Skin - Lee Varis

A practical guide to photographing people in the digital age

It's one thing to snap someone's picture. It's another thing entirely to capture the essence that made you reach for your camera in the first place. Now a top Hollywood pro shares his secrets for the digital capture of human skin in all its variety: young, old, male, female, different skin tones and ethnicities, with makeup or without
even tattooed skin!

Using step–by–step tutorials and stunning full–color examples, industry expert Lee Varis teaches it all: the basics of digital imaging, essential tricks to shooting indoors and out, how to light your subjects in any pose, and much more. Above all, you'll find out why the color of skin that's best for final output is almost always a departure from reality.

Topics include:

• Starting with the right hardware and software settings


• Developing your digital color "chops"


• Mastering Rembrandt lighting and other basic techniques


• Overcoming common digital skin problems, such as too much red


• Adjusting skin tones to withstand nearby colors like green grass


• Faking tattoos and photographing the real thing


• Trimming the fat, lighting up the eyes, and filling in wrinkles


• Adding soft focus, retouching, and other advanced Photoshop® techniques


• Discovering what can and what can't be done in post–process

Follow the tutorials in the book with numerous before–and–after sample image files on the companion CD. You'll also find technical reference materials to enhance and reinforce your learning.

• 
  Know how to soften wrinkles and change shapes
  and when not to!
  


• 
  Beautifully color–balance every skin tone
  


• 
  Brilliantly light any number of subjects in any location