20 pictures - Keeping consistant.

[jenkins]

<p>I took some pictures of my wife tonight, there were probably 20 that i wanted to keep, obviously there are time consuming things that I want to do like soften the skin and less generic things that i can apply in Lightroom3.</p>

<p>How do you process a large amount of pictures when you have a model, is it literally a picture by picture basis?</p>

<p>I can't do all this in Lightroom and always seem to head off to Photoshop but with 20 pictures this will take a long time and i am worried about consistancy between the pictures.</p>

<p>Am i missing something apart from plug in's?</p>

<p>I have a picture example if needed, i did all the possible work in Lightroom, but still ended up with multiple curves in PS. This shoot with my wife is a test of what i will have to do if I get a paying job so I am very confused at present.</p>

<p> </p>

[richardsnow]

<p>Depending on how you shot the image, there are many things that are easy to do in Lightroom.</p>

<p>Personally, I am mostly using an 85mm f/1.4 or 105mm f/2DC lens for portraits and I can produce nice sofe results without post processing, but when it needs to be done, here's how I do it:</p>

<p>I do 99% of what needs to be done in Lightroom and/or Capture NX2. This involves color correction,(which can be automated by copying and pasting edits from photo to photo in LR3); cropping and straightening.</p>

<p>For skin softening, I use Nik Software's Dfine 2.0 which is a plugin for both Lightroom and Photoshop. Personally I like the control I have in PS over LR with this plugin since I can "brush" the softening onto the photo. This is all done on a shot by shot basis and, unless I want to soften the entire photo, cannot be automated.</p>

<p>Once you've figured out how to soften skin efficiently it really doesn't take much time. I can do an entire senior photo shoot in a few hours...from selection of shots to sending the shots to be proof printed and/or uploading to a portfolio for the client to make their order.</p>

<p>RS</p>

[MichaelChang]

<blockquote>

<p><em>"How do you process a large amount of pictures when you have a model, is it literally a picture by picture basis?"</em></p>

</blockquote>

<p>For me, yes, because each picture will have its unique attributes that makes it special form others in the same shoot. </p>

<p>I'd like to see a sample if you care to share, Simon. </p>

[patricklavoie]

<p><strong>I took some pictures of my wife = less retouching as possible</strong>... or you might sleep on the couch ; )</p>

<p>Regular people dont need much retouching, a simple pimple / red veins, hair nose, and under eyes reduction should be more than enough.</p>

<p>20 shot is not a huge contract in that case; 5-10min for all of them in Lightroom to make sure all is perfectly balance to the best of your knowledge, a bit of sharpen, a bit of clarity, exposure, vibrance etc... then IN NEED send them to Photoshop for a bit of healing brush tool, stamp tool, and liquify if you must.. 2-3 min per image should be more than OK.</p>

<p>1 hour for your 20 shot should be more than perfect. If you need more time.. put more effort behind the camera first to find more flattering poses, work your light, and directed your model more appropriately.<br /> ________________</p>

<p><strong>- i did all the possible work in Lightroom, but still ended up with multiple curves in PS</strong></p>

<p>no its not normal, so i suspect you have done all you can do with the knowledge you have.. but i will suggest you get some lesson at www.lynda.com for a better understanding of what you can do with Lightroom.. it is not normal to have the need for Photoshop for curve IF you have correctly set up your light AND correctly dvelop the shot with Lightroom.</p>

<p><strong>- How do you process a large amount of pictures when you have a model, is it literally a picture by picture basis?</strong></p>

<p>Yes it is a per picture thing... with a professional model, from a professional photographer.. you can put from 1hre to 5hrs on a single shot.. depend if its for a editorial, a high fashion magazine, a cosmetic ad campaign.. im starting a retouching job this morning on 7 shot for a big wedding magazine.. i have at least 1hre per shot + client correction after that for maybe another 30min of time per shot... normal... and i am a fast retoucher ; )</p>

<p>shadow, fly away hairs, body line, crease on clothes and fabric, skin retouching keeping texture (not a la portrait professional) and all the other invisible to the untrained eyes minor retouching to make the image perfect will be done on each of them.</p>

<p>________________</p>

<p>skin softening with a plugin is good for most regular user, or people that need a quick and ok result fast.. but if you want to do portrait as a profession, you will need to learn how to correctly do it with Photoshop alone.. or better, hire someone with this particular set of skill.. retouching is a art, and require real talent IF you are after pro look and high end commercial clients. But i agree that for the regular joe mom and dad type of client (no disrespect here.. they are client as important as anyone else) since they dont require the same demanding end result, a plugin should do just fine to put a smile on there face if well execute and the effect just enough to remove the problem.</p>

<p>have a look at this for a quick start if you are curious ; )</p>

<p>http://www.photo.net/learn/digital-photography-workflow/advanced-photoshop-tutorials/intro-to-skin-retouching/</p>

 

[jenkins]

<p>Thanks for the replies chaps, Patrick this was my first time practicing with an umbrella and a small sb600 flash, i found the light very harsh and not too sure i like half the face in shadow so my lighting was not terribly good a all and a little bit harsh which has made processing more difficult.</p>

<p>I have to be honest I do understand Lightroom3 very well but i prefer Photoshop as my usual editing software, until i got a mac lightroom was so slow I lost interest in it other than for organising and running routine tasks, that is changing now as it works beautifully and shooting tethered is fantastic.</p>

<p>I read your article Patrick which was very insightful and noticed you mentioned not using blur which is what i have always applied. What are the best methods to use if the woman is older and doesn't have perfect skin, woman in her 40's, do the same rules apply?</p>

<p>Is one umbrella on a woman a bad idea as it is pretty severe? What would you recommend for females if you would like to achieve a more flattering light?</p>

<p>Thanks for the advice.</p>

<p> </p>

[lwg]

<p>I am far from an expert in studio lighting, but one umbrella is not going to give flattering results. Too much shadow if you place it off to the side, and a flat look if it's straight on. Check out this page for some ideas on fixing the issues.</p>

<p>http://www.ephotozine.com/article/studio-lighting-advice---part-3-setting-up-your-lighting-4779</p>

[richardsperry]

"What are the best methods to use if the woman is older and doesn't have perfect skin, woman in her 40s"

 

-Clarify tool in LR.

 

Experiment with auto mask on and off to get desired results.

 

Healing tool in PS to follow up as needed.

Most people who look at images frequently can spot Blur tool editing now, fairly easily.

 

I'll post an example later.

[richardsperry]

"How do you process a large amount of pictures when you have a model, is it literally a picture by picture basis?"

 

I preview all the images. Rotating them as needed.

Delete all the unusable ones first.

Tag ok ones with "ok".

 

Then preview them again an hour later or so.

Repeat the process, but then tag the good ones "good".

 

Then these are copied to a to-be-edited folder in the main folder.

And edited on a single picture basis.

[jenkins]

<p><strong>Most people who look at images frequently can spot Blur tool editing now, fairly easily.</strong></p>

<p>Richard with the greatest of respect, i am not a first time user of lightroom as i have already mentioned, far from it, also there isn't a clarify slider it's called clarity, it's not doing a very good job of what i am trying to do either I am looking for something a little more effective, which is why i moved to Photoshop after trying lightrooms options.<strong> </strong></p>

<p><strong><br /></strong></p>

[richardsperry]

Then I don't know what you're asking then.

 

I move back and forth from PS to LR several times.

Sometimes needing to hit the same tenacious spots with LR again with the same tool because it doesn't take it far

enough the first or second time.

 

For me, LR is not WYSIWYG. All my edits appear stronger in the LR app than what's present in the actual file image.

I'll make the final save from PS in almost all cases. But I'm using LR2, so that may be fixed in 3.

 

Removing hand veins and wrinkles on women is a lot easier now with LR than how I use to do it in PS alone.

As you know, -clariTy, can remove 10 years easily from a woman's face, neck(SCMs), hands, axillary fossa wrinkles

and antecubital fossa wrinkles. Does it take more than one pass in LR? Yes, with a 40 or 50 year old woman, for me it does.

 

Final image name might look like 'img_12345-edit-edit-edit.jpg' by the time I'm done.

 

 

Ps, I don't have any feelings. You don't need to worry about hurting what doesn't exist. Thanks though.

[jenkins]

<p>Richard I'm not trying to take 10 years off my wife ;)</p>

<p>I think the skin soften option in Lightroom is really effective most of the time and I use it, but it's horses for courses, sometimes a different approach might be required. Patrick isn't even using blur but he is using professional young models, I am not.</p>

<p>I wasn't trying to hurt your feelings, I just found your comment very patronising.</p>

<p> </p>

[patricklavoie]

<p>The secret with photo retouching is to respect what you have in front of you; it is the same way i use to refine a portrait of a 18years old or a 40 years old woman.. the difference is i will remove stuff from the 18y vs reduce stuff on the 40y.<br /><br />Of course, you have to start with light that bring what you need and keep the post to is minimum when talking about *normal* people.. a umbrella as you have use it give a really crude light.. good for a *ruff* portrait of a man in is 50th.. less for a woman on her 40th.. BUT it all depend what you are trying to give as the emotion (i like the effect on the original portrait myself.. maybe your wife wont ; )<br /><br />I suggests you use a softbox next time, the bigger the better (well sometime) and by playing with the distance and the angle you can get a strong crude look or a soft look really easily.<br /><br />Back on the retouching part...<br /><br />The secret with your image is to use a stamp tool with a big soft brush (hardness 0) and set the opacity to around 30-40% of this brush... then *paint* away the problem area.. don't go over the area more than 2-3 time max at that opacity as it could quickly look like you had a soft filter to it.. don't REMOVE anything, just REDUCE the problem area.. in your case under the eyes, beside her nose, and aside her lips. It is as you may discover, enter a bit of a blur to the process, especially with the kind of light that you use and the skin textured you are getting.. after the whole process, a sharpen should / could be add to the face area to regain sharpness a bit, use smart sharpen (a really fine method of making your image sharp and full of small detail pop or a high pass filter (in that case it work well, but in general it is more crude thanthe smart sharpen) with a mask and paint over the sharpness to the *refined* area.<br /><br />All this is if you want to keep thing NATURAL. If you want the plastic doll look.. the clarity slider in Lightroom use in negative, or any blur method that you see on you tube is good... for most user.. not for me at all.</p>

[richardsperry]

<p>"I wasn't trying to hurt your feelings, I just found your comment very patronising."</p>

<p>I have no feelings. You can not hurt what I don't have.</p>

<p>I don't patronize. It's too time consuming. I just state what I know or think I know. I don't have any time to patronize anything. If there were topics that I would patronize, they are subjects I must ignore. (that is to say, if you see a stupid thread, and I don't post in it, that is me patronizing that thread, cool?).</p>

<p>And if you, or any other P.net poster can school me. I welcome being schooled. I don't have any problem with learning new stuff, even contrary to what I know now. I have been schooled at least 8 times since I started here.</p>

[richardsperry]

<p>Simon,</p>

<p>Email me a pic. I will touch it up. And tell you what I did. If you like what I do, then I'll tell you what I do...If you don't like it. Then so be it. Pretty simple.</p>

[rob_piontek]

<p>It's hard to really comment without seeing what you're talking about. For me the images are mostly pretty good to start with. I pick the good ones, also say 20, make some basic changes and zap the pimples in LR. In PS I might dodge and burn a little, add an unsharp mask to change local contrast, soften the skin a bit, and maybe an action for color. It takes a couple minutes per image. Often though I discover that I could have gotten almost the same thing from LR itself, but in a different way. </p>

<p>I think the key is to control the lighting so you're getting pretty much what you want in the camera. Then you're only making minor changes with software that don't take much time. </p>