Took me around 30 seconds.
 
It would seem to me that if they use shiny face make up they want to be seen that way.
this is a very modern phenomenon, face powder was invented to do the complete reverse. And has been use since forever to get rid of that sweaty look.

I am not sure you can light it out of existance, and 'dulling ' spray so useful on shiny metal is a nono on skin.
Pookyheads retouching method would seem to be the only practical answer.
But I doubt it is what the girls would like done with their hard won shine.

you could of course carry around a powder compact, but I doubt you could get it within a mile of them.
 
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I use frequency separation, where you copy out the texture to one layer and blur the colour layer. In the colour layer use the stamp, heal or brush tool to fix the shine
 
Peter69 said:
I use frequency separation, where you copy out the texture to one layer and blur the colour layer. In the colour layer use the stamp, heal or brush tool to fix the shine
Click to expand...



Colour layer? You mean the low frequency layer? I'm assuming you are creating two layers... a Low layer (blurred) and a Hi layer (apply image, invert, add blend and offset) ? That would work beautifully, yes, but perhaps over kill for this kind of image where looking natural would be better. A simple retouch with a masked solid colour fill layer set to a colour blend and faded back would look more natural.

There's more than one way to skin a cat as they say though.... ultimately, retouching this would be preferable than trying to light the shine out in such an environment.
 
Cool video. Thanks for the link.

Gaz
 
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