I wanted to see if anyone had any ideas on how to achieve the look of Gray Scott's work (www.grayscott.com) sort of subdued crisp, contrasty colors.

5lime, welcome to RP!
Gray's work is incredible isn't it! He uses contrast and light to effectively achieve an very emotive effect. What I notice across the portfolio is that he does not use intense color. In general the saturation of the colors is fairly low. The overall image has a lower lightness level except in those areas where he uses high contrast but those highlights tend to be white. This combination of high key and low saturation does quite well with his subjects.
I tend to evaluate and edit skin tones in LAB color space. Typical skin tones tend to have an equal value of the A (Magenta) and B (Yellow). In Gray's images the red is cooled down to about 1/3 of the B value. In many cases it is almost neutral. Moreover the B itself is about 2/3 of the value you see in normally saturated images. Another way to state this is the skin is reduced in red as well as saturation.
Regards, Murray

Hi Murray thanks for the welcome and input on his process. I appreciate it very much,
Steve

the things that scream PS to me are the motion blurs (how accentuated they are), subtle vignetting, and the 'selective' focus in many of the shots. Very creative use of light and shadow...most of us don't have the luxury of starting with a well lit/shot image of a beautiful model ;) All of those things help too! Good luck.

-Kate

I think the best way to demonstrate the technique is to reverse it and 'fix' the photo (see attached).
Basically I increased the saturation by +30 and then used selective colour to deacrease the cyan and increase the magenta in the reds.

Gray Scott is indeed amazing. I have been trying to figure this style out for months now without much success. Yes, I am aware that he uses pro models, a pro makeup team, good lighting, etc., but the fact here is that no matter how great a MU team he has at his disposal, those photos don't come out of his camera looking like that.

I know there are quite a few excellent retouchers here who can execute this style. I've seen some of the work you guys do and you guys are fantastic.

Here is my proposal:

I am a firm believer that you can't get something for nothing. So if any of you photoshop gurus could please make a detailed CAMTASIA tutorial showcasing the entire process involved in creating this visual style I would gladly pay you for it. I'm sure there are many here who would do the same. Heck, I'll even hook you up with the CAMTASIA software if you don't already have it. Any takers?

Gray Scott is indeed amazing. I have been trying to figure this style out for months now without much success. Yes, I am aware that he uses pro models, a pro makeup team, good lighting, etc., but the fact here is that no matter how great a MU team he has at his disposal, those photos don't come out of his camera looking like that.

Do you have a hi-res photo for us to play with? One that will suit the style of course, but needs the retouching

/megl

I think I have the right filter for you (I made it when someone else mentioned it... I was VERY curious HOW the do it). Tough one (and I don't know if I made it right). Where can I send you the filter?

Um... I just don't get it. Those pictures are amazing I guess, if you want shots of mannequins you might find in the Addams' Family attic. I prefer pictures of people to look like people, but I guess thats just me...

Duffy