Human skin & Face Details under water. Problems and solutions?

I discover more and more that the most hard think in Underwater photography for me is the human skin.

Especially the face in terms of detail, color , dynamic range. Everytthing is visable and thinks is har to control if you are not taking close face photos.

The moment that i take a full body photo and the distange from Lens to Face is more that 1 meters

the details begin to disapper.

I have try diferent lenses the 16mm and the tokina 12-24. On the 16mm lens the detail is lite better but then i have to fight the fisheye effect. Tokina WA is more suitable for those kind off photos but the Lens is simple not a portrait lens.

Hmm i sould may try a 14mm Nikon WA or a 17-35 altenativ 17-55

Anyway I am courious if the quality off the photos are enough to print in sizes off A4 & A3

Then I have discover that RAW programs as Nikon Capture NX, Lightroom & Capture One render the skin color and the details in very unik ways.

Her some examples with some fast retush. Any tips are welcome

photo original

photo retush

100% face detail original

100% face detail retush

Just a thought, is there any type of lubricant / makeup that will act as a wetting agent on the skin to minimize bubbles. The retouched version does lose natural texture on the enlarged version.

The retouched version looks very plasticky and lacks detail, including in the water. This is obvious even in the overall picture. It looks like you applied filters to the entire image. You should try a more targetted approach, e.g. use the heal brush to eliminate the bubbles on the model's face...

The photo original and 100% original crop look edited, like the shadow highlight tool or something was used, the light on the surface bubbles are really blown out to compensate on the face, the original face looks more like a 4-6mp camera with not enough light thrown,not what you would expect from a d200.

So the the starting point, the original is not clean enough. I agree with mattdiver and would use the healing brush on each area. But the bottom line is what is going to be done with the picture, hanging it on the wall or something, the retouch is ok, the blown out surface bubbles kind of kill it for me only because I have seen you other work which is truly fine art high quality work.

More toward you question I think you have get the lighting right with a moderate to quick shutter speed) to get the details you are looking for. Recently getting a D200 myself I have noticed that I can get just as good as a shot with my old d100 if I get the lighting perfect or close to perfect, the d200 is more forgiving with the added detail so you will get more keepers, so I say strobe aiming and nailing the exposure correctly should get you what you want, the lens choice is less of an issue as getting it correct right out of the camera. This pic was less than I suspect when the RAW image came up.

Maybe a lite info about this photo that is really a extrem, not like my others and have many problems

I haveuse a 16mm fisheye .. 1/125 F11 and i am about 1 meter from the model away. one subtronic gamma plus strobe facing the face in full power.

What is the ASA? - Do you see the noise and grain in the face untouched 100% crop?, that and the surface bubbles being so blown out I don't understand.

I will say this as I have often shot in a pool, there is a lot of crap in a pool sometimes, smaller pool backscatter if you will, that can be you detail problem as well as what I am talking about as noise above. Look on the step or bottom of any swimming pool really close then swipe you hand and you will see what I mean. Typical cartraige based filters let more stuff back in where as DE filters can filter the water down to microns and do a better job. I don't think your skin tones are bad at all. The detail I can see your issue, forget the re-touch on printing, the hair is really bad look over the models (her) left ear, go with the healing brush on the bubbles on the original. What do you think of a two strobe set up instead?

I agree that there is a lot of micro particulate in the water contributing to the graininess of the photo. I had the same problem this weekend myself. Even with diotomaceous earth (DE) in the filter, I think some of it must have passed back into the pool and made a big mess.

James

Yes the pool was very dirty. Widy all the days .. much sand particles.

ISO was 100 but i begin to think that a 2 strobes setup, (dont need to be so powerfull as Subtronic) will make the job to dont iluminate backschatter and so on

Well I think at least part of your problem is in photoshop. Your processed version looks a lot worse than than it should. I reworked your origional.

Well I think at least part of your problem is in photoshop. Your processed version looks a lot worse than than it should. I reworked your origional.

 

William my god. I need some photoshop training!!!!

How exact have you produce this image... i am so courious to know

Lambis

Lambis, you have PM

Hey, I want to know too!

Cheers

James

I have newer in my short photographic life check as now my Photos

The think that i probably do wrong is that i have use to much NEATIMAGE to fix the skin and have taken to much details away.

For Studio shots works perfect but not that good for UW.

Two Strobes definitiv the solution. I have use one hartenberger sometimes as slave to create some efects

and discover the the different color temperatur is not that big problem

I use to dont sharpen my photos att all untill i know where I will use them.

lambis

Hi Lambis,

The best way to get smooth skin is through lighting technique. This is what the topsides glamour/fashion shooters use. If you only use one light source, ever little bump and pimple leaves a shadow - that's what you're seeing. If you blanket with even light, then you can eliminate these little shadows and just leave the big ones you want. The topsides shooters use big softboxes for this, but we don't get to use them...:-(

If you're thinking of using a second strobe, go for it. Better yet, borrow one or two and experiment. Get a remote slave that you can mount under or above water and try that.

Good luck and have fun,

James

Hi Lambis,

 

The best way to get smooth skin is through lighting technique. This is what the topsides glamour/fashion shooters use. If you only use one light source, ever little bump and pimple leaves a shadow - that's what you're seeing. If you blanket with even light, then you can eliminate these little shadows and just leave the big ones you want. The topsides shooters use big softboxes for this, but we don't get to use them...:-(

 

If you're thinking of using a second strobe, go for it. Better yet, borrow one or two and experiment. Get a remote slave that you can mount under or above water and try that.

 

Good luck and have fun,

James

James I have try to simulate my studio setup underwater and have much thinking to build a softbox ..

In the same time I have use some difussors to BREAK the light & slave strobe.

Many problems comes not just from lighting but from Microboubles and Make up & skin foundations

I think together they can be a big problem. I NEWER have thsi problems with babys - PERFECT SKIN ;-)

On this Photo was the skin o.k. Strobe was almost straight ahead over the head

On this if you see on the left top corner, you see a Light, is not the sun , is a second strobe in Slave mode that illuminate the face & upper boddy

You might ask your model to get with her hands over the façe to get rid of the bubbles ... and if she has some time left she could also get the bubble out of the ear

Anyway, when I see the pictures above I presume you sorted it out. Very nice !

O.k. This time i have try some diferent technics to retush. What i have dome is more or less.. Paint light (highlights) to give the photo a more 3D look. Works??

Huge improvement Lambis. Great balance and contrasting colors...minor point - the 'backscatter' (?) stripes by her hair are a little distracting. It wouldn't be an issue if the entire background were similar, but the rest is mostly smooth blue...

I give this one two thumbs up.

The last one is nice Lambis.

With what lens did you eventually shot these?