Portraits, make-up essential?

[Siberius]

Hi,

I'm in the process of trying to branch out and take some decent portraits, hopefully even make a little money at it if I can get good enough.

Something I keep wondering though is when taking female portraits, how essential is make-up? It seems to me that every shot I see when I look in the 'Sharing' section has make-up, or at least the huge majority.

I guess I just want to be prepared to know what to ask of people when time comes. It's not something that I've really seen covered in books or tips.

Are you fighting a bit of a losing battle if you go natural?

It's an area that without much experience, it is hard to know how it works, so any advice or know-how would be extremely valuable.

Many thanks in advance :)

[Ook]

Well, I could counter with the question "How much PP are you willing to do?"

Coming from someone not experienced in the field, I would postulate that good makeup in the style you want it will save you a lot of time in post. However, I also imagine it's much easier to do makeup in post than recover from a bad make-up job that leaves you with no skin detail etc.

So, perhaps your observation about the 'sharing' section seeming to have makeup in most/all postings begs the question: how many of those models were "made up" before the shoot, or in post?

[MattMoore]

Good makeup saves a lot of PP time and can make or break many close portrait shots (IMHO).

Also, as the 1st poster mentioned, (hifashion/glam) makeup can set a mood or theme of a shot almost as much as the subjects facial expression.

OF course if the subject has REALLY REALLY good skin, then I suppose you could get by with minimal amounts.

[airfrogusmc]

As long as you don't smear it on your LCD screen when you put the camera up to your eye.

[Siberius]

As long as you don't smear it on your LCD screen when you put the camera up to your eye.

:-P


Interesting replies. I hadn't thought of using PP to do it all. Maybe I should ask how many people do this as apposed to physical make-up.

And also, when you are taking pictures of non-models (for people who want photos for themselves or family, but really nice ones), do you let them worry about make-up or would you suggest make-up, do you have someone to do it for you?

[airfrogusmc]

Seriously it depends on what you are trying to say in your portrait. Traditional commercial portraits, I would say make-up is a must.

[Siberius]

And how do you go about that usually?

Let them do their own or find someone to do it for you?

[airfrogusmc]

Allot of time I'm shooting for ads or annual reports and for those kind of things allot of times we have professional make artists do it.

[gregpphoto]

I think it's always better to get something great out of the camera and not have to do as much later, because almost everything you do in photoshop is destructive to the pixel quality. Makeup definitely fits that bill, but like someone mentioned, it better be good makeup, otherwise you'll be creating more work for yourself!

[Siberius]

Thanks, that makes sense.

So it's a case of good make up or don't bother at all. I guess you guys who do this more professionally have someone to do it for you.

I'll have to try and figure out a way to work this all as I get started out.

[gregpphoto]

Thanks, that makes sense.

So it's a case of good make up or don't bother at all. I guess you guys who do this more professionally have someone to do it for you.

I'll have to try and figure out a way to work this all as I get started out.

I would. I haven' ever worked with models wearing makeup but when I do, I sure as hell will be leaving that up to someone who knows that Mac is more than just a computer or a burger.

[Ook]

I think it's always better to get something great out of the camera and not have to do as much later,

I agree here, but


because almost everything you do in photoshop is destructive to the pixel quality.


This I don't agree with - I can think of techniques that are necessarily destructive (so far) such as liquefy, dodge and burn, but just about everything else that I can think of can be done non-destructively with adjustment layers and layer masks - certainly most of the techniques used for digital makeup (such as in this (http://tutorialbucket.googlepages.com/pseyemakeup.html) great video). I agree with getting the image as close to done as possible before it hits the computer, but I also wouldn't stress out about doing something in Photoshop for the added control.

So it's a case of good make up or don't bother at all.

Sounds about right to me :D

[gregpphoto]

When I say destructive I guess I'm being misleading. What I mean is when you do levels, hue sat, etc, the more you do, the more digital everything looks when it comes time to print. Now I know that's not always the case, theres a lot of photoshop wizards who can do a billion things without you noticing, but I've seen it in my own work and others.

[SlowBlink]

Powder and a big bag of those disposable sponges is a must. Makeup I'd say optional. I usually burn in a shadow later in post if needed.

[Ook]

When I say destructive I guess I'm being misleading. What I mean is when you do levels, hue sat, etc, the more you do, the more digital everything looks when it comes time to print. Now I know that's not always the case, theres a lot of photoshop wizards who can do a billion things without you noticing, but I've seen it in my own work and others.

Yes, it does take skill to achieve a natural-looking result. I guess the same can be said about "analog" makeup :p - For me at least, it's nice that you can spend as long as you want in PP.

[gregpphoto]

Yes, it does take skill to achieve a natural-looking result. I guess the same can be said about "analog" makeup :p - For me at least, it's nice that you can spend as long as you want in PP.

If you can do it in pp and make it look good, thats what counts. I can never understand why people get hung up on people who do their work digitally.

[Siberius]

Ook, thanks for that link. Great vid :D
I'm gonna be trying some of that stuff out...

[Andrushka]

man, who wants to fix lip liner in PP?? not me! blemishes are one thing, but evening out make up in post is a super bore!

[Siberius]

Well, after watching those vids, I had to give it a little go. So I picked an entirely unsuitable photo (I was in a hurry) and tried it out a bit. The results are a tad scary, to be honest, but it's my first try and really not the right feel of photo for it anyways so *shrug*. I can see how it'd work out though, especially if you did it regularly and got fast at it.

Still, probably easiest to get make-up on the actual model, hehe.


Before:

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g97/vaskel/portraits/AngieBefore.jpg




After:

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g97/vaskel/portraits/AngieMakeup.jpg

[TeeTee]

My MUA is more important in my shoots than any lens.

[cdifoto]

Portraits, make-up essential?

Equal in importance to lighting. Both of which are subjective.

[Andrushka]

My MUA is more important in my shoots than any lens.

from the look of your website - it looks like you mean what you say! nice portfolio work!

[BrendanT]

What I would also say is, it depends on your subject. I do family and couple portraits, and I always leave it up to them. If I were doing fashion or glamour or commercial stuff, then def make up.