by True Atelier, Teaching Tuesday Contributor
If you have ever used a makeup artist for styled or client shoots, then you know what a difference it can make in your final images. If you haven’t used a makeup artist yet, or are considering it, check out THIS blog post by Chic Critique’s Editor and Chief, Kelli France, for a behind the scene’s look at the results. But what if, for various reasons, you aren’t in a position to work with a makeup artist? Perhaps you haven’t found the right one to work with in your area, or perhaps you don’t have room in your studio’s budget. Whatever the reason, there are still things YOU can do with makeup, to get the final look you want in your images and save yourself time in editing on the back end. We have created a behind-the-scenes look for you at how we would do makeup on a model or client if we don’t have access to our makeup artist.
Makeup for a shoot should be different then everyday makeup. As photographers, it’s wise to educate our models and clients about what looks best, or assist in this area ourselves before the shoot begins. At our studio, before we hired on hair and makeup artists, we instructed clients to come ready for their shoot (with hair and makeup done to their liking). However, we also informed clients that upon arriving (1/2 hour early) we would help them style and put together the wardrobe for the shoot from the outfit pieces they brought, and then we would ALSO help put the finishing touches on their hair and makeup. By doing this, they come to the shoot KNOWING we are most likely going to spend a little time helping them with hair/ makeup. Why do this?
Small, localized touch-ups can double or even triple our time spent editing images after the shoot. So we want to minimize the need for that kind of editing in Photoshop by taking care of things like blemishes, under eye circles, chapped lips, and orange or poorly blended makeup BEFORE we get started, rather than trying to fix it later in post. If our client arrives and everything is IMMACULATE with hair and makeup, they have made our job easier. However, that’s not always the case. When that happens, after helping style our clients wardrobe and having them change into their first outfit, we address anything that needs finalized by saying;
“Amy… you look so AMAZING! We are so excited to get started, but before we do lets maybe add a little shine to your lips and maybe a BIT more color to your cheeks (or whatever needs fixing/ enhancing)… is that all right with you?”
Definitely go with the flow on how your client feels about that. Some clients may have brought their own makeup and are comfortable adjusting things themselves. Some say they didn’t bring any makeup with them, to which we would reply…
“That’s all right. We keep a line of makeup on hand for our studio, with clean brushes at the ready. I’m happy to help you if you like!? Makeup for your photo shoot should be a little bit different then everyday makeup. Just like dancers and actors needs stage makeup, there are a few things we can do with makeup before a shoot to get the best images possible!”
When approached in this way, we have had great success with clients being comfortable with us making a few adjustments.
In the case of a client that already has hair and makeup done, do a quick once over to see that-
- Lips are moisturized (or glossy depending on the look you want)
- Their makeup is blended (jawline, blush and eyeshadow)
- Blemishes are completely covered
- Under eye circles are taken care of
- Shine is eliminated
At our studio we have the following products on hand for these touchups-
- A clean jar with clean makeup brushes
- Clean towel, and spray bottle of brush cleaner (to clean brushes after every use)
- Pot of lip balm (so that it can be applied with a clean finger)
- A concealer brush and concealer pallet (we love SONIA KASHUK CONCEALER PALLETS from Target)
- Translucent loose powder
- Clear mascara wand for hair fly-aways
Use these great tools to get models and clients ready for the camera!
Take the makeup one step further by doing ALL makeup yourself (and hair, if applicable) when working with models for your own purposes. It takes practice, and a little bit of resources to accumulate some makeup for your studio, but YOU as a photographer can have great results with D.I.Y. makeup application on your models. To illustrate the difference, we’ve put together
THIS GREAT SAMPLE VIDEO
We hope this gives you the confidence to take charge of the look of your photos, and we hope this saves you time on the back end by taking care of blemishes, under eye circles, and other imperfections BEFORE the shoot.
Tip:
Under eye circles are the most COMMON thing that needs to be taken care of when touching up a portrait session. Even if your subject doesn’t appear to have them, they WILL show up in images because of the way shadows fall. Save yourself time by concealing ANY darker skin under the eyes using a concealer brush and concealer pallet. You’ll be glad you did!
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Until next time!
Nicole Klingler & Chantri Keele
True Atelier: artfully inspired portraits
www.trueatelier.com
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