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Hack 72 Soften Facial Lines

You've taken great care to
capture your subjects in the best light. But sometimes, artistic
lighting accentuates facial lines. Here's how to
soften them for a more natural look.

I know from experience that the best
light for photographing people comes from the front. [Hack #43]
discussed this technique in detail, and it's a
lighting rule I follow most of the timebut not always.

Sometimes, I like the effect of illuminating from the side. Certain
models have a personality that is better expressed by more dynamic
lighting. The downside is that illumination from a side angle
enhances texture. This byproduct doesn't thrill
models when facial lines that weren't there before
now appear.

So, how do I get my dynamic lighting and satisfy the model too? I
could spend more time and money on equipment to produce just the
right effect. But I'm cheap and like to work
quickly. So I go with my instincts while shooting and use a little
Photoshop magic afterward.

For example, I used only two lights to shoot the portrait in Figure 6-21: one from the front and a hair light from the
top. We worked quickly and finished the entire session in less than
45 minutes. By shooting at this pace, the model stayed fresh and
brought plenty of energy to the camera. If I had spent a lot of time
fiddling with the equipment, I might have lost her interest.

Figure 6-21. A two-light portrait

I really like this shot, but the side lighting does the model
injustice by accentuating facial lines. She doesn't
look like that in real life. Normally, you don't see
the smile lines on both sides of her mouth, but my lighting has
created that effect.

Fortunately, this is an easy fix in Photoshop CS. I can use the
Healing Brush to eliminate the lines and then apply the Fade control
to make my fix look natural. Here's how it works:

Open the image in Photoshop CS and use the Zoom control to magnify it
to 100%.

Select the Healing Brush tool from the floating palette.
It's the one with the Band-Aid icon.

From the contextual menu, choose an appropriate diameter for the
brush tip. In the Mode drop-down box, choose Normal, and for Source,
click on the Sampled radio button. You're now ready
to go to work.

Option-click on an area of skin that has the texture
you'd like to see applied to the problem area. The
Healing Brush is a texture-replacement tool. It puts the texture you
want in place of what's already there and then
matches the tones around it. This tool is really amazing.

Click on the area you want to retouch and drag the Healing Brush over
the skin that needs to be fixed. The tool will read the area you
Option-clicked in the previous step and apply that smoother texture
to the area being repaired. This takes a little practice. If you
don't like your first attempt, select
EditUndo Healing Brush and try again. You might want to
reposition your sampling area by Option-clicking on another part of
the face. After a few tries, you'll get results that
come close. And close is all you need, because the final step is the
true magic of this hack.

Choose EditFade Healing Brush. Make sure the Preview box is
checked. You'll see a slider bar that goes from 0 to
100% opacity. It will be set at 100%, showing the full effect of the
adjustment you just made with the Healing Brush.

Slide the indicator in Fade Healing Brush slowly to the left.
You'll see your adjustment fade and the original
skin texture begin to appear. If you go all the way to 0, her skin
will look just like it did before you applied the Healing Brush. We
want something in between. The goal is to soften the lines, not
eliminate them altogether.

Find the opacity percentage that makes your model look attractive and
natural and then click OK. Repeat this procedure on other areas of
the face as needed.

After applying this procedure to a few areas of the face, I was able
to restore the model to her natural beauty, as shown in Figure 6-22, before I subjected her to my harsh
photographic lighting.

Figure 6-22. After applying Healing Brush with Fade control

If the model's teeth need a little brightening, use
the technique described in [Hack #70] . The key
to all these adjustments is restraint. You
don't want to change the subject's
appearance. Instead, you're trying to compensate for
the ill effects produced by photographic lighting.

All of us like to see ourselves in a favorable light. By using good
photographic technique and a little Photoshop magic, we can give that
gift to friends, family, and clients.