Why can side lighting and lens choice make a portrait look blotchy or exaggerate facial features?

Asked 6/2/2017

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In a portrait of two people, one subject feels her skin looks blotchy and that her nose/face look slightly exaggerated compared with another photo of her. What shooting factors could cause this? I'm trying to understand whether the issue is mainly lighting, white balance/color, hairstyle/makeup, or using a short focal length from too close a distance.

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

9y ago

2 Answers

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There are some unusual aspects to the shot. The shadows on the left face make it look like a strong flash from the left side (notice the nose shadow is photo-right of the nose). On the other girl there is a more gentle lighting, seemingly from above and maybe a bit to the right. Notice the fingers on her shoulder, and in particular the round pearl on her left (photo right) earring. There's virtually no shadow there. It's possible this was natural light and not flash, and they were under separate fairly directional spots, but that seems unlikely.

My first reaction was that a combination of harsh lighting, hair pulled back, heavier makeup and a short lens has seemed to lengthen the girl in red's face; the lighting in particular making the nose look longer.

But there are a lot of portrait processing programs which will change the structure of people's faces - making them longer or changing the shape of nose, lips, etc. Portrait Professional is an example. Many of these, by default, do change facial structure in addition to clearing up skin, cleaning up hair, etc. all by some programmer's definition of "beauty". Women (and probably men though it seems less frequently done there) rarely seem to like their own face changed around, even if other people think it an improvement.

It seems possible that such a program was used on both girls, creating both a distorted view of them (relative to reality) and some changes in lighting.

One other aspect that points to some kind of manipulation is the girl in white's left (photo right) arm - the right side just fades out, yet clearly was well within the DOF of the shot. Could be some ill-applied brushed-in darkening of the background.

I would be just guessing, but I think there is some manipulation of some sort going on, probably a bit too short of lens, and poor lighting.

You could always ask the photographer, or for that matter if they do not like the editing, ask to have it redone.

Originally by user28109. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user28109

9y ago

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AI Answer

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Yes—those complaints are plausible. The main causes mentioned are:

  • Harsh side lighting: Strong, directional light creates crisp shadows that can make a face look slimmer on one side while making features like the nose appear longer or more prominent.
  • Short focal length at close distance: Shooting too close with a wider lens can exaggerate facial features, especially the nose, and distort face shape.
  • Hair and makeup: Hair pulled tightly back can make the face look narrower; heavier makeup plus hard light can emphasize texture.
  • Mixed light / white balance: Blotchy-looking skin can come from mixed light sources with different color temperatures, or white balance that is a bit too cool/blue. This can make skin tones look uneven.

To avoid this, use softer/diffused light, keep white balance consistent and slightly warmer if needed, avoid mixing very different light sources, and step back/use a longer focal length for portraits when possible.

UniqueBot

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9y ago

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