Portrait with a long nose

[Donald]

I have a lighting question. I have a girlfriend who is gorgeous except she has a large nose (and I do
mean large and long - we used to call her ski ramp when we were kids). She is looking for a 3/4 side portrait but she obviously does not wish to emphasise her nose. I would like to light in the Rembrandt style but suspect this would not do the trick. Any suggestions welcome. Using studio strobes.

[Dadioh]

Use Low, soft light (avoid nose shadow downward) and a lower than normal
camera angle.

[Eric]

Use a longer lens and backup more.

[Stefan]

You're right: Rembrandt lighting is not the "right" lighting for this
subject. "Rembrandt" is used mostly for men and/or older women with
"character." (Or women, who have perfect faces in every way. Not many
of those around.) Because of the placement of the nose shadow,
Rembrandt also accentuate the nose as will a 3/4 portrait pose. Full
face front would be better, since it will "hide" the nose in the face.
Couple that with "Hi-key" or "Butterfly" lighting. Makeup the face to
accentuate the eyes and/or lips.

Rules of Thumb about photographing noses:

Long noses -- longer lens than "normal" portrait length, positioned
lower than normal, but not so low that you're looking up the nostrils,
shooting up the length of the nose to foreshorten it;

Short noses -- do the opposite, shorter lens, higher lens position;

To narrow a wide nose -- a shade or two darker makeup on either side of
the nose and "paint" a narrow makeup highlight down the length;

To widen a narrow nose -- narrow noses usually aren't a problem, but
lighter makeup on either side of the nose, and no highlight down the
bridge.

Study the studio photos of the girl, who starred in the TV series "bannedbannedbanned
in the City," Sara Jessica Parker? Big nose on her, but "handled"
very well. Long, narrow face, too.

[Donald]

thanks for the input

[Zeitgeist]

use a long lens, as has been noted, it flattens perspective. Normally you
use a lens that is twice the 'normal' focal length. In traditional 35mm
portraiture that would mean an 85 to 100mm. figure it out with your chip
size factor, with a prominent nose I'd go to 3x, a 135, or even 200mm. I
mean once you've gone 3x going 4x doesn't make that much difference.

use light from one direction only, large and very soft, and by soft I mean,
take those damn umbrellas off and bounce the flash off a side wall, how big
is that light now? about 8 feet tall by ?? wide.

Look at the subject and decide what direction the nose goes to. As my
tailor would say, which side does it dress to. Put the key light on the
side the nose goes to.

It is very important to use only one light source, putting a fill light on
the opposite side like so many portrait photogs do will place a second
highlight on the ridge and will make it look wider, (this is more noticeable
with black subjects.)

REmbrandting a big nose in a 2/3rds view would mean practically rim lighting
it. Turning the head towards the light would sorta flat light it, to get
that golden triangle the light would end up coming from behind the subject's
plane (the light would be positioned further from the camera than the
subject) and that would put a highlight on the rim of the nose. At least
with a soft light it won't be a specular highlight which out almost put an
outline on the shape of it.

go for a big smile. seriously, a big genuine smile will make the mouth
bigger.

normally I'd say shoot into the nose. but if you want a 2/3rd view, the
rule in general is that you don't want the nose to break the cheek line.
The bigger the nose the less room you have to move the face towards a 2/3rds
view, the eyes don't achieve the proper perspective you generally want.

If the tip of the nose is higher than the base then tilt the head down a
bit, if the tip of the nose is lower than the base then tilt the head up a
bit, BUT don't do this blindly, without looking at the rest of the face.
Correcting with lighting or posing for one particular sensitive feature can
cause other distortions. Tilting the head down can make the jaw line
diminutive. Tilting the head up can 'sink' the eyes.

there are some good tutorials about facial analysis, how to evaluate a face,
how to pose and light a particular face to offer some balance and
perspective. google Joseph Zeltsman, there are links in the z-prophoto
mailing list at yahoogroups.com

One last tip, when dealing with subjects that are sensitive about, or highly
aware of their looks (IE: totally gorgeous Hollywood starlets) ... print a
set of the images backwards, mirror image. THAT's they way they see
themselves most of the time, in a mirror, and when everything is backwards
to them, it just doesn't look right. When you flip the images, (with negs
you print emulsion side up) then they get to see themselves as they see
themselves.