Skin: The Complete Guide to Digitally Lighting, Photographing, and Retouching Faces and Bodies

by Lee Varis

Revised and thoroughly updated, this practical guide to photographing people is better than ever!

What is the color of skin? You may think you know, until you enter the world of digital photography and try to reproduce what you see. Differences in software, lighting, computer calibration—everything has an impact on color. And that’s all before you get into differences between people in terms of skin types, ethnicities, age, gender, and more! Hollywood-based photo-illustrator Lee Varis guides you step-by-step through the maze.

This new edition covers the very newest trends and techniques in photographing, lighting, and editing skin—and offers plenty of tips, examples, and valuable advice from the author’s own professional experience in the field.

Shows you how to digitally capture all skin types: male, female, young, old, different skin tones and ethnicities, with makeup or without, wrinkled, tattooed, and more Covers a wealth of topics in addition to photo editing, such as how to obtain model releases and compose shots, how to shoot groups, and how to create promotional headshots Incorporates the latest on working with Photoshop and Lightroom Showcases exceptional work from a variety of photographers and artists

If you're photographing people, you’ll want this valuable and unique guide on your shelf.

Genres: Photography, Reference, Nonfiction, Design

371 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 16, 2006

Reviews

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

Varis knows what he is doing - and he does it well. The problem I had though is that everything in the book feels a good 5 years out of date. And the rest of it is highly technical and geared toward the photographer who does ONE special image with a narrow focus. The techniques and everything in the book are laborious and time consuming - but they are also tried and true practices in the retouching industry from the last decade. If only the equipment, post processing software, and general knowledge hadn't evolved, I'd have given this a 5 star.

If you shoot models or headshots in a studio only, this is a great reference since you likely are going for 1-2 great images that you can lavish attention on over several hours. I'd give it 5 star.

If you shoot sessions, e.g., seniors, children, engagements, babies, etc., these methods will bog down your workflow and you're going to be doing sessions in many plus hours rather than quickly and efficiently under an hour. There are many better methods that are quicker, more efficient, and utilize a stronger Lightroom centric workflow rather than Photoshop. And it means you can have a life. You really don't need to know LAB mode, be using math and numbers to create good skin tones, start obsessively taking your INFO dropper and plopping it all around your image looking for black and white points, etc. Honestly, that's why we have eyes and a brain - to create pleasing skin tones and white balance rather than correct skin tones and white balance. Any one who has shot outdoors knows that you warm up full sun images a bit more and cool down green images a bit more than neutral. For these reasons, I'd give this book a 1 star.

Finally, the book is both heavily technical and yet very basic information is presented. Shoots require a lot of expensive equipment that the person to whom this book is targeted likely isn't going to have available. For that reason, I greatly respect and prefer approaches by other photographers such as Zach Arias, who adapt their techniques and workflows as technology evolves and whose training/workshops/videos/books have a much more universal appeal. I learned much more and better techniques for good skin tones and color from other sources than this book.

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

Technical guide to photography in Photoshop. Includes camera calibration, lighting human subjects and PS operation.

[Karly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh ... I haven't brought myself to read through the book the whole way. I bought it with the hopes that it would contain faster/better techniques in Photoshop then the ones that I already use. I was highly disappointed to find mediocre example photos and techniques that, although faster, were very obviously not as good. If I had seen the photos apart from the book, I would have written it off as being done by someone in their beginning explorations in Photoshop, not a seasoned professional. There might be a few saving graces, but I haven't had time to search for them yet. For now I would skip it.

[Al · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book may be pretty good for someone just starting and wanting to get some basic knowledge about how to shoot people, but this book lacks more advanced retouching techniques, which is why I only gave it 3 stars. It provides little new information to the andvanced retouch artist.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lee Varis shows the way to capture realistic skin tones in photography. From camera calibration, to lighting configurations, to post-processing he shares his extensive skill set with the reader in a very accessible way.

[Krusher Basta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book very helpful. Obviously with skin tone/color adjusting and retouching. But from lighting and image capture all the way through printing as well. I am sure I will reference it time and time again.

[Chris]

Not porn!

[Dalton Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

The ultimate photoshop retouching guide

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrific reference guide for the time consuming art of touching up photographs.

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learned some new techniques, primarily using cmy values to edit ryb channels in curves, and a little about the liquify filter.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good reference for processing digital pictures. There are a few typos scattered throughout the book. The author does mention at the end that most of the material will obsolete in a few years.

[Patrick Redmond · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book, I didn't want the lighting section, but the Photoshop techniques are so useful.

[Ben Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative book don't get the bad reviews
Found his use of channels interesting as was the lighting

[Jyl · Rating 3 out of 5]

To go from beginner to intermediate. Contain basic tips, some part are really interesting when other are really basics