Loose hair

SnappingShark · Jun 28, 2016

Should I tidy this stuff up if somebody asked me to take a portrait?
Smooth skin? IDK! Help! lol

Also, any feedback would be great - I'm not a portrait photographer and only used natural lighting and no reflectors or anything for this.

Thanks.

edited to add: Only a headshot was requested - not a portrait session, I should say!

rlemert · Jun 28, 2016

I'll be interested in seeing what anyone who has some idea of what they're talking about has to say, but ... .

For me, I think this would be improved with a little more even lighting. Her right side is exposed pretty well, but the highlights on her left are just a bit too strong for my taste.

Alexr25 · Jun 29, 2016

Lighting is too contrasty, the right side of the photo is over exposed and the face needs some of fill lighting to soften the shadows in the lines around her mouth and cheeks. Also the photo has been over sharpened which emphases skin blemishes.
A quick play in lightroom makes the photo look a bit better, reduced highlight, added grad filter and reduced exposure to even out exposure across the frame and reduced clarity to soften the over sharpening. It would however had been a lot better with better balanced and more even lighting.

SquarePeg · Jun 29, 2016

Why do so many insist on "smoothing" away the character in women's faces? Despite what magazines and beauty "experts" want us to believe, there's nothing wrong with a little texture in a woman's face. Not all of us want to look like Barbie dolls. Why do I never see a man's face "smoothed" into non existence? Not to pick on you exclusively @Alexr25 but this is the 3rd or 4th thread this week where I have seen this type of suggested edit.

Rant over.

I agree that the lighting is a little uneven. Re the flyaway hairs - I've found them difficult to fix but not impossible, mostly just time consuming ( I am inexperienced at editing portraits) and I would only attempt it if the shot was otherwise a winner (lighting, expression, pose, background, sharpness).

KenC · Jun 30, 2016

I agree about the contrast and I think that's really the only thing that needs improving here. Decreasing it will make the skin look better - no one looks good in harsh light. As for the hair, it's an informal outdoor portrait, so why worry about that?

pjaye · Jun 30, 2016

Alexr25 said:
Lighting is too contrasty, the right side of the photo is over exposed and the face needs some of fill lighting to soften the shadows in the lines around her mouth and cheeks. Also the photo has been over sharpened which emphases skin blemishes.
A quick play in lightroom makes the photo look a bit better, reduced highlight, added grad filter and reduced exposure to even out exposure across the frame and reduced clarity to soften the over sharpening. It would however had been a lot better with better balanced and more even lighting.
View attachment 124071

That is way too much smoothing on the face. It looks terrible and I would not be happy as the person being photographed. It looks completely unnatural.

JonA_CT · Jun 30, 2016

I found the quickest way to deal with flyaway hairs is by using the surface blur function in Photoshop. If you google it, there are some good youtube tutorials on it. It took me maybe 10 minutes to fix the hair below using the surface blur and then some clone stamp, too. Ignore the retouching part of it, because I'm awful at that part.

Here is the tutorial I used....

Finally, An Easy Way To Remove Stray Hairs In Photoshop | Fstoppers

Donde · Jun 30, 2016

I am not at all opposed to "fly away hair". Some girls have it because they are young ad have thick beautiful hair. Last thing I'd want to do is clone it out but then again I don't run a photo studio service where some clients would want that.

frommrstomommy · Jul 1, 2016

I had a little play in lightroom.. those highlights were pretty strong and working with a jpg was well.. that. lol

frommrstomommy · Jul 1, 2016

and FWIW.. no, women shouldn't have to be these buttery smoothed creatures in photos but as a woman who is probably close to her age range.. I would not want every pore on my face to be crispy clear for the world to see, either. Just sayin!

beagle100 · Jul 2, 2016

symplybarb said:
Alexr25 said:

Lighting is too contrasty, the right side of the photo is over exposed and the face needs some of fill lighting to soften the shadows in the lines around her mouth and cheeks. Also the photo has been over sharpened which emphases skin blemishes.
A quick play in lightroom makes the photo look a bit better, reduced highlight, added grad filter and reduced exposure to even out exposure across the frame and reduced clarity to soften the over sharpening. It would however had been a lot better with better balanced and more even lighting.
View attachment 124071

Click to expand...

That is way too much smoothing on the face. It looks terrible and I would not be happy as the person being photographed. It looks completely unnatural.