Colors like this-How to achieve

[tristefoc]

Okay i've got two select images that i think really show off the moody look really well.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...91974848_o.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...d1c1d527_o.jpg

I kinda understand what's going on here-burning and dodging, increase of saturation and also the use of a circular polariser to get the blue sky...but does anyone else have any other view as to how to achieve this PP?

I'd really love to try it out on portraiture, as in wide angle ones...

TIA!

[philbach]

Well both photos have used a wide angle lens with distortion and very high contrast with high saturation and a somewhat dark tone. For help on how to get that look why don't you post a picture and then ask help on how to change it to look like your examples.

[tristefoc]

Great idea! phil, i'll just find a suitable picture to use for this scheme....

i just find it extremely interesting how he's able to get the contrast going real high without being jarring...its not as if it's over saturated somehow....

[twitch1977]

To me those pictures look very similar to the high contrast effect I posted about here:

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/photo-retouching/12660-porcelain-skin-look.html

I would try Mig's method he described in post #5, I think you'll have good success wtih it, just play with varying oppacity of the multiplied and screened layers and use a curves adj. layer to tweak it and I think you'll be able to get the high contrast look very close to what they show in that picture.

Then probably mask out the foreground subject and apply whatever saturation increase to it you want. There's a chance they didn't even add any saturation to it, it could just look that way against that high contrast background.

T

[delic]

Some other things to note.

there is a dark vignette either post processed or caused by the wide angle lens..

Looks like there is some red channel blending to me as well. Granted a polarizer helps a sky out it seems too dark even for a polarizer.

Try copying the red channel and blending with multiply or color burn..

[tristefoc]

hmm...i checked out the other post, but the effect's somewhat disimilia(as in the other thread touches on high-key exposures)r....in the examples i've posted-it does seem to be that a lot of dodging and burning has been done besides the extreme saturation...the dodging part i can get...i've tried opening the image in PS and burning further, seems like that's one part of the solution to get the contrast down first.

I'm just extremely how is it that such rich hues are achieved but yet it looks so very moody.what do you guys think?

[bart_hickman]

Whenever I see clouds like that, I think "clarify filter!".

I dug up a bland-looking image I have and did the following in Paintshop Pro X (first attachment is original, second is processed.)

1. Clarify Filter at maximum strength (ran clarify on all three color channels individually.)
2. Used the select color range tool to get the blue part of the sky.
3. Transferred that selection to the alpha channel of a curve adjustment layer. The curve was adjusted to darken the bluer parts of the sky.
4. Added a second curve layer with a radial gradient to add the dark vignette around the edges.
5. Slight desaturation. If I had a car, I'd do this desaturation on everything but the car.

I think this begins to approximate the effect--only took a few minutes. I started with a sub-par image from an old P&S, but it's what I stumbed on first.

Bart

[philbach]

I selected the sky and copied it using mutliply blending mode. The rest I copied to another layer (using photoshop) and used vivid light blending mode. After combining these two layers I used a curves adjustment layer to lighten the center of the picture. I could have used the warp tool in photoshop to distort the image to a wide angle appearing lens but didn't.

[Kraellin]

bart,

1. Clarify Filter at maximum strength (ran clarify on all three color channels individually.)

ok, how did you do this? did you split the channels first or what? and if you split them, when you put them back with the original, how did you combine them and what blend mode(s) did you use?

2. Used the select color range tool to get the blue part of the sky.

huh? what 'select color range tool' ?? you talking about the eye dropper or something else?

3. Transferred that selection to the alpha channel of a curve adjustment layer.

i know how to get a selection into an alpha channel, but how did you apply it to a curves adjustment layer?
The curve was adjusted to darken the bluer parts of the sky.

4. Added a second curve layer with a radial gradient to add the dark vignette around the edges.

and the same here, how did you apply a radial gradient to a curves layer?

boy, it may be time for me to go back and actually read the manual! even the help files have no reference to some of the things you're saying you're doing here.

craig

[shellby]

Quote:
2. Used the select color range tool to get the blue part of the sky.
huh? what 'select color range tool' ?? you talking about the eye dropper or something else?


Go to the menu along the top. There is a menu called SELECT and in there you will find Colour Range. It is a great way to make selections of things such as hair or skin that you want to apply a blur to for example.

[singlo]

There is anothor way of making the sky dark without photoshop post-processing or polariser. You will need very powerful portable flash units to illuminate the car and stop down the lens to very small aperture, setting the exposure 2-3 stops about the ambient light..the flash will overpower the ambient light creating dark moody sky..basically the sky and surrounding are underexposed. If you overdo this, you can turn the day into night

However your sample photos seem to be done in post-processing because the pipes and the road behind are exposed according to the ambient light level.

[Kraellin]

shellby,

thank you. found it

craig

[bart_hickman]

Originally Posted by Kraellin

ok, how did you do this? did you split the channels first or what? and if you split them, when you put them back with the original, how did you combine them and what blend mode(s) did you use?
craig

Yes, you split them first into greyscale versions of the R,G, and B channels. Then run clarify on each of these. Then recombine them.

You can split them using the "split to RGB" menu, and recombine them using the "combine from rgb" command. Both of these are under the "image" menu. I do this so much, I have a script that does the whole thing.

http://home.comcast.net/~zumbari/Scr..._RGB.PspScript

Originally Posted by Kraellin

huh? what 'select color range tool' ?? you talking about the eye dropper or something else?

Shellby explained it. Due to a quirk in the tool, you have to make a tiny selection prior to using this tool (~1x1 pixel) on a color in your image you will want to select. Then go to "Selections>modify>select color range". Now go back to the image and click the eyedropper on that selection. Make sure the "add color range" is checked. Slide the tolerance and softness sliders around to modify what colors are being selected. You can see your selection changing dynamically in the "after" window.

To get the amount of sky I wanted, this actually selected too much stuff. So rerun that tool, check the "subtract color range", tighten the tolerance and/or softness, and start removing colors from your selection.

Originally Posted by Kraellin

i know how to get a selection into an alpha channel, but how did you apply it to a curves adjustment layer?

When you have selection marqee showing (aka walking ants), go to the layer palette, right mouse click on the active layer, "new adjustment layer->curves". Click okay in the dialog box and the selection will have been automatically put into the alpha channel for the new adjustment layer. If you look at the thumbnail in the layer palette, you will see the selection has been applied to the adjustment layer's alpha channel. I attached my layer palette for this image so you can see the alpha channel impressed into the curve layer (curves 4). If you look closely enough, you'll see the blue parts of the sky are white in the alpha channel and the white parts of the sky are darker. Consequently, the darkening effect of the curve layer applies more strongly to the blue parts of the sky. You can also see I didn't quite get rid of all non-sky areas, but it was close enough. You could get a black brush and paint on that part of the alpha channel to darken all non-sky areas if it mattered.

Originally Posted by Kraellin

The curve was adjusted to darken the bluer parts of the sky.
and the same here, how did you apply a radial gradient to a curves layer?

Just select the adjustment layer and flood fill the gradient. The attachment shows the gradient showing -- "curves 1".

Bart

[tristefoc]

hmmm bart, pretty good example! but what is the equivalent of the clarify filter in photoshop?

or anyone?

[bart_hickman]

I actually spent some time prior to my original post trying to use only photoshop features, and I think I sort of got close using the unsharp mask at radius 40, strength 200, clipping 0 (uncheck the luminance-only box). Then create a blank layer with burn blend mode and paint a light, low saturation blue. That's for the sky. For other parts of the photo, there are probably other combos. Clarify is adaptive--it's behavior varies from one part of the photo to the next based not only on the pixel values, but on the change in pixel values (local contrast). Consequently, it's challenging to mimick with standard filter combinations.

If you look closely at the pictures you posted, you can see evidence of brushing--ie., notice how the sky brightens near the margins between land and sky. So, that author did the sky by hand--probably a burn brush or something like that. I think he probably started with a photo much closer to the correct answer in the first place.

Bart