Just recently, I discovered creativeLIVE classrooms through the local Edmonton photography Meetup group. Today, I watched 30 minutes of glamor photography live with Sue Bryce and was blown away by the simplicity of her workflow in Photoshop itself. In her classroom, she predominantly used three tools in Photoshop for 90% of her workflow, which allowed her to edit most photos in just under 2 minutes. I quickly tried that technique myself on a photo taken yesterday.

The main tools used in her workshop were as follows (with her settings shown) and their use is explained further later in this post:

1. Clone Stamp Tool: 100% Opacity, 10 to 20% Flow
2. Dodge / Burn Tool: 50% Exposure
3. Brush Tool: 100% Opacity, 1% Flow
4. Eraser Tool: 100% Opacity, 10% Flow

Clone Stamp Tool

Cloning was used to take away wrinkles and other unsightly blemishes from the skin. It is pretty straight forward to use the tool by following the flow of light on the face. However, care must be taken so that the shape and features of the face are not drastically altered when using this tool. In a more extreme case, this tool could also be used to soften many of wrinkles or freckles on the model. The goal here is not to hide or eliminate these distinguishing features, but rather, to soften them so as to take attention away from them.

Dodge / Burn Tool

Mostly used to bring some pop into the eyes and makeup, this tool was used to make the whites of the eyes whiter and the color in the cornea brighter and more captivating. If the model is wearing eye-liner, then the burn tool could be used to darken those eye lines as well.

Brush Tool

With a lime or light green swatch, the brush tool was used by Sue to neutralize the reds in the eyes and any other areas where reds are undesirable. There are many other more complex ways to achieve this in Photoshop, but Sue used her background in photo touch-ups and color mixing to do this.

Warp Tool

The warp tool was used to adjust body shape and feature lines. While many fashion and portrait photographers have used Photoshop’s Liquify tool, Sue showed a technique where the area to be transformed is selected, copied to a new layer, and warped to tweak the shape. Sue used this feature many times to make the contour of the arms more pleasing, especially when the model’s pose made the arm look larger than it actually was. Once warped, Sue looked for any unsightly edges and feathered it in with the layer below by using the eraser tool.

Before & After

The before and after photo (above) showing the results of using just some of the techniques in the Creative Live classroom. This editing took literally 30 seconds from start to finish, but look at how much more pleasing the results are. Below are larger photos of the work I did so that you can pixel-peep.

In the photo below, you will see that:

1. The ridges and blemishes are removed from the face.
2. The eyes are clearer. Redness has been removed.
3. The light coverage is balanced on both sides of the face.

Conclusions

1. You don’t have to spend hours editing photos to make it more pleasing.
2. creativeLIVE.com … check it out.

Low-Key Side Profile, originally uploaded by Melvin Tan.

My first ever side profile lit with a flashlight app from the iPad. I really wanted to achieve a very thin, rim light but using a soft light such as the iPad doesn’t give you a very strong outline.

Undertaker, originally uploaded by Melvin Tan.

Trying something a little different today with a low-key self-portraiture, trying to recapture some of the mood of the Undertaker character from the old World Wrestling Federation (WWF).

This was really easy to capture because I setup the tripod on the bathroom counter and shot at myself. I could easily look at myself at the mirror and setup the look and lighting that I wanted. Once the photo was captured, I could see the results from the LCD reflected on the mirror.

Non-Strobist Info:
50mm 1.8D on Nikon D90.
Flashlight App on iPad on my chest pointing upwards.

Self-Portrait, originally uploaded by Melvin Tan.

This turned out to be the best out of several shots, though it is slightly darker than what I was hoping to achieve. I was trying to achieve a more high-key photo, but because there is no ambient or background light, I tried low-key instead. Unfortunately, there is not enough space in my office to truly separate the subject from the background to achieve that effect.

However, this made an awesome profile photo for my LinkedIn profile which was in dire need of a corporate head shot photo.

Strobist Info:
50mm 1.8D on Nikon D90.
SB-600 shot through 30" brolly at 1/4 power from camera right at 45 degrees.
Cactus V4.

BW Self-Portrait, originally uploaded by Melvin Tan.

For the first time in three years since owning my wireless flash triggers, I decided to try some Strobist work within the confines of my tiny office. Distance between subject and camera was 4-feet. Going to try this again in the basement with pink insulation next to see if it looks any different.

Strobist Info:
SB-600 triggered by Cactus V4 and shot through 30" umbrella on camera left at 1/8 power. Nikon D90.

Amanda, originally uploaded by Melvin Tan.

We are in the process of building a new house so we stopped by for a visit to check on the progress. Basement was complete and the first floor as you can see in the background.

Mojito B&W, originally uploaded by Melvin Tan.

Our chihuahua doing is ritual sideways head tilt whenever we try talking to him.

Mojito Shake, originally uploaded by Melvin Tan.

Look at his tongue flapping in the wind as he tries to shake off the water that mommy dumped all over him to cool him down from a long walk.