Complete Guide to Mastering Portrait Photography

Even the pros do it! Post-production (post-processing) is an integral part of quality photography, including portrait photography. While it’s crucial to do the best you can when you’re shooting, for example, get the camera settings correct, post-production is an essential part of the process.

After a session, you can do some fine-tuning to elevate the image, such as adjusting for blemishes or other small but essential details. Here are some basic edits you might need to make in Photoshop or Lightroom. Hopefully, you’ve shot in RAW for the most flexibility in post-production editing. Adobe Camera RAW and Lightroom offer similar exposure and color controls.  

Exposure: Sometimes, we don’t get the exposure just right when shooting. Alas, you can fix that quickly enough in Lightroom! Use the black and white exposure sliders and adjust the highlights and shadows as needed.

White balance: You can also adjust the white balance if you need to correct the skin tones.

Skin Smoothing in Lightroom

Most often, you’ll want or need to do some skin smoothing to eliminate minor skin blemishes such as pimples or even wrinkles. 

• To do this, you should start by zooming in on the blemish.

• Use the Spot Removal tool setting to Heal in the Develop module, using the correct brush size.

• Then set the feather to 15-20% to smooth the edges of the spot removal.

• Next, click on the blemish you want to remove. A second circle will appear. That is the area from which the blemish will be covered.

• Move that second circle around to find the best skin color and tone match.

• Lastly, click Done.

Skin Smoothing in Photoshop CC

This is similar to Lightroom, but you use the spot healing tool. 

• Choose the Spot Healing Brush Tool from the toolbox. Make sure that Content-Aware is selected at the top.

• Set a brush size appropriate for the blemish you want to remove. Tip: make the brush about 10-20% larger than the actual blemish.

• Unlike Lightroom, Spot Healing does not require feathering. The Content-Aware algorithm automatically determines the best match from the surrounding skin to cover the blemish perfectly.

• Then, as with Lightroom, use the same click and drag technique with the Spot Healing Brush to cover wrinkles.

Brightening Eyes in Lightroom

You can use this feature to make a subtle enhancement to the eyes by brightening them. The goal is a slight change, not a complete transformation, which would likely change the subject’s overall appearance. 

1. To make the change in Lightroom, use the Radial Filter in the Develop Module.

2. Then draw out a circle over the iris of the eye.

3. Use the click points to drag the circle into the correct shape and position it to cover the iris completely.

4. Leave the feathering set to 50, and invert the filter so that you are working only on the eye itself.

5. To lighten the iris slightly, raise the exposure just a little. (If you want to change the color of the iris, you can do that by using the Color Temperature slider.)

6. You can add clarity to boost the contrast and detail while increasing saturation. This will make the iris stand out more against the white of the eye.

7. If you want to whiten the eyes, you can use the Adjustment Brush by selecting a suitable brush size. (Make sure the Auto Mask is checked at the bottom.)

   • From the bottom left of the main screen, check Show Selected Mask Overlay so that the brushed area turns red.

   • Brush in the white areas of the eye.

   • You can also boost the exposure slightly and brighten the eye and reduce color temperature to remove any yellowness from the eye.

Brightening Eyes in Photoshop

It’s pretty easy in Photoshop to boost the eyes’ brightness:

1. Zoom in to the eye.

2. Create a new Levels adjustment layer from the menu: Layer – New Adjustment Layer – Levels.

3. Then adjust the highlights to adjust the eye whites and iris.

4. The entire portrait will become lighter. With the adjustment layer selected, go to Image – Adjustments – Invert, and the overall image will return to the default exposure.

5. Select the Brush Tool and set Opacity and Flow to 100% from the Toolbox.

6. Select a suitable brush size and set the hardness to 0%.

7. At the toolbar’s bottom, make sure the foreground color is set to white.

8. Now subtly paint over the whites of the eyes. They will lighten to the levels you set.

9. To boost or change the color of the iris, you can use a similar technique.

10. Go to Layer – New Adjustment Layer – Color Balance.

11. Set tone to Midtones.

12. Adjust the color sliders until the eye is the color you want.

13. The entire image will take on the same color. Just go to Image – Adjustments – Invert. Paint out the iris area using the brush tool.