How To Make Freckles "Pop"

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BigDan37
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p.1 #1 · How To Make Freckles "Pop"

There is someone I want to shoot who has great freckles on here face. I want to take a portrait where the freckles really stand out. She light skin and the freckles are fairly light as well so they don't stand out really well in normal circumstances.

Does anyone have tips on how I can make the freckles "pop"? Is it something I should do with the lighting or in post-processing?

Thanks.

Edited on Dec 22, 2007 at 07:02 AM

Dec 19, 2007 at 05:29 PM

workerant2
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p.1 #2 · How To Make Freckles "Pop"

Freckles don't pop like pimple.

j/k

I can only think of playing around with the light color try to get the best refract from the skin and hope the freckles absorb that light temperature more then the skin.

Best way I know is in post processing. But I'm sure U knew that.

Edited on Dec 22, 2007 at 07:02 AM

Dec 19, 2007 at 05:56 PM

Bernie
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p.1 #3 · How To Make Freckles "Pop"

Depending on how fair skinned she is, the red tones of an incandescent light should be reflected better in the browns of a freckle IMHO.

The focus point would also have an impact as well as how much sharpening you do. Possibly sharpening the red channel more....

Edited on Dec 22, 2007 at 07:02 AM

Dec 19, 2007 at 06:07 PM

j.curtis
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p.1 #4 · How To Make Freckles "Pop"

One way may be to use your burn tool. Set it on shadows. Hit each freckle with it.

You may be able to mask her face and up the contrast or adjust the levels.

Edited on Dec 22, 2007 at 07:02 AM

Dec 19, 2007 at 06:10 PM

cgardner
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p.1 #5 · How To Make Freckles "Pop"

It's just a matter of increasing the contrast between those two specific tonal values.

The simplest way to do that in PP is to dupe the background layer and change the mode of the dupe layer to "soft light".

That mode takes light areas lighter and dark areas darker increasing the contrast between them. Adjust the opacity slider on the dupe layer to taste or if you want to apply the effect only to selected areas add a black bitmap mask to the dupe layer then selectively erase the mask where you want the added contrast.

A more esoteric method in Photoshop is channel blending via the "Apply Image" function. It involves blending the channel in an RGB copy of the file containing the most freckle detail into the Luminance channel of an indentical copy in Lab mode saved in .psd format:

1) Open both files

2) In the LAB file open Channels and press cmd+1 to select the L target channel, then press ~ so the color image is displayed in the edit window. This step needs to be done correctly for the technique to work. The channels window should appear as in the example above with only the L channel highlighted.

3) Open Adjustments > Apply Image Select the RGB file and the Blue or Green channel as the source, whichever has the most detail in the freckles. I used the Blue channel for the example above. Apply the Blue channel information to the L channel in overlay mode then adjust opacity by eye.

4) Convert the Lab file back to RGB mode and save.

Another way to make the freckles stand out would be to shoot with the camera in B/W mode with a green filter simulation.

Chuck Gardner

Edited on Dec 22, 2007 at 07:02 AM

Dec 19, 2007 at 07:42 PM

BigDan37
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p.1 #6 · How To Make Freckles "Pop"

Wow. Great tutorial Chuck. That is just what I was looking for. Thanks.

Edited on Dec 22, 2007 at 07:02 AM

Dec 19, 2007 at 08:32 PM

Chris Beaumont
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p.1 #7 · How To Make Freckles "Pop"

You could also try shooting in monochrome with a yellow filter / yellow filter effect, that would make them stand out.

Edited on Dec 22, 2007 at 07:02 AM

Dec 19, 2007 at 08:44 PM

toto le robot
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p.1 #8 · How To Make Freckles "Pop"

use the chanel mixer set to luminance mode in gray scale and boost the blue channel, or sharpen the skin.

Edited on Dec 22, 2007 at 07:02 AM

Dec 21, 2007 at 02:32 PM

Jeremy Reitman
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p.1 #9 · How To Make Freckles "Pop"

I once emailed Stephen Pell (he's pell, here) how to do this and he told me:

"use a "channel mixer" overlay. I set the RED to 0 or less, and GREEN and BLUE to 50. Then i do s soft light or overlay and voilla."

on this photo...

Edited on Dec 22, 2007 at 07:02 AM

Dec 21, 2007 at 04:57 PM

JD Anderson
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p.1 #10 · How To Make Freckles "Pop"

Select all light areas with CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-Tilde...
Hit CTRL-SHIFT-I to invert the selection. Hit CTRL J to copy the selected darks to a new layer. Set layer blending mode to Multiply and adjust the opacity of the layer until the freckles look the way you like.

Create a layer mask to exclude all of the non-freckle areas...
If you don't get enough pop, duplicate the Multiply layer one or more times.

Should work like a charm...
JD

Dec 22, 2007 at 07:02 AM


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