how do they do this in photohop

B
Posted By
blen
Jul 26, 2005
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316
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basically i have some photos taken from a digital camera, i was wondering what adjustment to do to achieve this type of photos. the photos look saturated and sharpen but not the same though when i try to do it. can anyone help me?

http://www.8ung.at/yavin/scans/007_avril_lavigne_rolling_sto ne_sept02_yavin.jpg

http://tv.yahoo.com/tvpdb?d=tvi&id=1808649617&cf=ph& amp;pgid=&photoid=572375&pid=23

http://tv.yahoo.com/tvpdb?d=tvi&id=1808649617&cf=ph& amp;pgid=&photoid=566560&pid=110

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J
johnboy
Jul 26, 2005
"blen" wrote in message
basically i have some photos taken from a digital camera, i was wondering what adjustment to do to achieve this type of photos. the photos look saturated and sharpen but not the same though when i try to do it. can anyone help me?

http://www.8ung.at/yavin/scans/007_avril_lavigne_rolling_sto ne_sept02_yavin.jpg
http://tv.yahoo.com/tvpdb?d=tvi&id=1808649617&cf=ph& amp;pgid=&photoid=572375&pid=23

http://tv.yahoo.com/tvpdb?d=tvi&id=1808649617&cf=ph& amp;pgid=&photoid=566560&pid=110

What you are probably noticing is called fill light. It’s done at the time of exposure. The objects are in focus and properly exposed, and in at least one, selective focus is used. In a word, it’s done at the time of the photograph. Photography. Not Photoshop.
T
Tacit
Jul 26, 2005
In article ,
"blen" wrote:

basically i have some photos taken from a digital camera, i was wondering what adjustment to do to achieve this type of photos.

You don’t. The photos you have seen may have been manipulated in Photoshop, sure–but what you’re noticing is the result of professional lighting and exposure, not Photoshop work.

Getting that look requires expert use of lighting. This is most evident in the first link you provided, which was lit from the front and side. Once a picture is taken, the amount of control you have over lighting is very limited; this kind of result begins before the camera shutter even opens.


Art, photography, shareware, polyamory, literature, kink: all at http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html
MR
Mike Russell
Jul 26, 2005
"blen" wrote in message
basically i have some photos taken from a digital camera, i was wondering what adjustment to do to achieve this type of photos. the photos look saturated and sharpen but not the same though when i try to do it. can anyone help me?

http://www.8ung.at/yavin/scans/007_avril_lavigne_rolling_sto ne_sept02_yavin.jpg http://tv.yahoo.com/tvpdb?d=tvi&id=1808649617&cf=ph& amp;pgid=&photoid=572375&pid=23
http://tv.yahoo.com/tvpdb?d=tvi&id=1808649617&cf=ph& amp;pgid=&photoid=566560&pid=110

It’s like playing a musical instrument – there are a dozen or more small tricks that, when added together, create a great looking image. In this case, the fact that they are basically super-models, and a professional photographer took each of the images, puts them ahead of any images you and I are likely to create, at least with any consistency.

OTOH, there is a lot you can do using Photoshop to improve your images. Start with tutorials on retouching and color correction. IMHO, the best book – though not for beginners – is Professional Photoshop by Dan Margulis.

If you are on Windows, consider taking the free Curvemeister curves class which starts in a week – four sets of images, with the last set dealing with skin tones.

Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com
O
Owamanga
Jul 26, 2005
On 25 Jul 2005 17:39:39 -0700, "blen" wrote:

basically i have some photos taken from a digital camera, i was wondering what adjustment to do to achieve this type of photos. the photos look saturated and sharpen but not the same though when i try to do it. can anyone help me?

http://www.8ung.at/yavin/scans/007_avril_lavigne_rolling_sto ne_sept02_yavin.jpg

Come over to the ‘rec.photo.digital.slr-systems’ NG and ask it again there. The most stunning aspects of these images isn’t what’s been done in photoshop – it’s lighting at the time of taking the photograph.

For a portrait like this, look at the model’s eyes and you’ll often see a reflection of the lighting setup (occasionally this is tidied up in photoshop, destroying that information, but often not). For Avril, first note the shadow on the left side of the image, cast by her hair onto her face, and the reflection in her eye from that light source. (The main light). This light is located at the left side of the image, but slightly forward of the model (closer to the camera). It was slightly higher than her too – look at the chin shadow caused by this light.

Light #2 is a hair light, from the far right of the image. It’s quite high (as usual) too, you can see the hot spot on her left breast, and it’s also responsible for the brightest light falling on her right elbow (the arm with the tatoo).

Add a fan to lift her hair from her face, and a backdrop of a baseball field and click away.

http://tv.yahoo.com/tvpdb?d=tvi&id=1808649617&cf=ph& amp;pgid=&photoid=572375&pid=23

Check the shadow from the croc’s head. The main is a diffused light source, high and off to the left. The second light is slightly less powerful (or further away) and is high, to the right. A fairly even foreground lighting setup designed not to cast any sharp shadows.

This was probably an on-location shot due to the size of that rock, the artificial lighting has been set to be significantly stronger than the ambient lighting at the time (it looks like dusk), which although unnatural, brings your attention to the subject.

http://tv.yahoo.com/tvpdb?d=tvi&id=1808649617&cf=ph& amp;pgid=&photoid=566560&pid=110

From the models eye catch light, I’d say the main light is almost directly front on, originating from above, the camera position. It’s probably a large diffused source. Note that with portrait photography, it’s common to use a zoom lens (100mm or more), which means the photographer is further away from the model than you might expect. The light source is often behind or just beside him.

The background has been evenly lit with it’s own lights that are beside or behind the model.

The subtle final light source I can see here is responsible for a warm glint on the hair on the bright-side of her face. Probably a gold reflector, beside and maybe slightly behind the model, bouncing light from the main source back onto her face to kill shadows on that side.

Photoshop:

There is a saying: "You can’t polish a turd." So, no doubt, all of these images did go through photoshop and had some final adjustments made – detailed facial shadows removed – slight color adjustments, stray hair removal – you know, normal stuff. But none of these photos started as turds, so they end up being powerful images. You can’t expect to do this with just any random digicam shot.


Owamanga!
http://www.pbase.com/owamanga
E
ebrueggeman
Jul 26, 2005
The main effect of these photos was attained during the original exposure of these photographs. They were overexposed, allowing more color information to hit the film or ccd. Then they were either printed down manually in a photo studio or had the brightness brought down slightly in the post processing in photoshop.

To attain this effect on a more simple level from existing digital photos, you can play with the brightness and contrast (Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast.) Contrast must go up for sure. The brightness should most likely go up a little, though not as mush as the contrast. Without too much effort, this will give them an overexposed look similar to your sample photographs.

Elliott Brueggeman
homepage – <b>http://homepages.nyu.edu/~edb224/index2.htm</b> my own free online games site – http://www.goldenbrew.com
K
KatWoman
Jul 26, 2005
"blen" wrote in message
basically i have some photos taken from a digital camera, i was wondering what adjustment to do to achieve this type of photos. the photos look saturated and sharpen but not the same though when i try to do it. can anyone help me?

http://www.8ung.at/yavin/scans/007_avril_lavigne_rolling_sto ne_sept02_yavin.jpg
http://tv.yahoo.com/tvpdb?d=tvi&id=1808649617&cf=ph& amp;pgid=&photoid=572375&pid=23

http://tv.yahoo.com/tvpdb?d=tvi&id=1808649617&cf=ph& amp;pgid=&photoid=566560&pid=110

I love watching that show. The photo-shoots are quite interesting and creative. If you watch the show you can see the lighting setups. Thank you everyone for acknowledging the talent of the photographer in lighting. Before PS (in the dinosaur time) we had to "get on the negative". It meant having to be more picky, up front about the model, her skin, the makeup and the lighting. It was expensive & time consuming to alter the images by dye transfer or airbrushing and many clients didn’t bother. (many still don’t).
I love the ability to alter the images but it is so nice to start with a beautiful photo and just slightly enhance it!!
S
Sean
Jul 27, 2005
On 25 Jul 2005 17:39:39 -0700, "blen" reverently intoned upon the aether:

the
photos look saturated and sharpen but not the same though when i try to do it. can anyone help me?

For a different (and I find more pleasing) look to your saturation enhancements try the Actions here:

http://www.thelightsright.com/DigitalDarkroom/PhotoshopTools /TLRSaturationMask.htm

But instead of using the high saturation mask to bring detail back into oversaturated areas (which occur in bright light) you can also use it in low contrast images (think cloudy day) to selectively increase contrast where the image is saturated while leaving less saturated tones alone. i.e., use this as the layer mask for a Hue & Saturation Adjustment Layer where you increase the saturation.

Another technique for increasing saturation that can be more aesthetically pleasing that the straight saturation adjustment in PS involves ICC profiles. Import your RAW file into the sRGB color space and then assign a larger color space (ICC profile) to the image.
i.e., import the RAW file in sRGB (or shoot JPEG in sRGB) and then try
assigning various color spaces to it (Adobe RGB (1998), Colormatch RGB, …).

One ICC profile I find to pleasingly boost saturation is Joseph Holmes Ektaspace assigned to a slightly flat sRGB image.

http://www.josephholmes.com/profiles.html

And others have said, getting the light right first makes for a better image in the end (even if you tweak it). Learning to use off camera flash with your camera can make a world of difference in the images you craft.

hope this helps,

Sean

"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

– Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

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