Lessons

Lesson Info

Defining Facial Features

What if you just shooting portrait ce how do you photograph people's faces like what defines create lighting on specific faces for for for different subjects I did something recently I created thank god it did something recently right I created a guy for face shapes defining what we look at an aggressive face shape and kind of highlighting the best assets of that face shape to kind of give you guys a guide too enhance certain features regardless of what the person's physical attributes are going to go over a quick uh keynote presentation and then we'll do it live demo so at least you guys can keep this in mind so different face shapes there's all sorts of different shapes square round inverted triangle ob long oval diamond heart we're all cut differently every single man is extremely different in regards to his physique some of us have rounder chance some of us have more defined and some of us have wider forehead some of us have more narrow foreheads so the next slide is gonna be a lit...

tle intimidating at first someone go ahead and kind of give you guys a breakdown what spaceship do you guys have that's consideration tohave this is why I said it's intimidating so well defined this way so I saw this great guide there's a young makeup artist named christmas on what's called on a makeup inspiration board online that created this really pink frilly girly whole guide to people's different face shapes but no one does it for men so I took her information and made a little easier to read because hers was still a little more difficult than this so first things first is your face longer than it is wide yes or no you define so I would say we're gonna start with stoney stoney do you mind staying up here with me for two seconds thank you sir so is your face longer than is wise if I look at sony his face is definitively not definitive but longer than it is why so it's a yes by how much a literal isat is it that apparent in regards to the in regards to his face structure that is longer than is wide and it's just by a little bit doesn't have to be much like this is I'm going to go very close to your face I promise not to touch you if I just turn that over it's not by much it's not much access so just a little bit yes the size you are obviously talking about length first to the hairline like where do you where do you count face I would say up to where the hairline should bay come on that thank you e come with me I'm gonna have both men here if you don't mind sitting here from it are standing there can have you stand oppa's well okay so what I'm looking for is where I see the actual face, my perspective of direct on towards the face, direct on towards the face, what type of features they have, the only thing that I'm worried about regards the length is its peak of the head to the bottom of the channel take the head to the bottom, the chin hair or not, I can kind of see more or less where things are thank you. Take a seat again so length versus with his head is literally we're talking about you like you're not here it's longer than in his wife. So it's the first thing a little a lot little what type of jawline? The stony halves if I look at stony from the front with sheena portrait between square and I would say round between the two, I can either choose square around, I would say it's more square than anything else. So is this forehead wide or narrow? So if I look at stony again, if he has a wider forehead because it matches more or less what what? Everything is here so let's see if we're gonna go from a little to square toe wide stoney's head is square sony's head is definitively, according to the charts, the square so if I look at stony and and if the camera wants to see stoney stoney's hair head said hair stoney's head is more of a ship the square so we'll talk about the definitions of a square momentarily let's go forward I use that same chart to define people's features you guys smell with contouring for women big thing with like kim kardashian and maritza highlighting and shadows and using highlights and shadows with makeup to define certain certain features and kind of hide others the problem is that most men aren't okay with wearing makeup you know at least in western culture we're not into in tow waring foundation we're wearing any types of powders or anything in regards to makeup so what could you do well you can contour with light you can consort without makeup I also use contouring and my editing process I mean darken up certain areas I can highlight other areas without ever having to tell my subject so you guys when we spoke this morning I should you guys two different images and I told you the only thing that I did was changed want to call the acne on his face a little pole analyze it was brown dark enough his brow too tiny to give him more of a brooding brown so how does that work concert from? Thank you wanna borrow you in a bit but you said that consort for men what does that mean? Everyone has a different face shape if I look at the square stoney square face, what I want to do is study square face that's it! I can't say that ten times fast if I wanted to. That top portion appears the highlight I want to highlight and accentuate up here. I want to highlight and accentuate here when I want to start blocking certain areas because I wanted to find his eyes, I wouldn't defied his lips and his nose, so I want my contrast to kind of go in the eyes saying with let's, say round their faces and around the face of the oval face on this this part here, when we look at larger subjects, maybe with a like a double chin that are trying to hide what we're trying to returning darken these areas, so we just focus around the face. So these are the same makeup tips that women used to kind of shape their own faces and we're using like to do that another one would be let's say inverted triangle, which is the third one there, second from the left here, somebody with a larger forehead and a smaller chin, how do you get it more proportional you highlight the forehead, you highlight the chin, give contrast towards the eyes and you darken up certain areas so all the a ll the visual interest is right here in the center of the face. So what you're doing is keeping everything symmetrical next. So we're gonna discuss the lighting set up someone who wanted to using the westcott zeppelin, zeppelin with the reflector and zeppelin with two black the flats super simple. I'm not going to do anything more than that to start office. You guys can get some of the concepts, so you're going to see a familiar face. The next shot we're gonna start for squares and stoney. Stoney, stoney, stoney stoney's, your definitive square shape. I drew that a long time before I have a photograph, stoney and it looks like stoney looks like a miniature version of stony. Why? Because stoney's faces very much square stoney's face zeppelin with the reflector zeppelin and his f zeppelin rafi flats. We're going to do the same thing today, but I'm gonna give you guys like I said diagram first and then we'll two in a demo stoney's face in different angles of life. So using our first when I first start photography, you kind of just you take one light, you're bringing a reflector because you're trying to cut some of the shadows, but what is it really doing, think about what you're actually doing. So now your face is very, very it looks very wide from point to point, right? Because amusing reflect amusing like bouncing light and I get to see the broad surface from side to side and everything that's their the second shot we put away the reflector I still have some contouring it's going on stony face looks visually smaller and I'll show you guys the next shot which actually show you guys where the lines are the last shots with the v flats so if you guys remember what am I doing? I'm highlighting points I'm darkening others that's what I want to see I want a dark in other areas so I could just focus on that on the face in the next life. What is that doing? It's giving visual interest just to the area that's here on sonny's face I'm lessening the width of stoney's face without using local fire without using any type of makeup just focusing on the center point for contrast, I'm only looking in his eyes and his lips it's extremely important if you're trying to showcase some buddies john line somebody's eyes, somebody's nose and you just try to keep visual interest here is the same way that we did the same thing with the within lapel and sorry about the lapel, the handkerchief in a hiss you we wanted trying to showcase where the eyes are supposed to be next round faces larger people around the faces big cheeks short short chen's I can even say chins there for two seconds what can we do? His face is definitively round right? So we're trying to showcase his eyes, his nose, his lips, his chin what do we what we're trying to exude in the in the photo is a great one to kind of focus zeppelin plus the reflector zeppelin just zeppelins solo by itself zeppelin with the flats it's a little difficult to see from there but if you start looking here definitively the eyes of the contrast of taking the shadows on the sides of the face my eyes just lied to the centre part of his face without using liquefied mike, can you go back one image without using liquefy without using anything? I could go ahead and start without using anything but light concert contouring his face too showcase his actual features that were tryingto show guess next inverted triangle's a lot of models that issue have inverted triangles which is barely wider forehead smaller chins by cheekbones. The widest point of the person's body is there cheekbones is kind of literally kind of a cut this way and kind of square that's all it is an inverted triangle so again I drew that way before I ever took that image that's definitively that person's face they're categorized by wider foreheads smaller chan's why cheekbones so what could you do to showcase certain features if we're trying to showcase a wider jaw line because we're trying to show them to have a front predominant drama and what could we do so we discussed before using light to contrast here in here so the chain in the forehead and block off some of darkness in their in their face to start kind of shrinking their forehead so it's not as wide and kind of just giving visual interest to the center point of the image so I want you to visualize this the image that we have on the left hand side if you notice it's contoured at the tops of the forehead the tops, the bottoms of the cheekbones and all your faces kind of visualizing is his eyes his nose his mouth because it's symmetrical we look att symmetry is beautiful so if you want to use symmetry in shadows this's help you exude that bjorn I love beyond beyond such a character and you guys need to meet you bjorn with zeppelin and reflector zeppelin and his epic movie flats where we directing like directing light his eyes again his nose his mouth we're using the v flats tto help pull away uh shadow sorry helpful away light from his face just so we can showcase the center point of his his face what we're trying to show perfect so you start seeing the width of the light itself the flatness of his his face peering doesn't actually have a flat face it's just the way that we like thing again this photographer's especially beginning photographers we're not we're not in tunes to seeing like what can you guys um I'm gonna ask the five of you have you guys gotten to the point where you can visually see light and know what it's going to dio and I'm not saying in a photograph I mean I'm saying when you go to position that like can you more or less think about where that light's gonna fall? Why you putting reflector in that more or less it's very very difficult believe not for a lot of photographers do it's not until you're doing it for years and years and years that you start doing that one of things I like to do is I think about this ticket so beginning photographers those that are interested in learning the way that light works I was recommend taking a flashlight going home turning off the light kind of figure out the way it moves around your hand and the way it moves around your face and learning how it search contouring different edges of the body so if you look at the way that a flashlight works very, very like straight beam of light so if I hold it under my chin scary looking it's the same way we did monster lighting and we try to be fearful I hold it above my head it's more natural to what we see in our minds is like we don't think of light when it comes to the floor, but once you start doing that, you start kind of understanding the mechanics of light and the way the light falls off in certain face features that's what we're doing here we're trying to showcase where light is by negating uh certain shadows into the person's face to visually see interest in one area I'll blow you guys have a miller with peter hurley this is one of peter hurley students, which is uh cure manner is an interesting character here, man. If you're watching, I just said you're interesting thing about that is very oblong face and using shadows on the sides of his face on lee along gets his head. I wouldn't want to use a thirty five on cara mandarin because if I shot him with a cure me, if I shot a man with a thirty five long what's going to happen and drag him out, I don't want that to happen. I want a photograph for himto look proportional I don't want him to look so long, so if you have it, if you have subjects, they're a little worried about the length of their head like I have a super long head like I don't know what to do it's a great way for you guys to start shooting those specific clients here we go next screen zeppelin with a reflector zeppelin and his epic movie flats the one on the right, which is predominantly been the good photo is now the one that has head looks the longest to make it a little easier let's see where his head looks the longest, with wise having more of a broader light on his face, starts to give me a little bit of symmetry and white and ice face. It doesn't look so long, so it's the opposite when we talked about different face shapes around faces, square faces and things like that, we're worried about where that light's gonna fall, when when contouring with ob along when you're photographing most started when makeup are still doing most women, they do the same thing this air darkening out certain edges in order to compensate for those things they want more highlights, let's end the cheekbones, so you're more distracted to thinking the face is a little more symmetrical between length and width. Oval faces oval face is obviously just extended versions around, but not yet zeppelin with a reflector zeppelin and zeppelin with the flats where's your I lied when you're looking at shadows when you're looking at highlights, how does that affect the image that you're trying to take using a broader light with reflector how much light hot broad does his face look compared to taking the reflector away? Uh photographing that second image and where to use your I lied to that third image where we're just looking at the center of his face and how does that affect everything that we have their my favorite one? So where's your eye leading it's leading to that senate image? Here we go again some of the subject with a rounder face this is a great example of somebody who necessarily doesn't have the strongest draw a line in the world how we can accentuate their jaw line their features without having to liquefy without having to use makeup just using like tio exude what we're trying to showcase so round oval faces look at that first image if I bring that zeppelin, which is generally let's say even a soft box if you guys don't have a zeppelin using a soft box at home and using a reflector that seems you're gonna get on the left that second image you're pulling away that reflector I'm hiding some of the shadows into their I'm starting to define that draw line, but it's not until I use that final image that I'm starting to narrow his face haven't used liquefy haven't used makeup haven't used anything aside from light to my advantage to make sure photographing that subject as best as possible again so if I start looking at the edges here, thie shadows and highlights were just looking at a thinner version of our subject that's great to see because visually we're so drawn to contrast that we don't look at it as he's skinnier big we're just looking at that center point and we just assume that that's him without visually seeing anything else and since most clients can't tell the difference between a good and great image, you know that's your average client you can show them something like this and like I likes skinny, I look super thin how did you do that? You haven't done anything aside from just consort with like diamond faces, a lot of models at a photograph have diamond faces you know, I have there's a there's a street before we did this class there's a string of people that wanted emailing me, can you photograph people that aren't models? And I'm like models have faces to and believe it or not there's a lot of people diamond faces like these air all subjects and whatnot diamond faces are just subjects that have very wide cheekbones, very narrow foreheads and very narrow, right? So I know I need to learn how to photograph that you shoot them with let's, say a thirty five and shoot it landscape how how is that gonna make their head look well, if the cheekbones of the widest part that's gonna start winding out their head and starting out their heads. So what am I doing to my subject? You know, how is that visually gonna look again if I take a thirty five, which is a portrait now I'm elongating their face. How much longer is it a look? Because it is longer than it is wide, so I'm gonna go ahead and pull their head out to the next same thing. So, like I said, a lot of models issue. So what am I doing in concert with? Like, I'm keeping a lot of the contrast basically using highlights in the forehead highlight finish in dark, getting out the cheekbones so that we were just looking at the center point. We're looking at the centre of somebody's face, I just want visual interest to be there, so if I look at the second the second image, you can tell that darkening out the cheekbones, darkening out these areas, my eyes just lead here second here my eyes were just leading here, using highlights and shadows to consort a person's face and help them look a little skinnier and more proportional wider, whatever, whatever your goal is using that contrast to be able to do that heart shaped face is usually short rounder faces with a large forehead there there's actually a lot of people this way this is, uh our old intern stephen stephen seems an interesting character will say the least I love steven so how do you photograph heart shaped faces subjects with a small urchin short faces kind of just totally symmetrical and like kind of wide foreheads? Well, first informants heart shaped face is actually when I most difficult because they're so short and trying to just give him a spotlight on a specific aspect that on your face that what you're trying to do is take away highlights from the forehead on both sides appear in up here we're trying to take sorry trying pull highlights from these sections you're trying dark in these areas out trying to darken these areas up to kind of make it a little thinner dark in these areas up so it looks a little longer because they're trying to elongate it. But how do you do that with let's say even the flats like what do you need to do in order to do that? So we'll discuss how I did that be difficult for you guys to see on the screen? I'm gonna visually just kind of help you guys with that zeppelin with the reflector if I look at my subject on the left, my subject is a very, very broad face, so I mentioned before stephen generally has a short even symmetrical head like it's very like that's his head in person, the zeppelin and the v flats forty five degrees turning to the flats over so I'm actually taking away light from the top of his head which actually thins out his forehead and it just starts working on the cheek bones so it starts kind of keeping the forehead in the chin symmetrical zeppelin by itself and how that just illuminates his forehead and illuminates his chief but now I have a big cheek in a big forehead what do I do? How is that house my seeing that that last image to zeppelin and the reflector so using the zeppelin reflected how how broad his face looks? It looks very broad and short, so we're looking at highlights here zeppelin v flats highlights here taking white highlights on either side taking away highlights just on this side just eliminating these sections and this one were looming everything that's there that's going to be our lecture side now it's time for demo so I'm gonna need some guys? Wei asked a few questions. Absolutely that would be fantastic because I love doing people love what you're doing first of all, before we go into this how do you adjust light best for face type went outside to combat ambient light? Yeah that's a great that's a great question um mike, can you go back to the diamonds image right there, next photo between the two gas. Okay, the photo on the left is actually natural light shooting in a vey flat through a window. If I was going to shoot outside, I would want them trying to figure out what's the best source of light. What modifiers am I using overhead lighting by using certain angles of light by using slivers of light just to photograph in that specific section I knew when it comes to even heart shapes, let's say stephen prefers the spot grin on his face like that old school three point lighting. I would go ahead and focus just on his on what he likes lighting just here in this section when it's doing is taking away visual interest from his forehead. So he's just looking his eyes in his mouth, and for a long time, he couldn't tell why he like that, and a lot of that has to do with contouring we're speaking about makes a little visual cues there. Perfect good one from mike mcadams. We had a couple of their votes on this as well. Now different people have different styles, and the question is, with mohr, traditionally a feminine men, do you still use the normal the same lighting techniques for men? Or do you lean towards more beauty lighting typically used for women? Do you use the same the's same techniques for different face shapes, no matter what the personal style of the individual, is I just me personally, what I won that doing is making sure that that person looks as best as possible, so I'm taking a couple things into account. I'm looking at my subject, I'm figuring out who they are, what they're about that's, part of the sections that we've discussed today, but what what they're trying to about like, what are they trying to showcase their? They're trying to look more effeminate? Is that what they're trying to do that I would try to use the reflector? That's, there's, a kind of look, softened some of their features. If that's the look that we were trying to go, it really depends on the client and what the muses I would have that would be my honest answer. There you go full of that cam, and one question is we jumped into this ght three is wondering what size zeppelin is being used this one forty seven forty seven.