I found a photographer that deeply impressed me. His website is at http://www.heimophotography.com/index2.html . Does anyone have certain hints how to achieve his typical hi-fashion look? For example, section Portraiture, Series 1, especially all the NYC Balet pictures there... it reminds me of Lorette Lux´s style somehow, but this one is slightly better executed in my opinion. I am trying to lighten up the skin tones by curves, to get rid of shadows by shadow/highlight and to slightly desaturate the colours, but it´s just not it!:) any ideas? I hope you like the pictures as much as I do!:)

Much of course depends on the original shot. So what kind of images have you tried retouching, can you post one and see if anyone here may have better luck? Or get an opinion if it is even a good candidate.

To me the images does not seem to have that much done to them exept some vignetting, some selective desaturation or change of background.

okay, here are some random pictures to play with straight from the camera:

http://www.faustyle.com/temp/IMG_1411orig.jpg
http://www.faustyle.com/temp/IMG_1396orig.jpg

sorry for the small resolution:(

I tried to tweak the skintone, blurred the bg and added a vignette:
http://www.faustyle.com/temp/IMG_1411h.jpg

but I am unsatisfied with the result somehow:)

Is this something like what you want?

I also did some tests but I think the environments and poses makes a difference too. Here are my tests but I got about the same thing as you.

here's my take on one of your pics -- beautiful model/photos.

marsha

Just experimenting - Hows this?

Faust,

There is not one particular processing style. In Portraits 1, in the second Paris image, it appears that the models skin, the wood door on each side, and the stone have been desaturated. The grill work and the background in the doorway seem to be somewhat more saturated. The next image of the NYC ballet dancer on the stairs has the background very saturated and warm. The model is desaturated and much lighter relative to her surroundings. The models coloring however carries the same warm tone as the back ground. The final NYC ballet dancer standing by the arches is totally desaturated and pushed to the cool blue tones.

So you have three very different techniques applied. Which one do you want? I think the one that gives the image the most impact and drama. Which one is that? Well, that is where artistry comes in. You have to play with the image and see what fits.

Pellipiano is right, the environment and pose play a very large part in the images success. The images you posted have promise. The background is wonderful and the light on it is good. The problem seems to be with the girl. She is not very dynamically posed (discussing first image). The arms hanging down look limp. Maybe, the left arm behind and the right hand on the hip. Try and create some trinagles/curves in the image. Try a different head angle, her head tipped slightly to the high shoulder.

The biggest problem is the light on the girl. It is straight on flash and and gives the image no modeling. The flash is too strong. You could get away with the flash on the camera if it is very weak: just enough to fill in shadows. Probably better without the flash. If the flash were off camera and pulled around to the right so it crossed her body, it might be better. She has a beautiful dress on with much ornate detail you can hardly see it in your photo. The skimming light would bring out this detail and add interest.

Note the lighting In Helmo's images. The second Paris image looks like it was a flash production The flash was a very large source and very well balanced to the other lighting. It also is not straight on, it is to the left. Note how it lights the models face. The dancer on the stairs appears to be lit by a light about 90 degrees around right from the camera. It skims the subject who is looking almost at it. This is all conjecture, aided by some clues. For all I know, the stair image could be a composite, very well done. Pellipiano has some very nice examples of this on his website. The dancer by the arches seems to be all natural light. The light is from the left side comming through the arches.

I just went back to Helmos site and notice the second NYC ballet dancer, the sitting one. It looks like it is totaly desaturated except for the red dress. I bet he/she? uses masks to saturate/desaturate various areas of the image in varying amounts. Also probably dodges the highliights and burns the shadows slightly to emphasize the contrast. See the thread with Amy Dresser's explanation in it from about a week ago.

Larry

I am a (kind of:) photographer myself and I think that lighting/makeup is not the big deal here. On most of the pictures, he obviously uses just 1 or 2 rather weak light sources through softbox or something, either directly as a frontal light or from 45dg. I would even believe that the outdoor shots (and the "Island" folder) were shot in natural light, maybe with a diffuser. To me it seems that:
- he got rid of the harsh shadows by shadow/highlight or something, as there are no bold shadows in his pictures, even behind the subjects obviously lit by a strobe.
- he often blurs the background, as the depth of field is sometimes a bit strange and too small
- the background is often even lighter than the subject, which is contrary to the normal way of lighting up the subject and having a darker underexposed bg
- the skintone is raised and desaturated
the thing I am looking for is especially the film-like mix of noir colors and "flat" look, which is the opposite of painting with light techniques that are so popular nowadays

Think I may have cracked his method. I've seen photos like this before, but couldn't remember how it was done. Anyway I had a look through the site and spotted something that reminded me of a method.
I think he is using 3 photos blended together, taken from a fixed point. First is an over exposed sky shot for the land areas. Second is an underexposed shot for the sky/light areas. And the third is a shot with the model in place.

If I find the site I read this method on, I will post a link :happy:

Thought I'd have a go at this. Used a 50% navy blue layer in hue blending. Selected the skin and adjusted the tones, then wound up the contrast for a little more dramatic look, excluding the sky portion of the pic.

I had to try too...I use contrast and blur/blending modes to change the mood. Nice link...lots of interesting images on his/her site.

-K

Nice site,... so I had to give it a try!

this is my 10minutes work
is this more like you wanted?

http://www.northpolestudio.nl/retouch/IMG_1396orig2_copy.jpg


EDIT:
This can be done with one single shot. And it's not that hard either.

If this is more like what you wanted I could work it out for you. Put some more time in it and tell you how it was done ;)

this is my 10minutes work
is this more like you wanted?

http://www.northpolestudio.nl/retou...6orig2_copy.jpg


EDIT:
What a lot of BS on this topic :D
This can be done with one single shot. And it's not that hard either.
And if this is what you wanted I could work it out for you. Put some more time in it and tell you how it was done ;)


Really? What a constructive comment to make. Care to enlighten us all on exactly how it's done then :bow: :bow: :bow:

Really? What a constructive comment to make. Care to enlighten us all on exactly how it's done then :bow: :bow: :bow:

Haha yeah sorry for that, did not meant for anybody to feel offended. When I read it back I realized it was not as I meant to put it. Changed it, but to late. You allready read it!


How it was done:
1: Some minor corrections on the color and lighting.
2: Sharpened the photo
-> Set mode to LAB Color (Images/Mode/Lab Color)
-> Go to channels settings
-> Select Lightness channel
-> Unsharpen Mask 20% Radius 4,0 Thresshold 0 (Filters/Sharpen/Unsharpen Mask)
-> Set mode back to RGB (Images/Mode/RGB)
3: Making the sky come out (more blue/darker)
-> Added a selective color layer
-> Turned CYAN, BLUE, WHITES and NEUTRALS all to +100% Black
-> Made a MASK so that only the sky was affected by these settings
-> Duplicated the selective-color layer and oppacity to 10-20%
4: Some correction on the grass
-> Added a selective color layer
-> Turned in the GREENS the Magenta to -100%
-> Turned in the GREENS the Black to +100%
-> Made a MASK so only a small portion of the grass would be affected(only around her feet and in the lower part of her dress)
5: Made her arms less red
-> Added a slective color layer
-> Turned in the REDS the Cyan to +100%
-> Turned in the YELLOWS the Blacks to -100%
-> Made a MASK so ony her arms would be affected
6: Bring some reds back in her face
-> Copied the origenal photo on top
-> Added a MASK so only the origenal face + a portion of the neck and upperbody was visible
-> Set Opacity to 50% (this could be less or more but this is what I used)


Hope I made it up al little this way ;)

PS.
HEIMO uses a lot of photo filters
So you might want to add a little photo filter layer
-> Add Photo-Filter layer on top of all the other layers
-> Select COLOR and use #333e4b (Or what ever color you think looks nice)
-> Set Density to a 50% and Preserve Luminosity
-> Rurn the Master Opacity to about 30% (or to whatever you like)

http://www.northpolestudio.nl/retouch/Before&after.jpg

This all can be done really fast
So you could spent the rest of your time on details!(you charge them for the hour, right ;))
Like retouching her eyes, maybe her waist and some facial expressions

Does this look too bleached? I used both Hue/Sat and Selective color adjustment layers. (With the Selective color layers I reduced the amount of black in the reds to lighten her skin). I darkened her lips and lightened her eyes. And that was about it.

Syd

Only playing :devil: :bigthmb:
I like what you have done, but still think he may be using more than one shot to create the look. Reason I think this is.
If you look on HEIMO's advertising portfolio and at the 07 broadview shot. Take a close look at the spectators. Notice how the light source on the spectators is different. 3rd and 4th men from the right have light on their left hand side. Yet the sun is clearly on their right. Also the sky is under exposed, yet the shadow area of the building is very light. This makes for an impossible shot IMHO . So it's either a marriage of 2 or more shots, or the camera can sometimes lie :dizzy: :dizzy: :dizzy:
I noticed that a few of the shots seem to have light sources/shaddows that don't add up. May be this is down to lighting or PS effects, but looks more like 2 or more shots to me :dizzy:

Yes that's right
07 Broadview is made out of more then 1 photo
Probably around 6 :D Happends a lot. All studio work, but I would have made a better effort on making the lighting add up.

For a photo like the one of Faust you do not need multiple shots because all the info you want on the photo is allready in it. You do not need external sky or spectators. Just enhance what's allready there even though you might not see it.

@chrishoggy:
Saw your site. Nice job on the retouching of old photos! This glam/commercial look is more my cup of tea ;) :cool:

I can do glamour work, but it's not something I can say I am happy doing. I do some for local amateur photographers, but I'm nowhere near high end standard/speed. I wish I could show some of my better work, but getting people to sign over the right to publish them is nearly impossible.
I was looking for a few images yesterday, and had to hunt through 3000+ to find them. I have 200gig of stored hard drives full images, but just can't use them in the public domain.
I'm trying to get some old (100 years+) originals that I can do from scratch. Then have them as high res examples. It's just a matter of dropping on some damaged ones that have good subject matter worth restoring :happy: .

Woderful site. Here is an attempt at a recreation based on one of the photographs. I think it really does depend on the pose though. A little more dramatic would have helped.

Play with this beta filter's settings and I hope you'll get very close.

I see the entire image a bit flat. I used my Illustrated look and PWL to remap the lighting.

I think I'm happier with this attempt.

I noticed the angle of the photo makes the lower part of her body and especially her hands look rather large. This also has to do with the fact that her knee is out and the fabric on the dress appears a little stiff. I have attempted to correct this.

Here I thought I'd give it a try

cspringer

I love what you have done with the drees :)

Hello, im pretty new here..

I played around with selective color, hue saturation and Selective sharpening.

To get the skin tone. I selected all of the skin area and used MATCH COLOR - (image>adjusments>match color), in Match Color you click Neutralize and play around with Image Options until you get the Porcelain look..

it was a quick way to do, i bet if you use d&b after you use match color you can definately achieve the look..also sharpen edges (lips, eyes) i could not do this because the image is so small..

ok, later guys



http://img61.imageshack.us/img61/2272/cbastian4faustox2.jpg

here is my try! I just added a layer with filer coloru or layer fill on top of the dark areas and dodged them our abit ....you can see bad retouch by on her hands, but It took me 10min,,,so...


I CARE TO SHARE! If you dare....muahahahah!



Gerry