Photoshop tutorial: Retouch photos with realistic perfect skin

Retouching skin is a common talking point for photographers, as there’s a fine line between lustrous smoothness and the dreaded plastic look. An overly airbrushed image makes subjects appear more like children’s dolls than real people, and robs them of their humanity and charisma.

In this tutorial, burlesque photographer and retouch expert Tigz Rice looks at ways of improving the appearance of skin and removing blemishes, without losing that all-important texture. Using Photoshop, you’ll learn how to make subjects look the best they can be in the real world, and not like Barbie.

Time to complete

5 - 30 minutes

Software

Photoshop

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8 Tips for Any Photographer Using Any Camera

As 2016 gets underway, I’d like to share 8 tips on how to take and make better images. To prove that this has nothing to do with how much fancy gear you have, all these tips can be applied to any camera, and all the example images were shot and edited using only my phone.

Tip 1: Teach yourself to recognize good light

I’m putting this up front because I can’t emphasize it enough, and it’s something you can practice every minute of the day, with or without a camera. Photography means, ‘writing (graph) with light (photo)’. Any camera you own is only a light proof box which captures light coming in. Some are fancy, some are simple, but this is always the essence.

The single biggest tip I can give you is ‘learn to recognize and appreciate good light’, then capturing it becomes the easy part. Is the light coming in through the trees in a beautiful way? What is the color of the light? Is it bouncing off a reflective surface and doing something interesting? Is it creating unique shadows? If you can learn to see good light you are halfway to becoming a good photographer.

Tip 2: Compose your shot

There are many schools of thought on how to compose a photograph, but a solid basic principle to start with is the good old ‘rule of thirds’. You want to imagine breaking your frame up into 9 blocks of equal size, and the easy way to do this is to mentally draw two vertical and two horizontal lines across the thirds of the frame.

Now to use this pattern in your framing you either want to compose any interesting vertical or horizontal lines on these imaginary thirds, or you want to place any points of interest on one of the four intersections of these lines. It sounds complicated but the idea will click quite quickly if you give it a go, and it will serve to get you thinking about how shapes intersect and arrange within the frame.

On top of this it will give you a more pleasing composition than just pointing your camera straight at a subject. The trick then is to learn this, and other techniques which get you thinking about arranging elements within the frame, and then learn when to break the rules. Here are a couple of examples of using the rule of thirds:

Tip 3: Content is king

It’s almost a cliche at this point but it’s as true as ever. You have to ask yourself what you’re shooting. What is your subject? Is it interesting? Is it too obvious to say that shooting something engaging will make for an engaging photo? It may be redundant but if you think your shots are too boring, the problem may be this simple. Shoot something which tells a story, or freezes a moment in time. That day the kids were playing with that pile of leaves. That light setting over those hills. That guy on the street in that crazy hat.

Remember that what you put in front of the lens will make the photograph, not the camera. You can’t blame the gear. Better cameras only make incremental differences to the quality of the capture, but it cannot make up for a boring subject. A boring scene shot on the best camera in the world is still only a boring photo, but a compelling scene shot on a mobile phone can win awards.

Tip 4: Don’t neglect your background

You may be out shooting a particular person or thing, but your subject will only make up a portion of your frame. Ask yourself what you are filling the rest of the frame with. By rotating around your subject a bit you will totally change the background they are set against in the composition.

How bright or dark is the background? What is the dominant color of the background? Does it serve to separate them and highlight what’s going on, or does your subject get lost against the scene behind them? If your background isn’t working, notice it, and shift position. You have a subject, now move and frame them to place them in the scene.

Tip 5: Look at something from a different angle

We are used to viewing things from 5-6 feet off the ground but you may discover a unique shot if you can find a way to get above your subject, or shoot it from below somehow.

Perhaps you can get right up close, or shoot it from an interesting angle. Remember to think outside the box and experiment with where you place the camera to give us a fresh vantage point on a familiar subject.

Tip 6: Catch the detail

On top of shooting people and places, notice the little things. Keep your eye out for the small details we all walk past everyday. By getting in close with your camera, you could be giving us a glimpse into a world we never stop to notice. Think about textures in the concrete, patterns on the leaves, insects, shapes in bark.

Most mobile phones today will allow you to get very close and maintain focus, with the added bonus that you will force the background out of focus, giving you that sexy blur for your shot which people associate with higher end cameras. Give it a go.

Tip 7: Look for lines

Everywhere we go we are faced with lines. Telegraphs poles. The horizon. Chem trails in the sky. Tree trunks. Roads. Think about how you can use these lines to point out your subject or create an interesting shape in the frame.

Sometimes you can use these lines to literally point at your subject by placing them at the convergence of these lines within the frame. Sometimes you can use the lines to create a frame around the subject. Start to notice the lines around you, and use them to your advantage.

Tip 8: Wait for the decisive moment

This is where all the tips above come together in a moment. Many times people will put the camera to their eye to take one picture. For example, Mom wants to snap a picture of her kids playing in a stream. She lifts the camera, clicks, and thinks ‘job done’. But what if you watch a little longer, adjust your position, look at what the light is doing, observe how your subjects are moving, and wait for the moment something magical happens? This is the difference between simply taking a picture or actually making a picture.

Henri Cartier-Bresson, who is considered the father of street photography, coined the phrase ‘the decisive moment’ to express that confluence of events which make a good shot. He would camp out in a spot where he knew the light was good and the composition worked, and then wait for the magic to happen. Obviously we don’t all have the time to shoot like this, but maybe his attitude helps us take a small step away from a ‘quick snap’ mentality, towards actually creating a memorable image by staying with the moment and remaining aware of all the elements we’ve spoken about, to create a unforgettable photograph.

Best of luck. Share what you come up with, and happy light-writing in 2016!

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How to get your photos published in magazines

Part 1: Practice Patience

Don’t assume that only professional photographers stand a chance of getting published in magazines. Editors are constantly looking for new, inventive and fresh photography, and it may just be that your particular vision coincides perfectly with theirs.

However, don’t go to the other extreme and assume that as soon as they see your work editors will be fighting to get to you first. There are any number of great photographers out there and you’re just one of them – no matter what you might think about the quality of your images (for more tips like these, check out our 50 photography tips from jobbing pros to famous photographers).

Brilliance and style are important, but patience, persistence and willingness to study the needs of the magazines you’re approaching are what really count. Don’t send editors a huge collection of images in the hope that there might be one or two that strike a chord.

What actually happens is any really good images that might be in there will be obscured by a fog of mediocrity. That’s assuming the editor even gets as far as looking at them all.

Any editor will have a glance at six photos, might be losing interest at 12 and if faced with dozens may not even bother to start.

In the following pages we’ll take you through the best way to get your photos published in magazines. We’ll tell you how to make the right approach, offer tips to improve your chances, identify some common mistakes and, finally, answer the all-important question of ‘what will I be paid’?

Part 2: Making the right approach to editors

Making the right approach to magazine editors

When approaching editors, you need to be aware that they work in a hectic environment. Phone calls aren’t necessarily the best approach because the editor will often be in an open-plan office, juggling a big stack of mail on an overflowing desk and with a phone already wedged under one ear.

Email or letter is best, and make sure you include a link to or example of the best and most relevant images.

If you submit by post, send a CD including high-resolution images, plus a shot of yourself, a caption document and a thumbnail sheet.

If your submission is already complete and ready to use, it may increase the chances of getting published.

Make sure that all the materials you send have your name and contact information on them, including covering letters, contact sheets, prints and CDs. These can easily become separated in a busy office – the editor might keep a covering letter, say, but pass a CD over to the art editor to take a look.

Part 3: Improve your chances of getting photos published

Improve your chances of getting photos published

Try to pick half a dozen of your best images and concentrate on the ones best-suited to the magazine and its readership.

If you’re photographing a car restoration project, the readers might tolerate one or two ‘arty’ shots, but mostly they’ll want to see that the door decal (for example) has been positioned exactly the right distance from the sill.

And if you’re submitting a manipulated landscape shot to Digital Camera, say, then it won’t hurt to include the ‘original’ shot too and maybe a couple of different variations, so that the editor can see how it might form an interesting story.

This is an important point. You might be used to thinking of photographs as single, static images, but magazines are actually about ‘stories’.

Take a look at the mechanics of magazine reproduction too. Full-page photos often need space for headlines or other information and pictures used across a double-page spread need space for the ‘gutter’ in the middle.

While you might not submit pictures with this kind of space initially, it wouldn’t hurt to shoot variations with this in mind.

You don’t have to stop at supplying images either – why not write the words too? You may be surprised to learn that pitching articles is a much easier route into magazines than photography alone.

Part 4: Common mistakes when trying to get photos published

Common mistakes when trying to get photos published

OK, so you’ve sent in your submission and you want to know what’s happening.

An editor might consider a quick phone call after a couple of weeks reasonable, but most would prefer an email and none will like being harassed – that’s probably the quickest way to get this and any future submission thrown out.

If you intend to send your pictures elsewhere, you need to make that clear. You must not send the same work to competing titles at the same time.

Magazines don’t necessarily check with you that it’s OK to use your work. They assume that what you’ve sent them is being offered to them exclusively.

If two magazines use the same image at the same time, you’ll be unpopular.

Don’t send magazines shots identical to those they’ve already used either!

You may have seen a dozen images by now of old wooden jetties on mirror-like lakes at dawn, but that doesn’t mean you should send more.

Part 5: What will you be paid?

Many specialist newsstand magazines pay by the page, so the proportion of the page taken up by your photo determines your fee. If you were submitting both words and pictures you could get anywhere from £60-200 per page, depending on the magazine.

If you do have work accepted then you need to know the ‘rights’ the magazine is buying from you. It’s common for magazines to insist on full rights in perpetuity.

This means they can re-use the image in reprints, digests, foreign editions and so on. You still own the picture, but they’ve bought the right to use it.

The terms vary between publishers and it’s important that you’re absolutely clear what you’re selling.

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