Prairie Light Images

Editing Portraits with Apple Aperture V3.2.2

Part 1

This article is part 1 in a series of articles that explore portrait editing on different software platforms.    Future posts in this series will explore software that is cross-platform in nature, but this first one is focussed on the main program that I use for my photo editing and cataloguing, Apple’s Aperture 3.2.2 which runs only on the Mac platform (sorry Windows people).

Using Aperture 3

In a previous blog posting I expressed my position on the place (or lack of it) for Adobe Photoshop in my life.  To recap, for a variety of reasons that you can read about here I do not use Photoshop.  Apple’s Aperture meets ~90% of my day to day photography needs.  I have been using Aperture since v2.0.  With version 2.0 there were a number of editing techniques that were difficult or impossible to perform using Aperture making it necessary to have access to a secondary processing engine like Photoshop or Photoshop Elements to perform certain tasks, like portrait touch ups.  Since the introduction of Aperture V3.0 the need for secondary programs has pretty much been minimized as I can now do some pretty comprehensive editing right in Aperture.

Let us right now clarify what I mean by portrait editing.  I am a bit of a purist when it comes to portrait photography.  I believe that portrait photography should represent the subject as they appear using the best lighting, most flattering pose, makeup and hairstyle chosen.  I am not an advocate of shaving off a few pounds in the editing process, which is entirely do-able with programs like Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and Portrait Professional.  These programs will allow you enough latitude to give your subject a complete makeover.  I believe that if a person is comfortable enough to have you take their portrait in the first place, they are aware of how they look and do not necessarily want you to lie to them.  They certainly want to be represented in a flattering manner, but I believe they still want to be recognized too.  You do not have to agree with my philosophy, but I did want you to understand where I come from as far as the editing/touch up process.

So we will begin this example with a quick portrait I made of my daughter modelling her faux fur hat given to her for Christmas.  She loved the hat and when she put it on she reminded me of one of those Bond girls; you know, the classic 60′s Russian femme-fatale.  So during this brief session I referred to her as Natasha and she posed for the camera for a few shots.

 

Portrait Editing with Aperture 3

As naturally lovely as “Natasha” is in real life, this session was very much impromptu, so make-up and hair were not even a consideration.  Her initial image out of the camera after the basic processing steps of exposure adjustment looks like this.

Her skin is a bit pale and she has a couple of blemishes and birth marks that, while they do not make her look bad at all, we thought we would touch up just a bit.  The first tool used is the retouch tool, which has been around in Aperture since at least version 2.0.  It is very simple and works like any other retouch tool on the market.  Simply select the size of the tool and apply it to the image.  Voila, blemishes and marks are taken care of.

The next phase involves the use of the Skin Smoothing brush and is a bit more involved and was not available in its present form in Aperture until the release of version 3.0.  The great advantage of the Skin Smoothing brush is that it can be applied iteratively, replacing the need and complexity of working with layers as Photoshop uses.  Basically, the Skin Smoothing brush is brought up and adjustments of the brush size, smoothness and strength of the effect is set in the HUD (Heads Up Display).  Use of a drawing pen/tablet is a better option than a mouse and certainly more advisable than trying this using the finger tracking pad on the Mac.

When using this brush, it is best to use one of the display overlay modes to show you where you have applied the brush and how strongly the effect has been applied.

The key to the effective use of this brush is to not be in a big hurry to get it done in one application; sort of like painting a room.  Rather than go for one, big thick application any applying the strength at a high level (which would certainly work) it is better to apply the adjustment in a series of overlapping applications of the brush at a lower intensity.  The intensity slider, seen in the lower left corner of the image can be adjusted for each individual application of the brush.  This means that several layers can be applied over the same area and adjusted until the desired effect is achieved.

After the application of the layer or layers of the skin smoothing brush, additional targeting enhancements can be applied to individual colours or ranges of colours in the image.  In this example, the lips and pinkish tones of the skin are selected and boosted with a slight adjustment of the saturation, luminance and range to add a bit of colour to Natasha’s cheeks and lips.

Experimentation is key to this process.  Trying the application of one or two stronger skin smoothing brush layers can give a different appearance with less control than several layered applications.  Here are two examples of different applications.  One can get a more air brushed look or a more subtle look.  Depending on what you or your subject like, you have many options for adjusting the image.

Conclusion

Apple’s Aperture has certainly come a long way with the development of the brushes in version 3.0+.  I have come to the point where I never go to Photoshop Elements for editing as I once needed to.  If you are an Aperture user I hope this brief introduction to portrait editing using Aperture has been helpful.

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Posted on Monday, January 9th, 2012 at 10:00 am. Filed under: Photography, portraits, software RSS 2.0 feed.