Results from the Out of Chicago Portrait Conference 2016

Over the weekend I got the opportunity to be one of the speakers in the Out of Chicago Portrait Conference 2016. The conference was a three-day event filled with creative artists in the field of photography. The opening talk was presented by rockstar fashion photographer Lindsay Adler.

I taught a 90-min session on how to do practical retouching and a full day session that involves a beauty shoot and more intensive retouch demonstrations. For those who are not able to attend the conference, I'll give you a taste of the things I have taught. Some of the key things I emphasized in both sessions are:

• Retouching is not a solution to bad photography
• You need to know your lighting, composition, and how to build your team
• Master the basic tools in retouching: heal, dodge and burn, and color correction
• You can't fix what you can't see

Figure 1: Comparing different modifiers

Beauty Shoot Results

On the full day session I am supposed to demonstrate how to do a beauty headshot. I gave my students a treat by showing them how various modifiers can give varying looks.

We tried four setups. I used the following gear and settings in all setups:

• Canon 6D
• Tamron 70-200 VC
• f/11, 1/160, ISO 100 via Sekonic L-478DR
• White foam core as fill light
• Same distance and positioning
• No retouch except for white balance correction 

Note:  I usually shoot with a Canon 70-200 f/2.8 L II, but I used a Tamron here because the Tamron guys were offering lens trial from the event. I had to bump the ISO to 200 with the speedlite because I'm too lazy to manually adjust the speedlite's power.

Setups (see Figure 1):

1. Cheetah QBox 24" with Einstein E640 
2. $7 shoot through umbrella
3. Bare bulb Einstein E640 
4. Yongnuo 560-III with Rogue Flashbender XL

We were expecting the images would look horrible on setups 3 and 4, but we were mistaken. The results were better than we expected! Also the $7 dollar umbrella performed really well. Most people I asked liked the umbrella a lot.

Retouch Results

After the shoot, I asked the model to choose the photo she likes from the shoot. My students narrowed it down further, and so we ended up with the following image. This was shot with the Cheetah QBox 24".

Figure 2. First version: Before and After with Nikki

The process:

• We identified first the problems with the image
• In Photoshop, we applied the basic techniques in retouching: heal, dodge and burn, and color correction
• It took me an hour to retouch the image. This includes responding to questions and giving feedback.
• After the retouch we agree the image looks great and still looks natural
• We know there are still flaws that can be fixed. The idea is to take a break first. Ask a friend to review the first retouch. Take the feedback. Do another cycle or two more cycles until we've refined the image. 

Credits

Photography by Mark Serrano
Makeup by Vanessa Serrano
Model: Nikki Sterlinski

Check my portfolio to see more of my work at www.markserranophotography.com