This was lighting of my own choice. Realistic, clean, professional, and ready for a magazine cover!
In this photo, I used the spot correction/heal tool on the acne spots. I then sharpened the eyes and eyebrows using the sharpen tool and some of the dodge & burn tools to make them pop in the photo. Lastly, I went over the skin of his entire face and neck with the soften tool to make the entire photo appear cohesive and blemishless.
Golden Hour Shooting into the Sun.
I used the curves feature of Photoshop to enhance the purples in blues in the picture that gives it a dramatic feel. I was considering using black and white, but it takes out the “golden” feel of this time of day. Shooting into the sun really brought out the outline of the head and face.
The hard light capitalizes Urban Meyer’s facial features. It was a late-morning sun that brought intensity. And no, those are not my hands in the photo. But this was only moments before he reached my stretched hand.
Soft lighting in the shade. The face is lit up well, despite having no direct sunbeams striking his face.
The different lighting of the photos can completely change the mood. The different lighting is very contrasting. The intense light shooting into the sun has a much more dramatic feel than the gentlemen in the first and last photos that use a soft lighting. The hard lighting captures emotion, wear, and distress while the soft light accentuates beauty, youth, and ease.
Hard light is very strict on the texture of the photo, while the soft light is much more forgiving. Depending on what the photographer wants to capture, each type of lighting has its advantages, as seen above.