The Joel Grimes Technique?

[YoungRetoucher]

Could anyone help me reverse engineer his technique? I know that he shoots background separately from his models just like Tom Bosh and so many others but... Well there is something about his images that gives them the 'wow this chick is in my living room' factor. Know what I mean? Any idea on how he does it? Nothing would please me more than to learn this technique, I adore this guy's work!

http://joelgrimes.com

[madclark]

Well it's less difficult than you think when you realize these are composites. There's a background shot, then the model shot. And then you use different grunge techniques to duplicate that look.

[JVEyck309]

Hey man..

I watched a tutorial or two from him..

(Before I start, being this is my first post ever, I am far from a newbie but also far from doing really high end work.. I still got a lot to learn but I think I know a fair amount.. anyways...)

So the one tutorial he shot a model with two hair lights on both sides of model and I assume a beauty dish or soft box real close to camera.
then what he did is first open the image in camera raw, cranks the "Fill" up to 70-80 ish.. drops the contrast to -30 or so.. and opens as object. (In the tutorial he claims he doesnt touch the camera profiles, lens corrections, sharpening/noise, nothing.. go figure..)
Then takes that object and makes a new layer via copy.. reopens that copy in camera raw, switches to grayscale, adjusts some individual colors, adds a bit of clarity.. then when he's done he switches that B/W layer to Overlay blend mode (or soft light I suppose) and from there he goes back into both of those layers in camera raw and adjusts their raw settings until he's happy with it..

So basically.. a very low contrast version with a black and white low contrast version set to overlay.

To me it gives it an overly contrasty/ Faux-HDR look to it.

Then of course he drops people into backgrounds as you said.. and does basic cleanup.


I was surprised at how simple his method is. But being that I'm still learning, what do others think of this? I feel like you gotta be loosing quality when pushing contrast and fill this far?

I'd be interested in hearing what others have to say about this method?

Hope this helps OP!

[JVEyck309]

also... almost all of his images are back lit (rim lights, hair lights? what do you call them?) Everyone has that light cutting from behind and hitting on their cheeks

[sehmuzb]

Just buy the tutorials http://web.me.com/joelgrimes/Joel_Gr...ial_Video.html

Affordable compared to other stuff. Deit39 is pretty dead on some of the techniques. Basically it is double raw conversion both layers, good compositing, blur and high pass on overlay modes. Nothing ground breaking but when used like Joel, the results are awesome.

-sehmuzb

[JohnnyQuest007]

i smell a bit of high pass... as one of the techniques also.

[amica999]

Haven't had time to watch, but maybe something interesting turns up?
http://solsticeretouch.tumblr.com/po...er-joel-grimes

[daygraphics]

Everyone is doing "some kind" of HDR or effect these days. Some are filters or a series of existing steps in photoshop. One way of getting similar effects is to open your image in Camera Raw - using the Fill pretty heavily, and making a good black and white of it (de-Saturation). Open again - as a normal good color file. Do some high pass and overlay on the gray layer. Then some selective Unsharp Masking on the most foreground areas. Overlay the color layer in a color mode and play around with mask and paint in areas with varying degrees of strength. Here's a technique that I had to develop and ran for almost 3 months (long time in the ad world - not). A lot of work for a short lived campaign.

[daygraphics]

To DRIFT:
I can't seem to pick up your messages about this post. I can however, read your Email that came direct. I will try and explain as best I remember... it has been about 2 campaigns ago. And even in its usage period, it was a work evolving. I meant Open it as a Camera RAW. Even JPGS can be reopened as a Camera RAW through Bridge. The FILL I am referring to is the FILL Control that would emulate a Flash Fill with a Camera Flash or Reflector. This I used heavily to really open up the Shadow Detail. Then I also used the Desaturate Control to make close to a Monochrome RGB.

Then kind of Open it would a good balance and a natural attempt at getting a good color image. Now you have two separate files open.

Duplicate the Gray (Monochromatic) Layer and do a High Pass in Overlay Mode over the original Gray. It will really HDR and sharpen it. You can then flatten. Isolate and Sharpen some of the most important or interesting foreground areas and do an Unsharp Mask at a 2-3 radius and low/zero tolerance and a strength consistent with the look you want.

Now take your color image and drag it over (on top layer) of the Gray version. Set a mask to it at about 50 %. Then use your paintbrush or Eraser to paint more color strength (more white areas in Mask) in the areas that you want. Use a big brush and buff it in building up where you want.

At this point you can flatten it or make a copy of all active layers - and even do some tone (Curve) moves to your liking.

I hope that this elaborates enough for you to give it a try. It worked wll for us - and everyone loved it for about 3-4 ads!!!

[GeorgeNC]

I've attended his workshop twice. His videos are great and they give you all the info you will need to master his technique. Check them out on his web site.

[Calvinhollywood]

http://www.framedshow.com/archives/tag/joel-grimes

Joels Images are a result of a great feeling for background and model.
He knows what kind of backgrounds he have to put in.
And he shoots backgrounds everywhere and every time.

I met him in washington and i was on tour from 2am to 6am (alone) to shoot HDRs.
He is great

lg Calvin
http://www.photoshopfreaks.com