Hi Guys,

This is my first post of a shot taken with my new D300. The weather where I'm based has been terrible so I thought I'd practice my portrait skills.

Shot using window light from camera left and off camera strobe camera right, the latter being fired through a white umbrella.

Post processed to try and emulate Dave Hill technique.

Comments and critique would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks!


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2197/2207315580_3fd22a7a7c_b.jpg

Incidentally, I'm hosting my image on Flickr, but when I copy and paste the image url using the img tags I just get a link to the image. Could someone tell me what I'm doing wrong!

Many thanks,

Matt

Can't help you with the Flickr problem, but did a quick high contrast gritty version of your photo in Photoshop CS3

1. Duplicate background and convert to Smart Layer
2. Run Shadow Highlights and really push up both shadows and highlights and restore some mid-tone contrast
3.Ran Adjustment Layer>Black & White and used the preset for High Contrast Red. Set the blend mode to overlay.
4. Added a new layer filled with 50% gray and Ran Filter>Noise, with Gaussian and mono checked. Ran Filter>Render Clouds. Adjust opacity to taste.
5. Went back to the Smart Object and Ran Filter>Lens Distortion and added a slight vignette.

Thanks for the comment and edit Swampy.

I'm not sure if I like the edit, were you going for a Dave Hill look?

Was going for a grunge look since kids think its cool.

Aha, I see, to that extent the grunge look you've achieved is spot on!

Many thanks!

I'm really sorry about this, but it seemed to be begging for a caricature.
Anyway you shouldn't be spying on your sister.

Peter

If you look below you will probably notice in the "Posting Rules" box that HTML code is OFF so you get a link

BTW, I think you came pretty close to what you wanted with the Picture... and with just one shot... Keep up the good work!
Practice Cubed!

I think you did a great job. If your going for the Dave Hill look there's some things that need to be changed. First off the image is kind of flat, Dave's images are always full of color. The lighting is close but I feel that the post production I did matched Dave's images a little closer, however taste is very subjective from person to person. Hopefully you can play around with it using these settings as something to start with. Also the uploaded images reduced at 600 pixels make things look a little stronger than the 1100 pixels I edited them with.

On the first image (labeled img01 :) ) I made I started out with the background layer, went to apply image, set channel to Red, blending to vivid light and opactity to 21%. Press ok. To boost the color some more I made a slight hump in the green and blue channels in curves. ( to compensate for the ramped up red channel we just adjusted) This will make those channels and the overall image a bit brighter. The color is still looking a bit desaturated, and for the sake of making the tutorial a little easier, got to Hue./Sat and adjust the saturation to 27%. Dave's images are shot with a very wide aperture to make everything sharp, this image is looking good but could use some sharpening. I used unsharp mask with settings of 50%, 1px, and a threshold of 3 (this limits the sharpening to area's of higher contrast leaving the blanket and skin alone.).


On the second image it's more desaturated, for this one I duplicated the background image, name to overlay, set to overlay blend mode and reduce to 90% opacity, now this is very oversaturated but hang in there. Now create a blank layer and hit ctrl+atl+shift+E , this should make a copy of all layers, rename this layer to lum. , now delete the overlay layer and set the lum. layer to luminosity blend mode. This will make use the tonal levels of the lum. layer but keep our color from the background layer. You can adjust the opacity to taste to bring more of the color and tonal values of the background layer.

*edit*
Yea after taking a break and coming back their a bit to oversaturated ! You can be a little less aggressive with the hue./sat.

My version of your version to get a DH effect
HDR/tonemapped, curves, desaturated some

I'm really sorry about this, but it seemed to be begging for a caricature.
Anyway you shouldn't be spying on your sister.

Peter

Peter - I like your edit but that's just totally wrong! Apology accepted ;-)

Oldbaldy - don't worry, I'll be practising and thanks for the heads up with regards the HTML, I missed that!

Adam - Many thanks for your insightful tips, I have to agree that my technique is slightly off, and your right with regards the image appearing flat, it could do with a slight contrast lift.

I also agree with the saturation issue but I think DH applies it sparingly. Whilst editing my shot I kept comparing it to Dave Hill's shot of "Soulja Boy" where he is sat on the bed with the laptop. If you look at that shot it seems fairly de-saturated with the only real saturated elements being the pattern on the bed sheets.

To this extent IMO I think as well as adding greater tonal range to his shots be extensive D & B he also increases the range with selective saturation. I will certainly be having a play with your techniques though, many thanks for sharing!

grannysdc and Captain Hook - Thanks for taking the time to edit my shot, although both are different in appearance, I think both look pretty cool!