Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

Makeup pros are awful slow and still miss things. A good Photoshop retoucher will save your butt better.

Dug E Pi

I found a fix in photo shop with the healing brush that is simple. After choosing it switch from normal to darken. Alt click and choose a non shiny spot near the shine. Then brush over the shine. It won't darken any farther than your selected area. That won't improve your future shots but will help you for now.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

You can eliminate shinny heads and glass glare by simply moving your subject into OPEN SHADE. or deep shade. Today's higher effective ISO's make working in deep shade a breeze. I also add just a small touch of flash to give a high light in the eyes.

chikid68 Loc: Tennesse USA

We do pictures with Santa and our solution for both the shine and glasses glare is to add a circular polarizer this really knocks the glare that comes off both my glasses as well as from the inevitable perspiration from hours of flash exposure.
It really does allow our photos to stand apart from the rest.
bear in mind the example was at the end of shooting all day so I was sweating quite heavily

(Download)

William J Renard

No direct light!! Use only soft difused light

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Circular Polarizing filter.

It's also possible to put a polarizing gel over the strobe itself. Bigger softboxes with stronger diffusion also may have helped.

A professional make-up person also might have been worthwhile. Believe me, most of the models, talking heads on TV and actors have a TON of makeup on.... it can take a lot of work to make them "look natural".

Finally, regarding glasses... I had a quick, candid shot of young lady wearing eyeglasses where one of the lenses reflected badly. I don't know if it was from my flash (which was bouncing, though I usually don't do that) or from the ambient light. But the glare off the one lens was strong enough to almost completely obscure her eye. It was a fast moving awards ceremony and there wasn't opportunity for a reshoot, even if I'd caught the problem immediately. Besides, everything else about the shot was perfect... everyones' expressions, yada, yada. Long story short, I ended up using Photoshop, selecting her other eye and making a copy of it, "flopping" that, then pasting it over the offending glare. Worked great! Really didn't take long, either.

Is your company so poor that they can't afford to hire someone experienced?

NEVER do work for free! If "just starting out", quote a reasonable, typical market price, but then offer an introductory and/or volume discount uf you wish.

Once you've given away your services for free, you'll have a hard time getting people to pay for them. The same goes if you charge too low a price... it's easy to lower prices, difficult to raise them. If you offer a one-time discount, that's another thing. You're telling the client they're getting a deal now, but expect to pay full load in the future.

All that said, yes I do "give away" some things. For example, I help out a lot of the event organizers I work with providing them drastically reduced price or even free images for websites, marketing materials, etc. However, all those uses are good for me, too. And I get promotion on their site and links to my galleries in exchange. And they are then just as motivated as me to get signed model releases.

I also offer some coupons for a free print or digital download, that event organizers include with top prizes. Most often, though, I've found when people redeem those coupons, they tend to purchase other things along with. Plus I'm always surprised how low percentage of coupons actually ever get redeemed. So I get to be a "hero", a sponsor and contributor, often in exchange receiving ads, promos or other benefits (free meals, free camp site, free display table space) not to mention customer "good will".... with minimal cost and no actual $ outlay.

I don't know what all your company plans to do with those photos, but I hope you got everyone to sign a model release. If nothing else, you could then use images as examples of your work. That's generally safe to do in a printed portfolio, but may be riskier online. Plus it's just good business practice to get in the habit of always getting a signed model release (and/or property release, as necessary).

Also, were you shooting on your own time or during your regular work hours for which you were being paid? If the latter, it might be considered "work for hire", in which case the company would own all the rights to your images, not you. it's sort of a gray area.... if photography isn't part of your job description and you were using your own gear, both of those go in your favor keeping your copyrights. But the simplest solution is a brief contract with the company stating in writing who does what during the shoot and who owns what, after the fact. Easy to do and can go a long way avoiding possible problems later (as do model releases).

RWR Loc: La Mesa, CA

I prefer a constant light source, or strobes with modeling lights. No surprises when you can see the results beforehand.

aellman Loc: Boston MA

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Lots of advice but many are missing the vital points.

Good portraits should have some specular highlights- they bring life to the image but the need to be well placed and properly controlled. If the highlight are burned out due to overexposure and go beyond the dynamic range of the system they may be misconstrued as "shine" or glare or that may intensify some natural oiliness of the subject's skin. Sometimes simply cleansing the skin and the application of light makeup or face powder just prior to the session will negate the issue. Oftentimes folks become a bit nervous when being photographed and that, combined with a bit of heat form modeling lamps can bring on some perspiration which exacerbates the problem. the photograph needs to be observant and address theses things before continuing the session.

Theses issues and the problem of reflections on eyeglasses can only be precluded if the photographer has a grasp of good portrait lighting and an understanding of the angle of incidence theory. Even a softer light source such as a softbox or umbrella can yield badly placed or washed out highlights if the light is striking the subject at an angle of incidence that can intensify the reflectivity of the subject's face. If the main light that is placed is too high can cause theses kinds of problems. Sometimes feathering, that is, using the edge of the light beam as opposed to the center or "hot spot", can make for better highlight rendition.

As has been suggested, eyeglasses can be tilted downward to avoid reflections from the lenses but this method is only applicable in full face portraits where the temples of the eyeglass frames are not visible. Oftentimes slightly raise the main light can help preclude reflections. In a planned portrait session, I advise my clients to obtain, from their optician, a blank frame that is the same or similar to their own. This look perfectly natural and will also solv issued of magnification or de-magnification of the eyes or other distortions or lines that are intrinsic in some prescription lenses.

Polarization, especially cross-polarization is not advisable in portraiture as it will subdue or eliminate most of the good highlights on the face.

If makeup is applied it should be used sparingly and evenly. If the services of a makeup artist are employed, you need to work with ones that are familiar with the requirements for photography- the good ones know what they are doing.

It's difficult to troubleshoot a problem without seeing the images in question. If the OP would post the problematic ones it would be possible to be more specific as to advice and remedies.

The OP was not requesting financial or business advice but was trying to resolve technical and aesthetic issues. He undertook the job for his company and he wants to improve his technique for further forays into portraiture. Whether or not he was remunerated is not in the question. If her were paid as a professional, perhaps the expectation of his subject would be higher and they would then to be more critical.

autofocus Loc: North Central Connecticut

yes, this!

autofocus Loc: North Central Connecticut

I didn't read through all the replies, so I apologize if what I'm about to say has already been said. And after reading your original post it sounds like you did everything right with the lights, positions, camera settings, etc. My wife and I are portrait / life style photographers, and the problem you are describing is not uncommon. And now that the sessions are over, "what you should have done or used" is not going to solve the little problem you have right now. Here's a few things to consider; the problem you described didn't get better no matter what you did with your lights, was there overhead ceiling lights on?...could have very well contributed to the problem. Now, here's a simple edit fix that works like a charm if done carefully. I hope you work in photoshop as I do, but this is what works very well for me. Use your color picker to sample the area just off the problem area where you still have good skin color. Using a soft brush with an opacity set around 18-22% carefully make several passes over the suspect area...not too much now, you don't want it to look like a paint job. Usually a few passes over the area is more than enough to tone it down. BTW, this also works very well with blotchy skin tones and some complexion problems. The trick is low opacity on the brush...less is more! Good luck!

joel.photography

This is why I'm always behind the camera.

canon Lee

Hi I noticed that you were shooting in a room with a low white ceiling. Bounce flash off of the ceiling would change the angle of incidence so that the light reflection would not be angled towards the glasses... The other option is to simply ask the person if they would like to remove their glasses...
I would be against suggesting that the client should wash their face...