A few people have asked me if they need to have a Make Up Artist (MUA for short) for their photo session. The answer is no, but it’s so strongly recommended that it’s almost a definite yes. Let me explain!

Model, Meredith, is getting airbrushed by make up artist, Holly Corsano.

While most of us ladies are pretty capable of doing our own day or night make up, there is such a thing as flash/studio-appropriate make up (very similar to “stage make up”) that the average person knows very little or nothing about. That’s why we use MUAs whenever possible on our personal projects and strongly recommend one with clients.

A MUA will step in on set to do "touchups" as needed.

Skin naturally has a sheen or a coat of natural oils which are created by our own cells to protect the surface of the skin. Even if you have dry skin and even if you can’t see it in person — it is certainly there and likes to show up ones the strobes go off flashin’. This sheen is the bane of professional photographers. And no, it cannot easily be “corrected in Photoshop.” A pimple or another form of skin imperfection can be Photoshoped but  shininess cannot. At least not with satisfactory results. Part of the reason for this is the fact that sheen is in essence exaggerated highlights. We don’t want to remove highlights because they are an important part of a 2-dimensional image that is supposed to portray a 3-dimensional reality. The play of highlights and shadows gives images dimension. The lack of one or the other (or both) creates the so called “flat” images. As you can see dealing with sheen is a little bit of a catch 22 –we don’t want to remove it and we certainly don’t want to dull it down, which also creates flatness, but we also can’t have it stay in as it’s distracting and makes people appear sweaty. The only way really to deal with sheen in a portrait photograph is to recreate skin — this is an advanced and expensive Photoshop technique and for the general portrait session, it just isn’t worth the time and money involved.

Hair also needs touchups in addition to the make up.

A MUA uses liquid and powder foundation specific to photoshoots that will eliminate this shininess. She/he will also accurately match your skin color — it is surprising but not all of us do a good job at matching our own skin color with our daily wear foundation. A MUA will also contour your face — using the principles of light a good make up artist will use highlights and shadows to enhance the structure of your face — narrow the bridge of the nose, exaggerate and heighten cheek bones, etc, etc.

A great looking image is the result of team work.

Also, a make up artist working with us carries a lot more responsibilities after the initial make up is done. She or he remains on set to make sure that we have a good handle on flyaway hairs and sprays them down as needed and occasionally will step in to correct and adjust the make up or do “touch ups.” In essence, this important person is an additional set of eyes on set that are trained to look for the things that are not quite as perfect as they need to be for a great looking picture.

Here’s a mild to moderate case of a shiny forehead; the cheeks were even shinier here but I wanted to keep our model anonymous.  I was quite happy to discover it was hard to find a good example of a really shiny face –this  means we don’t have as many messups as I though we might! (juust kidding )