3.20. Powerful portraits

Many distinguished historical and cultural figures are virtually defined by their portraitsjust think of Yousuf Karsh's iconic image of Winston Churchill. Today, the trend in portraiture is for more spontaneous images, but the formal portrait has never really gone out of fashion.

Making a posed portrait look like it's been taken in a studio often involves manipulating the lighting. This may involve some fine-tuningfor example, darkening parts of the image and lightening others to make the subject look as though he or she is sitting in a carefully composed pool of light. Other effects are a little more radical and should always be done on separate layers.

This man, sitting in a café, was lit by artificial light from the right and reflected sunlight from the street.

Make the image black and white but, as always, for the best results don't just convert the image to grayscale. In the Layers palette, click the "Create new fill or adjustment layer" icon and select Channel Mixer. Check Monochrome and adjust the sliders until you have the largest number of tones and the best tonal balance. Here, the default 100% Red channel value produced skin tones that were a little too pale, while trying the Blue channel produced tones that were too gritty. A mix of Red and Green produced a balanced result. One quick way to improve this portrait, albeit at the expense of realism, is to flip the photograph horizontally. We are accustomed to "reading" an image from left to right, and, in the original, the man's scarf leads the eye up to the brighter side of his face and straight out of the image. Flipping the image makes you look straight into his face. Try it-it's a trick that isn't used nearly often enough. To do this, use Image > Rotate Canvas > Flip Canvas Horizontal. Careful dodging and burning often improves a portrait, too, and the Dodge and Burn tools have the feel of classic darkroom tools. Duplicate the image layer, soften the tool's edge, and reduce the Exposure percentage. Move the tool gently, gradually building up the change. Set the Dodge tool so it lightens Highlights and brighten the man's eyes. An alternative method for creating the dodging and burning effect is to add a Curves adjustment layer and paint onto the mask. Lift the curve and add more light throughout, then paint out all except the shadowed side of the face. Curves also enables you to target certain tones, in the same way that the Dodge tool can have its range set to Highlights. This "S" shape darkens shadows and brightens the highlights. Paint the mask over the highlight on the man's nose. It's best to simulate strong directional light on a separate layer, as it will be easier to adjust or discard. Hold down the Alt/Opt key and click the "Create a new layer" icon in the Layers palette. Change the blending mode of the new layer to Overlay and check "Fill with Overlay neutral color." Modify the Overlay layer with the Gradient tool (G) to create the new lighting effect. Reset Photoshop's colors (D). Choose a gradientin this case, Radial. Set the gradient's blending mode to Darken, and make sure Reverse is checked so it starts with white and ends with black. Starting from the subject's eyes, drag outward and release the mouse. The blending mode only takes effect once you've reached half its distance, and your finely tuned facial tones are unaffected. If you don't like the result, choose Edit > Undo and try again until the light is right. The Diamond Gradient produced the best result here. Reduce the layer opacity a little if necessary. Flipping the image horizontally and doing lots of dodging and burning lends this subject gravitas. One trend in mid 20th-century portraiture was to crop into the top of the head-tighter crops draw particular attention to the eyes.