How to get those colors?

[mschulz]

Hi,

I stumbled across this picture http://foto.luzik.pl/galeria.php?akc...e&foto=228.jpg from a polish
photographer. As he didn't answer my email I thought I ask here in this forum. How can I create these kinds of colors in pictures? There's another one with David Beckham in an Adidas ad where the same type of coloring was used.
It would be great if you could help me.

Thanks
Michael

[PatrickB]

The image attached (Ms SchulzE btw is just the result of a good camera and an extremely sensible lens, making it possible to shoot under very low light without using flash or spotlight. That makes it possible to catch the smallest touch of light and hence bring out this many details. I haven't found a way to copy this result to Photoshop unfortunately

It seems to contain an overlay layer or burn layer though since the girls face and chest have very heavy shadows. And it's not very saturated.

Patrick

[Kraellin]

mshulz,

were you wanting to know with a camera or in a paint program or both?

the lighting in your linked example seems to be the key to that one. there is apparently an overhead light source that we dont see in the pic. it's primarily lighting the model and her dress, leaving the background mainly dark.

if you wanted to do this in a paint program it would be pretty easy and could be done several different ways. in psp you could do it with the lighten/darken brush, or with layers and masks/selections, or possibly with curves and levels. add in some color correction and balance and it would probably work just fine.

Craig

[PatrickB]

Kraellin, could you possibly post an example? That would probably be great!

TIA Patrick

[mschulz]

Thanks a lot for your answers. I'll try to take the PS route and work with
some layers.

Thanks
Michael

[arcadhia]

It's this the FX that are You looking for???

Vibrant Overlay FX

[mschulz]

Originally Posted by arcadhia

It's this the FX that are You looking for???

Vibrant Overlay FX

I think yes .. Thank you very much. There's so much more stuff I have to learn in PS .. just taking good pictures doesn't seem to be enough .

Michael

[Panpan]

Am I the only one who sees a strong magenta cast in the dark reds? I would not try to reproduce that; I would try to correct it!

Pierre

[arcadhia]

Feels good to help

[Kraellin]

patrick,

actually, i cant right now. i've been making a lot of weekend trips of late and i'm yet again on another. so, i'm not on my computer right now. also, the computer i'm on is displaying this a bit differently from mine, so it may be time to recalibrate my monitor at home. mine is darker at home than this one. but, i will take a look at this again when i'm home.

Craig

[graficalicus]

Hi - I'm brand new to this forum - I guess this is as good a place as any to jump in!

I'm pretty sure this can be done with a color adjustment layer. Just a guess at the color, but a dark red or maroon (#A80000 or maybe #9A004E) - or maybe leaning more towards the browns (try #BA9570, or #6C4F42) or oranges for a sepia look, set at color burn with a reduced opacity -

you could even duplicate the original, desaturate it, blur it a bit, and place it between the color adjustment layer and the original with a soft light blend.

hope that helps - !

[CJ Max]

Just from looking at the image I'd say that his key light (brightest) was overhead and to your left (her right) while fill lights were used too - one head level or so to your right (her left), and another very low and soft fill light to your left (her right). I base the use of the last light from looking at the deep folds of material on the lower left (her right) part of her dress and the lack of a harsh nose shadow. Overhead lights would produce harsher shadows, but the material folds are "opened up" just enough to catch detail nicely and not look too dark.

I don't think that he did too much postprocessing at all in PS or anyother software.

Cliff.