Have you ever had to do a shoot in a room where the lights are all over head, and they are causing nasty shadows? Let me let you in on a little secret, you do it all of the time and you just don’t know it. That’s right when you shoot outside, the sun is the overhead light source. You might be saying but I shoot my clients in the shade, so the sun really isn’t a factor. Well I am here to tell you that even when you shoot in open shade (shade where the open sky is above your subject’s head), you are still dealing with the problems caused by an overhead light source… This problem is shadows, and in particular shadows in the eye sockets, that just look terrible.
Lets face it, sometimes you just can’t use flash or a reflector to open up the shadows. Sometimes you can’t direct your subjects to face this way or that. Sometimes you just have to shoot and get what you can and fix it in post. Yeah, I said it…”Fix It In Post”. Not every image is meant for the cover of Vogue, or destined to be a master print. Lets face it, social networking displays billions of images a year that are just terrible. Have you ever been given a job where the client says, ” I am hiring you to do a shoot for Facebook”? Well I have, they didn’t say it exactly like that, but they did say I need you to cover this event and give me the files for social networking and a press/media kit. These types of images don’t have a really high artistic value. What matters most, is that these images help to support the clients story, event, or news.
I have to say, as a photographer, these types of images aren’t so much fun to make, but they do pay the bills. I really want to use all of my professional tools to deliver the best work I can, but as I said earlier, some images just aren’t ever going to be art, but they are still very valuable, none the less. When you are forced to make images with one hand tied behind your back (no flash or light making aids), it’s important for you to deliver images that are better than everyone else that happens to be covering the same event. This is where today’s tutorial comes in to play. If learn this simple technique, you can quickly fix those dark eye sockets, shadows caused by bangs, or any other unwanted shadows in a matter of just a few seconds.
That quick touch up can make a world of difference. When you get that over-head lighting, that might be a bit unexpected (if those bulbs are too bright) it can make anyone look like they have long shadows on their faces. So no one is safe from that type of lighting. This quick fix on Photoshop can save you from using up youe SD card to find the perfect lighting.