How to avoid blown highlights in portraits ?

[Olegis]

Hi all.
This forum is a great source of information full of knowledgeable people, so I thought that I might use your wisdom one more time :-) Here goes the situation :
As you all probably know, I like shooting portraits with natural available lighting. While shooting outdoors, I often end up with pretty even illuminated faces, but here and there I get these almost-white (blown out) highlights - mostly on the tip of the nose, on the cheek etc.

Example one :
http://www.pbase.com/image/32017323.jpg


Example two :
http://www.pbase.com/image/28383185.jpg


The question - how do I avoid it ?

[Cadenza]

Those are beautiful portraits -- stop showing off! :)

Cheat and fix these very minor blown highlights
using the clone tool in Photoshop, sample near
nose, and select "darken" mode from brush menu.
Select a conservative opacity, say 50%, and click
away gently on blown-out areas.

Regards, Cadenza

[evilenglishman]

Try taking readings from the camera and then dropping half a stop to what it says. Use the histogram - the face is the most important part, as long as that is exposed okay nothing else matters.

[Olegis]

evilenglishman, thank for the answer. The problem with your offer is that the face will come out slightly under-exposed. There is simply too much contrast between the bright and the dark areas in this kinds of photographs and situations ... Great photo by the way !

Cadenza, I have thought about this before, but I want to get the exposure right in the camera in the first place, rather than correct it later in PS.

[polloloco81]

My easiest sollution that I can come up with is to wait for a cloud to pass between your subject and the sun sort of to diffuse the light :)

[evilenglishman]

evilenglishman, thank for the answer. The problem with your offer is that the face will come out slightly under-exposed. There is simply too much contrast between the bright and the dark areas in this kinds of photographs and situations ... Great photo by the way !


I dont think the contrast is much on the face/skintones. Problems come with bright sunlight and very dark shadows - my photo was shot in bright sunlight and the far side arm is way over exposed as it was in the sun.
The problem you have is with the dynamic range of the camera - and the only way to get around that is to either use a reflector or artificial light in the darker areas.

[evilenglishman]

My easiest sollution that I can come up with is to wait for a cloud to pass between your subject and the sun sort of to diffuse the light :)

That is a very useful tip for anyone, i dont think olegis's photos are in sunlight though as the shadows are too soft

[Olegis]

You're right - I don't usually shoot this kind of photographs in direct sunlight. There is always some kind of dissufion or "big shadow" - cloud, building, wall etc.
Lets get back to the subject - in the first photograph (Example one) there are highlights on the nose and the left cheek. That is because more light came from that direction. The rest of the face is exposed very nicely in my opinion, if I under-exposed the shot by third or half of a stop, the rest of the face would be darker, ie a little bit under-exposed and therefore less attractive.
Am I right or am I missing something here ?

[maderito]

This problem is probably inherent to shooting portraits outdoors since the dynamic range of many scenes equals or exceeds the dynamic range of the 10D sensor.

My suggestion for post processing (which assume you've done a reasonably good job on initial exposure):

-During RAW processing, use exposure compensation to move the histogram to the left so that no channels are clipped - even if the the midtones and/or shadows become dark.

-If needed, adjust overall gamma with levels to get midtones about right (actually a little light - since you're going to add contrast).

-Add contrast to your taste (your shots have a lot!).

-Now look at your historgram: the highlights may be compressed; the shadows may be blocked. If yes - then use PS-CS shadow/highlight adjustment for the upper and lower 10-15% of the tonal values. Don't use too much or you will posterize.

-Most importantly:
If you don't have PS-CS, invest in it. Having real-time histograms to guide your editing decisions is invaluable - especially for the type of problem you are dealing with.

I should also mention that a few blown highlights is not necessarily a bad thing for these types of shots. Think about it before you change your approach too much. Your images are beautiful.

[evilenglishman]

As maderito says and i mentioned before. It is the dynamic range of the camera that is the issue and can only be avoided by using either a reflector or flash to bring the range of the dark areas up in brightness.

I dont think 1 or 1/2 a stop will alter your images that much.

here is another example of my drop-a-stop technique - the only thing blown on this shot was the hightlights on the shoe:



and here is one using the on camera flash - the sky was blown on this but i just made sure not to include it much:


I've just done a home-made setup that will allow me to use a studio head/softbox outdoors :D

[chris.bailey]

A more old fashioned approach is to ask your model to apply a bit of powder to the shiny bits (cheeks, nose, forehead). Not enough to look overly made up but reducing the shine, reduces the highlights.

[DocFrankenstein]

A more old fashioned approach is to ask your model to apply a bit of powder to the shiny bits (cheeks, nose, forehead). Not enough to look overly made up but reducing the shine, reduces the highlights.
Yep. Naturally, the skin is oily and it reflects a LOT of light. If you powder the girls up you will have much more flexibility. Make sure that the color of the powder matches the skin tone.

They are gonna look much more like "glamour" shots.

[evilenglishman]

you will find many models/make-up artists today use "ultima glowtion" which is a highlight make-up that delibeately gives the face a shiny, oily look :wink:

[Olegis]

Thank you all for the detailed and helpful info. From what I have learned so far :
1. Adjust the exposure by dropping a third to two-thirds of a stop.
2. Use powder.
3. Try to photograph in cooler days, as during the hotter ones the models are more "sweaty". Sweat just makes the skin look oiled and therefore reflecting more light.
4. Stop being so obsessive about those highlights, as they are not so bad.

Great photographs, evilenglishman !

[J Rabin]

Olegis.
Everyone has this problem. The pictures are fine. If you put many wonderful indoor studio portraits under a pixel counter, you will find overexposed "255" highlights on blond hair or on light colored clothing when the face is properly exposed. They are not only there, if controlled and not too extensive, add to the photo's portrait quality.
In film, you accept this. Who looked? The lack of dynamic range in digital means we just need to pay more attention and control it.
In digital, you expose and use daylight fill flash. That's what daylight fill flash was all designed for - to reduce the excessive shadow to light contrast range in these situations.
I still have the problem also, but I stop worrying about it.

[4walls]

A friend of mine shoots a lot of weddings and outdoor portrait shots. He
does EVERYTHING with the camera set on M and reads the light using a
Minolta light meter. He also uses shaded areas a lot when it is really sunny
outside.

His pics are at: www.trevorbrucki.com

[drisley]

I just discovered how amazing the Shadow/Highlight recovery tool is in Photoshop CS.
I had a RAW image of a bird that had white feathers (and dark feathers), and in order for the image to look properly exposed, I lost ALL detail in most of the white areas. I output as a 16 bit tiff, and tried a bunch of dynamic range extending techniques (like combining 2 images), but nothing really looked that good.
Finally I remembered the Shadow/Highlight tool. Well, using that initial image with the white areas of the bird showing NO detail, I opened the S/H tool, set the Shadow settings to zero, and set the Highlight settings to recover the top 10% of the Highlight Tonal Width.
Low and behold, the previously solid white areas now showed ACTUAL FEATHERS! :shock:
I was totally blown away! In addition, the rest of the image remained untouched.
For images like you have above, I think this would be THE best way to recover that small bit of highlight detail.
I still save the S/H tool is by far the best new feature in Photoshop CS.

[robertwgross]

Does it do that by micro-tweaking of the equalization?

---Bob Gross---

[Rob Larsen]

Another option is to use a diffusing panel for the light. It can balance the light out enough to keep your dynamic range in check. Might also need to use a reflector for some bounced fill light.

I'm using a Photoflex Light Panel. It's big enough to diffuse full body shots or can be used as an overhead gobo in open shade. A quick change of material converts it from a diffuser to a reflector.

[J Rabin]

Oleg.
Recalled your post some time back. Searched. Model makeup is a whole profession. But, in this book on pages 118-119:
John Freeman, New Complete Guide to Photog, Collins & Brown, 2003, ISBN 1 84340 0367
Presents a nice, simple, clear do-able two page spread on female makeup to enhance portrait photog that you can put in most any woman's hand and they can recreate.
I would not buy the book (I would not buy most photog books since they usually teach little and are simply published to provide a forum for authors' exposures), but if you can find copy in a library or have someone copy for you, maybe useful
J

[Olegis]

Thanks J !
I'll look into this book.

[DeeplyDigital]

Since I read your post I looked over lots
of portraits of a friend I did over the last
year.

The answer to your question must be for
the subject to wear high quality make up
(foundation and powder). It has to be of
good quality - else the skin will look dry
and you will have lines/ wrinkles where
there aren't really any. And us girls don't
like that effect.

I have portraits here taken in varying light
conditions, also in direct sunshine, and no
blown out highlights. The subject always
appears for a shoot perfectly made up and
mostly natural looking.

She appears the way she wants to look in the photo.

J.
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