3 Before and After Portraits

Ray Dauphinais

I am primarily a people photographer. I truly believe two things – people are a funny lot and each face is beautiful in its own way.
I strive to bring both the personality and inner beauty to light.

The other night I teamed up with a MUA and a Hair Stylist for a bit of fun and a test shoot with models - Katie, Fallon Nicole and Amber Jean.
I took a ‘Before’ naked face picture of each girl as they arrived and selected one of my finished images for the ‘After’.

Amber Jean

I discussed the ‘look’ for each model with Ashley (MUA) and Sammy (Hair) as each girl arrived at the studio.
There is more to creating a memorable portrait than putting a person in the studio and snapping the image.
There are three major areas that can be controlled in a portrait session; good lighting, good make-up/hair and good post processing editing skills.

Katie

I used a 47” Octobox, creating a large light source, as the main light and a 22” Beauty Dish as the hair light for Katie.
For Amber and Fallon I used a 86” PLM, bare silver reflective for Amber and diffused for Fallon’s picture.
These lighting setups help to give lighting that will hide the most blemishes and provide a good, well lit image to work in post.

Fallon


The key to a successful model portrait session is having a make-up artist put on a good base, designed for studio lights along with the right colors to match the model’s face and outfit. A professional hair stylist is critical to these kinds of images. Then it’s image selection and into Photoshop, to remove the blemishes, smooth the skin, add a adjust color and make the image pop.

I’m interested in your comments.

Ray

divamum

SO true that the MUA, hair and (when available) clothing stylists really can make a shot happen in a way that is tough when you as the photographer are doing ALL of it.

I like these a lot - they also show how a model can look pretty "meh" before the magic in the studio, but will also know how to "switch on" for the camera. I think all of these shots show this, but none more than your blonde in the 2nd group - before and after are almost unrecognizable.

Curious about the 3rd model - she seems to have a very straight waist which, despite the semi-exposed breasts, gives her quite a masculine look, espeically as she seems pretty muscular with ripped abs. Faced somethign sort of similar myself this week - one of my shoots this week involved a gal who is quite slim, but has a classic inverted-triangle shape with HUGE shoulders and a thick, short neck (you'd believe she's a swimmer - she's not, but she looks like one). She also has very short hair which made it surprisingly difficult to create a soft, feminine look in many of her shots.

Really nice work on this set.

Qarik

wow..that's pretty amazing transformations. A good MUA is like good "pre-shot" post processing.

Sam

Absolutely great set set and explanation!!

The second is the killer..............

Little girl walks in and a beautiful young lady walks out.

This could be the best before and after I have seen.

Sam

kdog

Awesome thread, Ray. Would you mind if other added before/after pairs to this thread?

Ray Dauphinais

Thanks for the comments and compliments everyone.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
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Divamum: Fallon is well proportioned in a sports sort of way. She is not difficult to flatter though. <G>A very classically shaped face.<o:p></o:p>
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Qarik: I agree but don’t forget the Hair Stylist, depending on the shape of the face, hair can really be the more important ‘pre-shot’ process.<o:p></o:p>
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Sam: Katie has an extremely oval shaped face with a pointy chin, the challenge of the evening.<o:p></o:p>
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Kdog: Share away.<o:p></o:p>
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Here are one more of each of the girls:

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<o:p>Lighting was key to Katie oval face.</o:p>
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<o:p>Amber Jean's square face required thoughtful angles.</o:p>
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<o:p>Fallon's classically shaped face and body were uncomplicated to light. Gaining her trust with posing was key.</o:p>
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divamum

Ray, one of the things I'm really keen to learn is not only how to "see" face shapes - I'm ok with that - BUT then know exactly how to pose/position/light to taste and to flatter. I think most of us shooting lit portraits understand the benefit of light/shadow to sculpt a face and understand the basic "rules" for flattering (shoot from above slims, jawlines, 3/4 turns to gain cheekbones etc etc) but you're dealing with some real subtleties here and very sophisticated results here. How did you learn this? Is there a book/website/seminar which deals specifically with these kinds of things? I'm desperate to learn more - and haven't done too badly figuring out quite a few things on my own just through practice - but I know I could do sooooo much better with some more knowledge!! Curious as to how/where you learned

kdog

Great shots, Ray.

Ok, here's my input. This was a shoot for a friend of mine who's trying to establish herself as an MUA. So I found the model, and my friend did the hair and makeup.

Before


After

Dreadnote

divamum wrote: »

Ray, one of the things I'm really keen to learn is not only how to "see" face shapes - I'm ok with that - BUT then know exactly how to pose/position/light to taste and to flatter. I think most of us shooting lit portraits understand the benefit of light/shadow to sculpt a face and understand the basic "rules" for flattering (shoot from above slims, jawlines, 3/4 turns to gain cheekbones etc etc) but you're dealing with some real subtleties here and very sophisticated results here. How did you learn this? Is there a book/website/seminar which deals specifically with these kinds of things? I'm desperate to learn more - and haven't done too badly figuring out quite a few things on my own just through practice - but I know I could do sooooo much better with some more knowledge!! Curious as to how/where you learned

I'd be interested as well. What you have done here is outstanding!

Hackbone

Great makeup does it but you added another super step in the process with your talent. Great work.

Ray Dauphinais

Thanks you guys, you’re very kind.

Divamum and Dreadnote: This is self-taught, I have been asked to “teach me the way you see people”, I truly wish I could. Here’s the best I can offer:

I study people every chance I get, I have lost the thread of conversations because of being distracted by the catch lights in the eyes of the person in front of me.

I am a slow picture taker, I started with film and learned to compose, expose and fill the frame before pushing the shutter button. Digital sped me up but compared to most I’ve shot with, I am much – much slower.

I always spend a few minutes with my subjects to:

understand their needs and wants for the session
learn their personality
explain my style of shooting (slow, I talk, etc)
develop trust

I study their face to determine which side of their face they sleep on? (It is a small difference in the shape of their face but can make a world of difference to the portrait.)

I discuss with hair and makeup how I want their facial features highlighted or concealed.

Sorry for the long winded reply, I don't mean to preach.

Kdog: Very nice result, your MUA friend did well.

Sam

After seeing the results of Ray and now kdog I think I need a live in MUA to fix me up every day.

Sam

Quincy T

Really incredible work. I will be watching your posts closely, Ray! You are apparently a wealth of talent to draw experience from.

Ray Dauphinais

Sam: Me too. <g>

Quincy: Thank you very much. I just get lucky sometimes.

kdog

Ray Dauphinais wrote: »

Kdog: Very nice result, your MUA friend did well.

Thanks! I'll pass on your kudos. She and I are both fairly new to this.

Bryce Wilson

You my friend are a photographers photographer. Excelsior!

I know I've seen Katie somewhere before, have you posted images of her prior to this?

Ray Dauphinais

Thank you Bryce.

I don't think I have posted Katie on DGrin bfore.

Ray

Bryce Wilson wrote: »

You my friend are a photographers photographer. Excelsior!

I know I've seen Katie somewhere before, have you posted images of her prior to this?