Portrait Retouching Tip: Fix Shiny Skin in Photoshop & Lightroom

Shine is great on silver and gold but not so much on your portrait subjects face. It is not too difficult to fix oily skin in Photoshop. Stay tuned and I’ll show you a super quick retouching tip to eliminate shiny skin or oily skin in both Photoshop and Lightroom.

It’s summer time… you shoot a wedding or an outdoor portrait and because of the heat your subject has shiny skin or your new to lighting and haven’t quite perfected things yet and you have a great shot – but your subjects skin is shiny – it's actually really easy to fix in post production.

A few quick reminders… FIX it in post is NEVER the best solution – so as you are practicing and learning your craft – ALWAYS strive to get it right in camera.

Also – if you are doing portraits or headshots or modeling shots and you really want to up your game – lighting is just a piece of the puzzle – you need to find a great makeup artist to really get your images to a pro level.

Ok – to the retouching tip…

Here is a great portrait that was posted in my Facebook group by Stig-Arve Holmem from Norway. We have a very pretty young subject with lots of personality but no makeup artist and the image is just slightly over exposed, so we wind up with shiny skin in the forehead, nose and tops of the cheeks.

So do we scrap the image? Heck no – it’s a great shot and easily repaired.