Over the past few years I’ve come across some seriously fantastic portrait photography. For a while I tried to figure out how to create the “epic face” look. This look is one of extreme honesty. No detail of the face goes undiscovered. Every little wrinkle, sunspot, hair and even pore is brought to the viewer. Back then I thought it took several steps in Photoshop and a couple hours per edit. After accidentally stumbling upon some things, I discovered a relatively simple way to make highly dynamic portraits. These shots give a sense of deep emotion. They portray an image of a long life, full of experience and ready to tell a story.

I know I said the last post was one of my favorites, but this one is pretty high up there too.

Note to photographers: I don’t use Photoshop often. Rarely in fact. If you’re not using Lightroom, you’re doing it wrong.