How does he do it?

[JonasF]

Hello ppl,

I've been on a lot of places on the web looking on a lot of different photos. During all this time one person and his work really caught my attention, Andrzej Dragan. I just love the photos he have made, really amazing.

The question is how does he do the postprocessing? I know you can buy the info from him but I cant afford spending 200eur on it.

Does anyone know any trix to get something close to his work?

Have look at his postprosessing work here:
http://www.andrzejdragan.com/tekstyeng.html
Photos are here:
http://www.andrzejdragan.com/foto/nowawyrobniaeng.html

Best regards,
Jonas

BTW Great forum!

[Flora]

Hi Jonas,

Welcome to RP!

I had a look at the site and I really loved what I saw!!

Some of the results can be achieved with:

• Color Balance
• Selective Colors
• Hue&Saturation
• Layer Blending changes
• Playing with Contrast and Tone (Levels or Curves)

As for the background, it's just a matter of trying .... Filters, Clone Tool, Healing brush, Noise, Blurring, Smudging... you name it...

Sorry I couldn't be more specific, but Andrzej Dragan himself says:

...I receive a lot of questions concerning the details of the original technique, which is not very straightforward and involves several different actions and tricks. Moreover the evolution is unique and different for each photograph.

[Lars Lundström]

Hi,

After a little bit of pondering I came up with this idea :

In photoshop, load pic and duplicate layer. Apply curves to the ORIGINAL (underlying) layer so that it become real dark but still clearly visible (a curve like the right part of a U should do the trick). Add a layer mask to the new (only visible) layer copy. Have the layer mask hide selection (by alt-clicking when creating mask or Layer -> Add Layer Mask -> Hide All. Now all you have to do is to paint back the original light with a soft brush.

I made a little example for you. Except for the stuff I just mentioned I also reduced the saturation a little bit. That's it!


http://larrahst.ub.umu.se/temp/original.jpg
http://larrahst.ub.umu.se/temp/retouched.jpg