Help Recreate This Look

[NancyJ]

They didnt come out here as they did in PS - I will have to have a fiddle with them when I get home

[drisley]

Originally Posted by NancyJ

They didnt come out here as they did in PS - I will have to have a fiddle with them when I get home

NancyJ, I had another look at your pics, and I really like the process, especially the slightly undersaturated version.
Would you mind explaining what you did?

[drisley]

Btw, One of my favourite photographers was kind enough to share his post techniques for his fitness images which look quite similar to the above images. However, he says he has to do each image individually depending on lighting.
Basically he applies shadow/highlight in CS2 at it's default setting, uses curves to get richness, adjust saturation levels to normalize colour, then play with levels to get whites white and blacks black.

I've tried the above technique, and my images still look nothing like his. I actually find the shad/highlight tool at default tends to ruin my images, especially when shot at a high ISO (as most stage shots are).

[solitear]

Hi drisley....... of course I'll tell you ....... it's something I learned from someone else anyway...... it's so easy you could turn it into an action ..... here's what I did:

Open photo and duplicate it then close your original.

With just this copy open go to Layers > Duplicate > click OK

On this copy go to Image > Mode > Lab then click on Lightness channel

Go to Image > Mode > Grayscale..... now

Go to Image > Mode > Duotones....... pick any one of the brown duotones from the Pantone offerings

Now go to Filter > Blur > Gaus. Blur and blur a tiny bit..... I think I used .5

Finally, click back on your colored photo because we're going to pull the Duotone on top of it

Holding the shift key down, click and drag the Duotone on top of the colored one ....... which now looks duotoned, too .... until you ...

Change the blend mode to Overlay.......

That's it....... play around when choosing your duotone browns because, while it makes little difference, it does change the undertones.

I feel terrible that I don't remember where I got this tutorial ... I'd scribbled it down instead of printing it out and have had it for awhile ....... hope it helps you!

Beth

Thank you drisley for finding the tut........ it's posted by Mig in the tutorial section (I hate not giving credit where credit's due) and thank you, Mig!

[drisley]

Thanks Beth!
It wouldn't happen to be this tutorial would it?
http://www.retouchpro.com/tutorials/...d_duotone.html

[solitear]

YESsssssssss............... That's it !!!!! And, of course, it was here all the time........ good job!

Beth

[drisley]

After seeing your post, I just googled "duotone" and "overlay" and came up with that tutorial in this exact forum. Funny eh.

[solitear]

You must be living right........

I will never get over finding RetouchPro..... there are so many ways I've been encouraged here..... whether it be in a meticulous, clearly written tutorial posted for all to glean from.... or, after a years absence, returning to find Doug, Matt, Craig, byRo, Flora, Danny, chris, Gary, Richard, TPaul, etc... faithfully helping, instructing, keeping the peace and maintaining the integrity of this site...... I use their work, as well as others' here, as my 'plumb bob' ....

What made me laugh wasn't that the tutorial was here but that I didn't automatically assume it was here......

OK...... where's Flora ....... guess I'll be making a donation now that I've reminded myself about all this good stuff !!

oxoxox
Beth

[Gary Richardson]

Hi Solitear,

Thanks for the kind words, nice to know that RP is so much use to you.

If you do wish to contribute, there's a link in my signature below.

[solitear]

It's true, Gary...... and I mean it ........

Also, I beat you to it and made a donation thru the Amazon.com thing when I clicked RetouchPRO up on this menu bar, scrolled down to Donations and I was off and running..... Wow...... it was so simple.........

oxoxo
Beth

[dave-ek]

hi Drisley

how does this look? its a mixer layer then a bit of glow finished off with smart sharpen.

[drisley]

That's an interesing look Dave, but not quite what i'm looking for. Thanks for trying though!
Btw, does anybody know how to turn off email notifications when replies are made to this thread? In my Control Panel I have "Default Thread Subscription Mode" set to "No email notifications", but I'm still getting emails to every reply.

Thanks again guys.

[NancyJ]

Hi, sorry I took so long to reply - not been well today.

The method is quite simple:

1. levels adjustment:
I selected the hair under the arm as the black point and the light part of the pattern on her bra as the white point.

2. Dupe layer
Set the blend mode to overlay

3. High Pass
For this image I would choose a radius between 20 and 40 depending on the strength of the effect

4. Desaturate
You may want to desaturate the high pass layer as it can affect the colour - this is optional as you might like the effect, though in this picture you can see an increased saturation in the reds in her face, fingers and knees. There are various ways to remove this if you want to keep the other tonal changes but remove the redness - selective colour on the high pass layer should help fix any undesirable colouration, whilst retaining anything you want to keep.

[skydog]

I've tried to follow Beth's instructions but I am having difficulty with "durotone". Regardless of what I do, it is not accessable. What am I failing to do?

[KR1156]

convert to grayscale, then covert to duotone. Choose your 2 colors.