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Beauty Photography Tips by Tina Eisen

Creating a beauty image is more than just clicking a button, post processing and decorating my portfolio. The process starts long before the actual day of the shoot, from finding inspiration to team building, building rapport to studying the dos and don’ts.

In this blog post I’d like to take you on a little journey of this creative process and share the steps I take before, during and after picking up my camera.

Inspiration & Brainstorming

The fact that I’m in love with nature probably doesn’t come as a surprise! The theme of flowers runs through a large percentage of my images. But there’s more to it than pretty pink petals. The incredible patterns, colours and textures I have found over the years in the unsung heroes such as herbs, dandelions, mere weeds and even mould, are what really fascinates me!

I try to live with my eyes wide open, constantly exploring and figuring out why I get drawn to certain things.

Anything around me can inspire me, I don’t limit myself to other people’s images. Those have been done. Once I latch onto an interesting subject the brainstorming begins. For this there’s no better tool than the modern-day scrapbook called Pinterest. Dozens of folders containing brainwaves and ideas, in my case as general as “2018 Beauty Inspo” to the more specific “Different Types of Wispy Hair”.

Teamwork plays an important role during this step. Bouncing early ideas off make-up artist and hair stylist doesn’t just broaden the creative horizon of the shoot. It also allows your creative team members to bring their specific skill and knowledge to the table.

Team Building

The people I work with regularly I have known for years. Through countless tests I was lucky to find and build my team and fearlessly create with. Because of the connections and trust we built I’m now able to recommend these people for jobs I get booked for and vice versa, passing the skill and professionalism of my teams to future clients.

But what actually makes a good beauty model? Or a suitable make-up artist?

Models

What society perceives as beautiful, your classic “girl next door”, isn’t my first choice of model. I want interesting features, angles, face shapes as these are the unique details that will draw the viewer in.

The most important bit in a good beauty model for me is the skin though. Shooting close enough to see every pore comes with the downside of highlighting every spot, dry patch and vein. I’m a big fan of dewy, healthy looking skin. To save myself hours in retouch, the skin needs to look as close as possible in camera as I imagine the end result to look.

Picking models by their portfolios alone can be deceiving. You’re looking at finished, retouched images that give you limited insight into the actual condition of the model’s skin. Asking for polaroids will give you a better idea of what you’re dealing with. Often a click through to a model’s Instagram. They are usually linked to their online portfolios, and that gives me some clues about the real person.

Make-up artists

At the same time not every make-up artist is a good or suited to beauty photography. Make up application for beauty (especially skin prep and foundation) is miles different from other “uses” of make-up, for example, a wedding day. Rather than coverage, I look for foundation that doesn’t cover pores and freckles and almost looks like it isn’t even there.

Make sure your make-up artist of choice’s portfolio reflects their experience with studio beauty photography.

On The Day – Rapport & Communication

In order to create images the viewer can connect with, I need to connect with my subject. Before taking any images, I get to know people, spend some time while they are getting hair and make up done (valuable bonding time!) and generally have a laugh. A genuine human connection is very hard to fake, so I rather spend some time creating a real one.

I treat my teams like I would my friends and family. I encourage them to make themselves at home, help themselves to drinks and snacks and not a single shoot has taken place under my watch where there wasn’t at least 3 types of cake present… breaking the ice Tina style.

During the shoot, communication is key

No matter how experienced your model might be, people want to hear what works well. In regard to my goals as a photographer, the more I’m aware of the industry I work in, the better I know the standards of the campaigns and publications I’m looking to book. I try to express my vision verbally but since this is a visual industry after all, showing reference images and even acting out certain poses, helps me pass ideas to the model.

Similarly, I will be communicating with the make-up artist and other team members while I’m shooting. The make-up artist’s job doesn’t finish when the model gets out of the chair. It’s their job to keep an eye on their creation while I’m shooting to give me the freedom to concentrate on my job as a photographer.

Shooting tethered

Shooting tethered straight into Capture One gives me and my team the opportunity to keep track of the results as they happen.

I’m guilty of accidentally knocking the aperture down while snapping away happily when shooting to card – only to notice 20 images later and awkwardly declaring “oh, yessss that was soooo good… um, let’s do that again!”

I will position my laptop to the side of me, so I can keep an eye while shooting. Keep the monitor out of sight of the model in order to not distract her.

Including the team

At the same time, my team is keeping an eye on the monitor. For a make-up artist, seeing the results on a screen and seeing how certain colours show up under the light conditions, being able to spot hot spots and uneven tones will enable them to correct mistakes on the spot and ultimately produce better results.

Once I know my camera and light settings are perfect, I’m able to make initial RAW adjustments in Capture One. This typically includes fine tuning the levels and making first decisions on colour, as well as fixing uniformity issues when it comes to skin tones.

When shooting tethered, these setting will automatically carry over to all the following images. This saves me time later on and gives the team an instant idea of the end result.

Seeing the images on a screen much larger than the camera screen gives me better control over the shoot and ensures the shots I had in mind.

Beauty Shoot Tips

There’s few DOs and DONTs when it comes to my work, most of which are personal preference and will vary from photographer to photographer.

The DOs

As mentioned before, I DO like to communicate throughout the shoot. It’s key.

Have your team near you while shooting. They can keep an eye on that smudged lipstick and those stray hairs that will cost you valuable time in retouch later on.

Once I know my technical settings are perfect, I allowing the model to pose freely for a series of shots without me taking the camera down and interrupting her. This has proven to give the best, believable poses and facial expressions.

Move around on your set. I rarely just shoot a model dead on straight, especially for macro images. You can usually find me on the floor somewhere under the triflector stand. And speaking of being on the floor… shooting a model from slightly underneath is a great, flattering angle for beauty!

The DONTs

Don’t stop shooting to check every single image. I have my laptop in my peripheral vision, but I don’t need to stop shooting after every click.

Ditch the “I can fix that in Photoshop” attitude. If it takes a couple of seconds or even minutes to be fixed on set, so be it. The end results will always reflect that initial attention to detail.

Don’t allow awkward hands into an image. Not every model has the skill to hold her fingers in a graceful manner. I’d rather have no hands in the image than an awkward one. These can ruin the whole shot.

And while we’re on the topic of hands, ask your model to not physically touch her face when placing her hands. Rather just pretend to touch in order to avoid smudges and harsh shadows. Unless that’s what you’re going for, of course!

After The Shoot – Now What?

The team is gone, the cake is eaten, and I’m still hanging out in Capture One.

Once the shoot is wrapped I like to immediately cull my images. Everyone has their own unique ways of doing so. For me it is “Red Tag” (Shortcut: ‘-‘) for the first round of choices and “Green Tag” (Shortcut: ‘+’) for the final picks. I aim to cull images as soon as possible after the shoot while they are fresh in my mind.

Lining up multiple images next to each other in sets immediately helps me identify images that look too similar. It’s much easier putting together a strong, non-repetitive set this way.

Once my choices are made I will export them into Photoshop where all the cleaning, dodging and burning, and cloning takes place. When the retouching is done, I review my results as a set in Capture One. Here I make the last tweaks in levels and tones to ensure uniformity throughout the set. This is particularly important if a set is meant for submission or for client work.

All that’s left for me to do is processing the images into any desired format and sending them to clients, magazines and team members. Last, but not least, social media! The most powerful of all marketing tools.

For more examples of my work, have a look at my Instagram account and come see me there for any questions and behind the scenes glimpses!

If you don’t already own Capture One, you can download a 30-day trial and discover the power of it!

Beauty related Capture One content

Shooting tethered in Capture One (Help site)

Optimizing tethered capture (60-minutes webinar)

Skin Tone Tool (Help site)

Achieving Perfect Skin Tones by Jonas Nordqvist (Blog post)

Meet Felix – Small worlds, endless possibilities

The beautiful image, Myth Mountain, and dedication story by Felix Hernandez has taken first place in Capture Dedication Competition.

My inspiration

I remember as a child I used to spend hours alone in my room playing with my toys. I also remember that the best part was customizing them and creating worlds where they could exist. Now that I am “grown-up” I realize that I never stopped playing and that the only difference is that now I do it with a camera in my hands.

Photography and digital art have given me the possibility to bring scenes of my childhood imagination to life. Photographing scaled models is not so different from other disciplines of photography, but it has its peculiarities. You have to think big, but at the same time small. The possibilities are endless and there are no recipes. You just have to use your imagination.

In some ways I feel like a landscape photographer, which I’m not. I also feel like a portrait photographer, and again, I’m not. I think I’m a product photographer, but… I’m not! So, what am I? To me, it doesn’t matter. I love all kinds of photography disciplines and techniques, because mixing them allows me to create my own vision and share my stories. Photography and digital art have given me the possibility to bring to life those scenes I had in my head as a kid.

Behind the image

Myth Mountain was the last photo I did of the series ‘Troopers’, using the Black Series Star Wars figures and for it I wanted to do something different. Before Myth Mountain, all of my photos were done in the studio, and in many cases I inserted stock images for the backgrounds. For this last image I wanted to capture the scene for real.

I went to Los Cabos where I knew I would find the kind of rocks I was looking for. I needed them in the water, not because I wanted to do a sea scene, but because I wanted to give the effect of heavy mist or fog. To accomplish that I used a long exposure shot which would convert the water movement into heavy, low fog. I didn’t care about the over exposed sky since having it almost white would help to integrate all the images better.

I tried for over four days to get the shots on location since I was looking for a soft light. For that, I needed an overcast day. The quality of light is very important to tell a story as it sets the mood. In the studio it’s easy because you’re in control of it. But on location you have to seek, wait, and be patient. Sometimes you have to keep going back to the same spot for several days until the conditions are just right for what you are looking for.

Bringing the imagination to life

Myth Mountain is a mix of studio and landscape photography. I used a total of five different photos and composed them into one:

Three photos in studio. I focus stacked the Storm Trooper to get everything sharp.
Two long exposure photos for the landscape done at Los Cabos.

For the production in the studio I used common products:

A rock
Wheat flour for the “snow”
Smoke for the ambience

Setting the scene

I love photo manipulation and digital art. But if you can do most of your project in camera, it enriches the final product in many ways. It’s not only fun, it also gives the image a more realistic look.

For example, if your model is in the snow, use your imagination and create a snow scene. I use wheat flour to create snow. If I need to create a desert, I use corn flour. If I want to add some atmosphere, I use smoke from a cigarette. You don’t have to smoke, but I have found that it’s the best way to control small amounts of smoke and put them where you want. To get rainy days, I spray water mist. If I want to make droplets, I use corn syrup and if I want to freeze something, I use compressed air. You can use fog machines, wind machines, dry ice, etc.

The possibilities are endless and there is no recipe. Use your imagination and try different things. Most of the stuff you will need are at home or at the store around the corner. Be creative!

Getting the scale right

Scale is one of the most important aspects. If what you want is to give a sense of realism to your scaled models, you will need in many cases to get closer with your camera. You could think that using a Macro lens would do the job, but the problem with Macro lenses is that they have a shallow depth of field. That means that you will only have a shallow focus plane and the rest of your subject and scene will be out of focus. That would be a downfall for our purpose in making small scale models look real. That’s the way our brain has been taught to perceive scale. In the case of the Storm Trooper, I had to do focus stacking. Below is one of the photos I used.

Capturing the light

I shoot my models by mixing studio flashes, light painting techniques, or natural light. It could be similar to shooting a product, but again, if you want to give the sense of realism you have to think in scale. It’s not the same to shoot a real human model with an octabox than to shoot a scaled model with the same octabox. The quality of the light would be softer as the light source is bigger when used with a scaled model. So, all the basics of lighting in studio or at location will apply but take them to a smaller scale.

Finalizing the work

Post production will give the final punch to your image. Here you can insert elements to your backgrounds, objects that complement your story telling, effects that could be complex to do in camera, or add a sense of motion, color grade for the mood, etc.

For me, photography is a mixture of playing with different techniques and disciplines. The technical aspect can be learned relatively easily, but the hard part is hidden in our minds and in our hearts. It’s a matter of staying childish and curious. It’s about re-learning how to play like you did when you were a child.

More of Felix Hernandez’s work:

Rouge One – © Felix Hernandez

Famous Cars / The Dukes – © Felix Hernandez

Ecto 1 – © Felix Hernandez

Audi Middle East – © Felix Hernandez

The Crow & The Dove – © Felix Hernandez

Inner Journey – © Felix Hernandez

Audi Germany – © Felix Hernandez

11+1 tips and tricks for Capture One

NOTE: This article discusses an outdated version of Capture One. To learn more about our latest version, click here.

Following the previous blog post about 11 tips and tricks for Capture One, here is another post stuffed with tips and tricks to ease your workflow!

If you don’t already own Capture One, download a 30-day trial and follow along.

1. Apply a Style or Preset as a Layer

Capture One 11.1 introduced a simple way of applying a Style or Preset as a Layer.*

Right-clicking a Style or Preset will open a menu, allowing different options. Selecting ‘Apply to New Layer’ will create a new Layer with the name and adjustments of the Style or Preset. From the Layers tool, you can now adjust the opacity of this Layer, controlling the impact.

Static Image — Applying a Style as a Layer and changing the opacity

*This feature requires that the tools included in the Style or Preset work on Layers. Black & White, Film Grain, Basic Color Editor, Vignetting among others don’t work on Layers. If a Style includes tools that don’t work on Layers, a warning will show.

2. Show / hide / move the Browser, Tools and Viewer

Shortcuts in Capture One are among those things many photographers don’t take the time to learn. Continuously investing time in learning, remembering and using shortcuts will inevitably improve your workflow.

Here are five of my personal favorite shortcuts that quickly make the interface of Capture One highly dynamic and flexible:

[Cmd / Ctrl + b] : Show/hide the Browser
[Cmd / Ctrl + t] : Show/hide the Tools
[Cmd / Ctrl + Shift + b] : Switch the Browser below/to the side
[Cmd / Ctrl + Shift + t] : Switch the Tools left/right
[Cmd / Ctrl + Alt + v] : Show/hide the Viewer

Like any shortcut in Capture One, these can be customized:

Mac: Capture One 11 > Edit Keyboard Shortcuts…
Win: Edit > Edit Keyboard Shortcuts…

3. Adding the same tool multiple times

Are you tired of switching back and forth between the RGB and Luma curve? Or maybe the Shadow, Midtone and Highlight in Color Balance? Fear not, this trick will help!

As the interface of Capture One is customizable, you can simply add the same tool multiple times and have them next to each other. You can do this in the current Tool Tabs or create your own. Right click anywhere in an empty space in a Tool Tab to add new tools.

4. Film Curve – Extra Shadow

Some images are a bit heavy on the contrast or saturation straight out of camera with the Auto curve applied. This is of course a subjective matter, but if you like your images to have a slightly more flat starting point, there is a trick for that!

In the Color Tool Tab, go to Base Characteristics. Change the Curve from ‘Auto’ to ‘Film Extra Shadow’. This will provide a starting point with less contrast. Bringing back the same contrast level if needed is a quick pull in the Contrast slider or some Levels adjustments.

This Film Curve can be saved as a default option for your camera, which is applied when importing images going forward. Go the tool submenu [•••] and select ‘Save as Defaults for…’

5. Two different Auto Levels methods

Auto Levels (the tiny ‘A’ in the top right of the Levels tool) is a quick method of getting a fairly decent contrast with a single click. Within ‘Preferences > Exposure’, you can select between two different channel modes:

RGB Channel: Will move the RGB channel, affecting overall contrast and luminosity.

Red, Green and Blue Channels: Will move the channels individually, affecting contrast and correcting for any color cast there might be present in shadows, midtones or highlights.

The Clipping Thresholds can also be set from the preferences, allowing control over the strength of the Auto Levels adjustments.

6. Select by filename list

You send a large number of images to a client for them to make a list of their picks. You get a list of filenames back in an email. How do you most easily find those images in your Session / Catalog? Select by filename list.

Go to Edit > Select By > Filename List… and copy the filenames into this window. Click OK, and the images from the list are instantly selected within your active album/folder. With this selection you can simply give the images a rating, color tag or create a new Album (Right Click > Create Albums From > Selection…) for further processing.

You can create keyboard shortcuts for both ‘Select By Filename List’ and ‘Create Albums From Selection’. With this workflow, selecting and managing any number of images from a filename list will take as little as 15 seconds.

7. Single Pixel noise reduction

Within Noise Reduction, there is a slider called ‘Single Pixel’. This will take care of most instances of hot pixels in your images. A hot pixel is a dead pixel on your camera sensor that typically shows up as pure white.

8. Advanced Color Editor, hue rotation

If you’re familiar with the Advanced Color Editor, you might have encountered the limit of 30 degrees with the Hue slider. Does this mean you cannot change a color range more than 30 degrees around the hue wheel? Nope, there is a trick!

The tool allows up to 30 color picks – per layer. With this in mind, you can simply pick the color range again (and again and again…) and change the Hue in the same direction, effectively pushing the change 30 degrees per color pick.

The reasoning behind the 30 degrees limit is to make sure precise adjustments are fast and easy.

9. Crop settings

In ‘Preferences > Crop’ you can decide what to show and when to show it when working with the Crop Tool. You can mix and match your settings as desired. The easiest way of finding out what works for you is to select an image, select the Crop Tool and make a tight crop, then go to Preferences without switching to another cursor tool.

10. Sub Folders in Process Recipes

If you use Process Recipes (if not, then you should!), you might have seen the field ‘Sub Folder’. It’s a nifty little feature that allows you to specify a sub folder for each recipe, automatically placing images exported with the recipe in the respected sub folder. You can, for example, add a ‘TIFF’ sub folder for your TIFF recipe and a ‘JPG Preview’ sub folder for your small resolution JPG recipe.

11. Toggle cursor tools with the same shortcut

This is not specific to Capture One, but the trick to toggle between cursor tools with the same shortcut is to hold down Shift as well. For example, toggling between the rotation cursor tools is [Shift + r].

12. Creating custom ICC profiles

Is the skin tone of a specific camera model too red, or do you need the blues of another camera to be permanently less saturated?

If you are unhappy with a color profile of a supported camera model in Capture One, you can create your own. Any color adjustments made in the Color Editor can be saved as a custom ICC profile and used on future images.

To learn more about how the Color Editor works, you can watch the webinar, Color Editor Master Class (60 minutes).

What are your favorite tricks in Capture One?

If you missed it in the beginning, here are another 11 tips and tricks for Capture One.

If you don’t already own Capture One, you can download a 30-day trial and discover the power of it!

Why shoot RAW?

NOTE: This article discusses an older version of Capture One. To learn more about our latest version, click here.

RAW image files are sometimes referred to as ‘digital negatives’ because they save the data obtained from the camera sensor as information that can be converted into an image. The data is unprocessed and requires a RAW converter to transform it into an image.
What you have with a RAW capture is an incredible amount of data with a much wider dynamic range and color tonality from which to construct an image with more freedom. An in-camera JPG file is that same image data compressed with a predefined contrast curve and color management applied by the camera manufacturer as a fit-all solution to how images should look.

If you imagine a RAW file as a huge range of ingredients in a kitchen, then you’ll understand that the bigger the selection of materials, the more possibilities are available for creating something delicious. To continue the analogy, if a large counter packed with every imaginable ingredient is RAW, then a JPG would be the baked cake

All cameras capture in RAW, but when you decide to shoot JPG, most cameras will convert your RAW file to a JPG for you, only keeping the JPG.

We want to share why we think shooting in RAW is the way to go for more control, flexibility, and quality.

How far can camera control take you?

“Just get it right in camera” is probably a statement you’ve heard, or maybe even said, at some point in your life as a photographer. While there is some truth to the statement, there’s a limit to what you can actually ‘get right’ in camera. White balance, depth of field, focus, exposure – you have control of these. But when it comes to contrast, color grading, highlight and shadow recovery, and much more, it’s almost impossible in most cases to have any impact on this before pressing the shutter.

Getting everything as close as possible to what you want in-camera is by far the best starting point. But some things simply have to be done in post-production and editing a RAW file has much more to offer than editing a JPG file. Below is a quick run-through of some of the benefits of RAW.

Easy-to-correct white balance

While it’s easy for studio and landscape photographers to set the white balance correct, it’s not always possible for other genres of photography. Take event photography, for example. You move around, in and out of buildings, sun, shade, everything is changing, and you just have to follow the subjects. The ability to easily correct white balance in post-production is a key benefit of shooting RAW.

Original file was too blue due to the time of day and incorrect white balance. Since some areas of the original JPG file had a blown out blue channel (255), it was impossible to bring back details of that channel. The RAW file provided correct colors with a single click with the White Balance Picker.

Diving into bit-depth

It sounds technical, but bit-depth can be seen as the number of shades between the darkest value of a pixel and the brightest value. When you capture an image in JPG, the depth is 8-bit. This provides 256 shades per channel per pixel. A 12-bit RAW file captures 4.096 shades per channel, while a 16-bit RAW file captures a whopping 65.536 shades.

Long story short, you have so much more information to play around with in a RAW file, making your images super flexible with smooth tonal transitions when you edit them.

Get more dynamic range

I like to describe dynamic range as the elasticity of an image. There are more details in the shadows and highlights than meet the eye if you capture your images in RAW. Capture One is renowned for its highlight and shadow recovery capabilities, providing a solid foundation for bringing back details in areas of your image that would have been lost if shooting in JPG.

The original image was overexposed with blown out highlights. Reaching 255 in multiple channels, it was impossible to recover any data in those areas from the JPG file. The dynamic range of the RAW file allowed a clean recovery using Capture One.

Better Image quality

With more control comes better image quality. The ability to fine-tune sharpening and noise reduction before converting your RAW file puts you in the front seat of the process, providing optimal image quality.

You can go back in time

Image editing software is constantly evolving, and as new tools and features emerge, it’s allowing more sophisticated processes for your photography. I have talked to photographers loading ten-year-old RAW files into Capture One 11 to discover that they can get much more out of their files than they could ten years ago. It brought new life to their old images.

RAW processing algorithms are becoming more and more advanced, and you really don’t have the same possibilities with old JPG files. So, keep those RAWs!

What’s the catch?

RAW files take up more space, filling your memory cards and hard disks up faster. This isn’t as big a problem today as it was ten years ago, as storage prices are very low. Also, most cameras shoot slightly slower in burst mode when shooting RAW files.

Another catch is speed. All images shot in RAW have to be processed with a RAW converter. This, mixed with the slower burst speed, makes it less preferable for sports photographers covering major sports events. The images have to go to press as fast as possible, making it difficult to run every image through a RAW converter.

Fujifilm advantages!

When you are shooting Fujifilm you already know how great their film simulations are. With them you can easily color grade your pictures when pressing the shutter button, these simulations can make your images get a cinematic or analogue feel to them. These film simulations are saved when you shoot jpeg. But when shooting RAW they are still embedded in the file in Capture One – but you can change it after importing, that is not possible when shooting jpeg.

Along with the film simulation Capture One also embed lens corrections and camera profiles.

So, what should I shoot?

Unless you need to deliver images very fast (say for newspaper photography), or if the colors and contrast aren’t the priority in the specific images, you should absolutely shoot in RAW.

Today’s memory cards bring a lot of storage for a reasonable price, so if your camera supports shooting RAW + JPG, that is an option that brings you the best of both worlds. You have a JPG file instantly available next to the corresponding RAW file, offering you all the options described above. The only downside to this is a more demanding file management.

Just like working with a full set of ingredients at hand, shooting your images in RAW will provide the full set of options for editing your images exactly as you want them to look.

What’s your main argument for shooting RAW?

If you don’t already own Capture One, download a 30-day trial and try editing RAW files today.