Self Portrait Project Day 3. The Wet Hair Look.

Have I told you that Herb Ritts is my all time favorite photographer? I have always been inspired by his use of light and shadow, his ability to utilize water to add interest to his work, and his mastery of black and white photography. He had a way of capturing the human form with such grace and beauty, sometimes it makes my heart ache when I look at his images.

When I started thinking about what I wanted to do for today's photo session, I decided to pay homage to Herb Ritts and do a black and white, wet hair look.

I wanted very strong features for this session since I knew that I would be doing high contrast black and white photography.

I used my Cover Girl foundation to even out my skintone, 

bronzer to darken areas of my face that I wanted to minimize; the sides of my forehead and temples, my cheeks and neck,

Mauve lip color on the sides of my nose to minimize my wide-ish nostrils and contour the sides of my nose.  You can see that I didn't get the line exactly straight on the right side of my nose, and it shows up in the finished images. Do'h! (Good thing I don't claim to be a make-up artist, eh? LOL )


white cream make-up to add highlights under my eyebrows, in the inner corners of my eyes, my cheekbones (I didn't do the greatest job on this part, unfortunately), the bridge of my nose, and my cupid's bow. 

dark bronze eye shadow on my lips to really darken them (made a boo boo by putting some vaseline lip balm to make them softer and it smudged the color all to heck and I had to reapply the bronze.

and
mascara on my eyelashes, as a smudger under my lower lashes, and on my eyebrows.

Not pictured: mauve lip color

As you can see in this picture, the results are a nightmare for color photography. Really hideous!

Next I wet down my hair. In this first shot, my hair was very wet. I  like everything about this image except that I'm not smiling very much, just a tease at the corners of my mouth. A bit more would have been perfect. Oh well.

Let's talk about posing for a moment. Note how my left hand is gently scrunching my hair and not pressing on the side of my face. Relaxed hands are important! My right hand is shielding my double chin and acting as an anchor for the image to balance out the use of the other hand. In a tightly cropped image such as this one, having one crazy hand or a few random fingers can ruin the shot.

Retouching: My allergies have been acting up a lot these past few days so my eye area is extra puffy. I minimized the under eye lines and puffiness, and softened my skin overall. I also brightened my right eye.

This next image is when my hair had dried somewhat but was still damp. This is a tiny bit drier than the hair should look for a session like this in my opinion, but I like this shot anyway.

Retouching: I softened my skin, minimized my under-eye lines and puffiness, and softened my lips slightly. I also brightened my right eye.  I could have chosen to remove the curl of hair on the tip of my nose, but it doesn't bother me. I actually like it.

What do you think? 
Do you like the black and white wet hair look?

Tech info:

Canon EOS 60D
ISO 100
Fstop: 22
1/250/second

Lens: Canon EFS 18-55 Image Stabilizer
Focal length: 18mm

Flash: Canon Speedlite 430EXII
ETTL
Zoom 24mm
Power 1/2
Tilt: 75º bouncing light off the (9 ft. white) ceiling as well as soft light from the front of the flash.
Flash modifier: Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce

Self Portrait Project Day 1 Facial Analysis

I have decided to do a project featuring me as the model. Why? Because I'm not perfect. No, really. Hear me out.

Many different kinds of people appear in front of my camera. Most people are not the so-called perfect model-types. In fact, I haven't met a perfect-model-bodied person yet, even though I have photographed a lot of models so far in my photography career.

How do models look so perfect? It's a combination of things.

Good make-up, good styling, good posing,knowing their angles, and good lighting/photography. Even after all of that, I still do skin retouching and sometimes even body slimming on models. 

I've said it before, but it bears repeating. Good retouching should make the subject look more awake, more vibrant. Sure, I can make your skin as smooth and porcelain-like as you want, but in most cases, that isn't preferable because it does not look natural.

 My job is to help you look like the best version of yourself. I typically remove blemishes, minimize wrinkles, and soften fine lines. I might brighten the eyes and skin when needed, and reduce the appearance of under eye circles. I like to keep a person's moles and freckles in their pictures unless they specifically ask me to remove them in retouching. I slightly slim down certain areas, and might remove stray hairs if I feel they draw too much attention.

As a portrait professional, one of my duties before we even begin the portrait session is to do a facial analysis. As I'm checking and adjusting the lights, and as we talk, even as I'm giving you direction on how to do your first pose, I am looking at your face. 

Don't worry, I'm not making a list of your flaws in my head. What I am doing is watching how the light dances across the planes of your face. I'm looking to see if your jaw line is stronger on one side of your face than the other. (Tom Hanks has famously commented about his strong side vs. his weak side.)  I'm looking at how your eyes are shaped and how your hairline looks from different angles. I'm looking at your chin, your eyebrows, everything.  I'm looking for your best angles, and making decisions about how I will pose you because no two people are exactly alike, and I want to give you a customized portrait experience.

Do I use similar poses for different people? Sure, but every pose is fine-tuned to suit that individual. Slighting turning the head, adjusting an elbow, pointing the toes, it all makes a difference.

So, what is this facial analysis?

Let's take a look at my face as our example.

I put on some make-up and took a few pictures with my pro camera, selfie-style, holding the camera a little bit above my head, using on camera flash. Tech info will be at the bottom of this post for those who are interested in that.

In picture #1 you see a straight-on shot.

The good: My double chin isn't showing and my right eye and lips look pretty good.

The not-so-good: You can tell that my eyes are two different shapes, and that the left one is not only smaller, but also more heavily hooded. My left eyebrow sits lower than my right one too. The bags under my eyes are fairly well pronounced too. All-in-all, not my best angle.

In picture #2 we see an image of my weaker side. 

The good: My left eye looks a lot better.

The not-so-good: My right eye looks crossed. I'm not too fond of that look. My cheek is a few millimeters wider on the left than on my right. Lighting the wider side makes my face look fatter than it is, and I really don't need any help in that department!

Because of my weaker jaw line on the left, my double chin looks kind of saggy, which it probably is, that's what double chins generally do, but I don't want that accentuated if I can help it.

Also, this isn't the best angle for my hairstyle, in my opinion. I don't like the way it makes my forehead look.

Now, let's look at my best angle.

The good: My right eye looks great, my left eye is more shadowed so the shape difference isn't as noticeable. 

My hair is partially obscuring my wider cheek and weaker jaw line, so I have a nice shape there.  My double chin is mostly in shadow so it isn't as prominent, and if I wanted to, I could minimize it in Photoshop without too much difficulty.

I like the way my lips look, and my stronger jaw line gives good definition to the right side of my face. 

Everything is coming together to show off my heart-shaped face, my preferred hairstyle, and my blue eyes.

The not-so-good:

My left eye still looks smaller, but that is mitigated by the other improvements already listed.

I still have a double chin of course, but again, the appearance of it is reduced by proper lighting and angle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So what do you think?

Do you agree with my analysis?



Tech info for images in this post:

Canon EOS 60D
ISO 100
Fstop: 22
1/250/second

Lens: Canon EFS 18-55 Image Stabilizer
Focal length: 18mm

Flash: Canon Speedlite 430EXII
ETTL
Zoom 24mm
Power 1/1
Tilt 90°
Flash modifier: Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce