The demystification of dave hill! let's all help!

[KR1156]

looks like she has some very demonic and scary 'bout to burst out of her stomache!

[marclile]

Originally Posted by Sistere

Hi Folks,

Great thread!

Last year we were shooting some Green Screen shots for commercial use. Here is a candid I snapped in between the actual shots. I played around with it a few months ago not really trying to look like Dave Hill, but experimenting with the D&Bing and using contrast and sharpening. Just my little contribution to the conversation.

From what I can tell by studying DH's work...it really is in the lighting and the post work is only used to accentuate and 'edge up' the lighting.

So this photo will look flat when compared to Hill's. But I think he uses some of the same techniques. Or maybe not

Damien

Link to larger Version

that's actually very good. i like it. i don't think it looks flat at all. looks a lot closer to Hill's than some others i've seen. can you go into any detail about the techniques that you used?

[Sistere]

Originally Posted by KR1156

looks like she has some very demonic and scary 'bout to burst out of her stomache!

LOL!!

Indeed she does!

I guess I should have stated that since this was a candid shot, I didn't get around to doing any major retouches like stomach bulges...lol

Seriously, this girl has a killer figure...I guess she was exhaling (Hence the hair blowing) mixed with bad posture; I don't know. But you should see some of her combat sports ads we've done; great figure.

Damien
http://www.digitalsistere.com

[KR1156]

i know it was just a messing around file/shot, i was just joking!

[mr.aj]

i think we are wrong about dave hill, he almost adds to half of his backgrounds...watch the videos...especially the band flying through the air. If he is doing all of this background work, why wouldn't he be doing anything else? Also like a previous poster said, in one of his videos he joked about all you need is a lucisart filter. He is good, don't get me wrong, but he is doing post. lets just accept it, and drive on.

aj

[plasticjack]

here is my submission. all i did here entirely was dodge and burn. then added an unsharp mask filter after all that was complete.

stock: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/316755

[RedRum]

Hi Guys...im really new at this retouch-production but i try to get this effekt in some pictures, idk if ya guys like it or not....

greetz RedRum

[pellepiano]

Very nice images from both of you ( plasticjack and RedRum ). Different methods but both are very enjoyable.

[superkoax]

this thread has coem a loooong way now! I must admit I'm impressed with all of the submissions here...Every picture looks different and all with different techniques...on the way here I have learned a great deal!

Thanks to all!

[plasticjack]

one more before and after. more dodge and burn/unsharp mask with luminosity. hill may possibly use lucisart as a reference for dodging and burning but i would highly doubt, in fact i would say with almost 100% certainty that he doesn't even bother with it. one thing for sure is that when using lucis art your photos get extremely grainy. i personally find it one of the more useless filters out there. especially when you can get far superior results just dodging and burning. Another key aspect is working with 16-bit images and not 8-bit images pulled off of the web. The difference is astounding. Far greater tonal depth and gradations which is essential for pulling this surreal style off.

EDIT: Added a toned down version of the latter.

[marclile]

Originally Posted by superkoax

this thread has coem a loooong way now! I must admit I'm impressed with all of the submissions here...Every picture looks different and all with different techniques...on the way here I have learned a great deal!

Thanks to all!

agreed... thank you to everyone. i've learned a lot from this post

[punkjumper]

I did an image using the things I've learned in this thread. I'm no photographer so don't have the skills or equipment to have a good starting image so I'm more stuck starting with point and shoot snapshots. This is what I was able to get for a first try. any feedback is welcomed.

[ProjectLam]

i actually like redrums... what did you do to achieve those results? here's my latest... not necessarily too cartoon-like... also, flickr took out a lot of the color. my final retouched photo has a bit more color to her skin...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2080/...41bc169e_o.jpg

original:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2187/...bb1d7fba_o.jpg

[prizo]

Again:
I AM NOT TRYING TO COPY DAVE HILL

But he, amongst others, does influence me. Here is one of my latest.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2055/...3509edbd18.jpg


I know not everyone here has lights so if there is any interest I may post a large outtake from this session.

[pixelzombie]

i'm a little late to the game, but here's my attempt:

[learza]

Originally Posted by prizo

I know not everyone here has lights so if there is any interest I may post a large outtake from this session.

Would be nice to see.

Greets learza

[superkoax]

PRIZO: I know what you mean with the copying, I can also so you are influenced by his comic feel around his pictures! I really like yours! I would be very happy if you would share!

Thanks for being here to let us all be inspired!

[Sistere]

Originally Posted by prizo

Again:
I AM NOT TRYING TO COPY DAVE HILL

But he, amongst others, does influence me. Here is one of my latest.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2055/...3509edbd18.jpg


I know not everyone here has lights so if there is any interest I may post a large outtake from this session.

Yes, please post whatever you are comfortable with; lights, set-up, post...

Much Appreciated
Damien

[prizo]

Ok... see this thread for an untouched pic from that session.

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/pho...shot-mine.html

[xfx]

Lighting + Post Processing.


http://www.g2foto.com/sample/g2_marcelo.jpg

[stevens]

Looks very good xfx. How did you do it? Even after reading this thread I`m still not sure how you guys do it....

[nightcatcher]

I answer for xfx, he say to me: Lighting and Color contrast thru curves, selective coloring. (Post processing meaning editing in photoshop...color correction, unsharpmask...etc.)

I have it :-)

@xfx; can you push the original Picture online to show the difference? I will like to test with your original image my knowledge. So I can see what are the differences


Sorry for my bad english :-)

[enigmaphotos]

Thought you guys might find these few comments in Dave Hills new blog quite funny and interesting;

http://photographyisrad.com/2007/10/...comment-611670

[Alfred]

Originally Posted by enigmaphotos

Thought you guys might find these few comments in Dave Hills new blog quite funny and interesting;

http://photographyisrad.com/2007/10/...comment-611670

Does Lucis Art shoot the pictures as well? Implying that Lucis art is all one needs for this kind of images is the same as saying that one only needs a plane to be able to fly.

[Sistere]

Originally Posted by enigmaphotos

Thought you guys might find these few comments in Dave Hills new blog quite funny and interesting;

http://photographyisrad.com/2007/10/...comment-611670

Yikes!

We he being serious or was that a bit of sarcasm? IF he was serious...that's gonna bite a lot of photogs and retouchers right on the a**.

Damien

[subxaero]

what i just noticed is that he has shown lotsa pics from his holidays on coney island and all of them are slightly retouched and you WILL NOT tell me that he sat down and put so much effort into pics that will just be seen by some nerds on his blog

[ProjectLam]

agreed. personally, it doesn't matter. lucis art is a fine plugin and it doesn't take anything away from the beauty he creates.

[plugsnpixels]

Originally Posted by enigmaphotos

Thought you guys might find these few comments in Dave Hills new blog quite funny and interesting

enigmaphotos (Dean?), thanks for the heads-up!

In other news, I followed your sig link for the "Lucis Arts 'Whyeth tutorial'" and have a few thoughts:

1) The proper name of the plug-in is "LucisArt". It's tricky, I know; I kept spelling it wrong too. It's one (composite) word, unlike their Lucis Pro (two words!).

2) You came up with some good techniques for emulating •a• LucisArt effect. I say "a" because LucisArt is capable of an entire range of effects, from the Dave Hill look to others that are entirely different and unrelated–from the wildly artistic to straightforward enhancement of medical and forensic images. It is more than "a simple filter".

3) Your tutorial technique for that particular effect can be good if the user has the time, inclination and patience to manually work through the steps. Otherwise in LucisArt you click a button and are done fast (see a screenshot of my own usage to achieve this particular effect here in issue #10, as well as other issues).

4) The price is a bit steep, but discounts are available for those who don't already have it (see above links). And yes, I bought my copy ;-).

5) This is nit-picky, but if you reduce the font size of your web tutorials, they will be easier to read. Image size is great though, better than most!

Thanks again!

[enigmaphotos]

Originally Posted by plugsnpixels

enigmaphotos (Dean?), thanks for the heads-up!

In other news, I followed your sig link for the "Lucis Arts 'Whyeth tutorial'" and have a few thoughts:

1) The proper name of the plug-in is "LucisArt". It's tricky, I know; I kept spelling it wrong too. It's one (composite) word, unlike their Lucis Pro (two words!).

2) You came up with some good techniques for emulating •a• LucisArt effect. I say "a" because LucisArt is capable of an entire range of effects, from the Dave Hill look to others that are entirely different and unrelated–from the wildly artistic to straightforward enhancement of medical and forensic images. It is more than "a simple filter".

3) Your tutorial technique for that particular effect can be good if the user has the time, inclination and patience to manually work through the steps. Otherwise in LucisArt you click a button and are done fast (see a screenshot of my own usage to achieve this particular effect here in issue #10, as well as other issues).

4) The price is a bit steep, but discounts are available for those who don't already have it (see above links). And yes, I bought my copy ;-).

5) This is nit-picky, but if you reduce the font size of your web tutorials, they will be easier to read. Image size is great though, better than most!

Thanks again!

Yeah.. it's me Dean. Cheers for the feedback. I think I do mention that it's the Whyeth filter I'm concentrating on. I'll definitely take the other stuff them into account and update the tutorials.

[prizo]

I'm pretty sure he was joking.