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Nobody has ever accused me of being artistic, so more talented eyes may give you a better answer than this. Try Filter>Filter Gallery and step through some of the effects, especially the Artistic, Brush Strokes, and Texture groups. Even more choices are available directly from the Filter menu. You would likely have to use some combination of effects to come close to the photos you referenced.
This comment is not really related to technique but… the images made me wonder what kind of nation would wish to impose poverty
upon its own people?
What kind of nation? You mean what kind of government.
Bush and Congress were busy giving a half trillion dollars to a country that sits on the world’s second largest oil reserves. They have a proud contempt for America’s own poor and disabled.
Agreed, deebs. It seems Chekhov was quite the doom-and-gloom sort. Another quote from him is: "How unbearable at times are people who are happy, people for whom everything works out." Wikipedia provides a possible clue to the root cause by quoting James Wood as saying Chekhov’s father was "a keen flogger of his children."
According to the photographer’s front page he combines HDR (high dynamic range) images to create that look.
Suffice it to say that it is a series of techniques that he has developed, and short of asking him directly, you’d likely have to just experiment on your own to come up with something similar.
Agreed, deebs. It seems Chekhov was quite the doom-and-gloom sort. Another quote from him is: "How unbearable at times are people who are happy, people for whom everything works out." Wikipedia provides a possible clue to the root cause by quoting James Wood as saying Chekhov’s father was "a keen flogger of his children."
Yeah – you know it’s bad when I walk into the grocery store, see their new graphics and say: "craqulure filter on a blurred background image, Helvetica Nue, stroke style, drop shadow, and they used too low a res for printing that bannar."
Ok, so I’m no Burkholder—I’m barely a placeholder, but with some layer blends and some dodging and burning I can sort of approximate the effect, even when starting with a flat, uninteresting image. Working with an HDR image (shot with the widest lens available) would be a real advantage if you want to try to duplicate his methods.
It’s hard to say exactly how those images were made. I have hundreds of filters and special effects, and no one filter or effect created that. It is possible that it was created on an Amiga computer, using specialized software. I had some pictures reworked by Maver who had such a setup, and what he turned out was fantastic. Those pictures on Dan Burkholder’s site have that same unique quality to them, so maybe that’s what was used to get that effect.
Must be used with extreme care. Prone to create ‘artifacts’ due to the gaussian method employed (such as ‘shadows’ appearing where no shadow is and severe halos). Funky colors. Can flatten your image entirely as in these images.
My opinion is that Photoshops Merge to HDR is higher quality and more serious. Photomatix is a popular toy, and a second option.
Check flickrs HDR pool for tonnes of tasteless examples using photomatix.
Thanks for the help Jedi master; I’ll see if I can use the links you sent to forge a chain of HDR invulnerability!
I found these two points interesting and useful. I had noted the 2nd part, but the first one makes it a bit quicker to try for me.
1) Merge to HDR and Camera RAW have a secret handshake where M2HDR tells Camera Raw to always zero out the exposure-related parameters (Exposure, Shadows, Brightness, Contrast) and guarantee linear output.
2) "The alignment feature doesn’t usually work so great" — Fair enough, and we have some good ideas on how to improve it.
Dan Burkholder himself writes on his home page "The painterly look to this new work is the result of combining multiple exposures using HDR (High Dynamic Range) techniques.
Monet "abused" painting and came up with impressionism. Stravinsky "abused" the ear can came up with "Le Sacre du printemps", and Ravel "abused" the entire audience with Bolero!
Give your photos a professional finish with sharpening in Photoshop. Learn to enhance details, create contrast, and prepare your images for print, web, and social media.
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