The demystification of Jill Greenberg!!!

[superkoax]

Okey, here is another break into the world of photographer/retoucher who really made her pictures pop out with very nice retouching!

For me, to break down her style, is based only on what I see in her portfolio, so you might disagree with, but please answer and share your opinion or even your own retouching!


Her studio lighting is of most importance here. The studio lights adds the dynamic within the highlights...I would go and say she is the soft version of Dave Hill or maybe Dave Hill is the hard version of Jill Greenberg!
Soft highlights, skin plus some funny or odd facial expressions ...This is what I have come up with so far! But I will add my try to achieve some of here style...just for kicks!

Jill Greenberg is also known for here provocative series where kids are crying! She admitted on tv that to make the kids cry, they gave the kids lollipops and took the lollipos away to make them cry! This is something that I think is to go a bit over the boarder of creating appealing pictures...

actually I have tried to copy her kid pictures before...just by retouching

see her:

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/pho...lookalike.html


Let's all chip in with wisdom and knowledge to shed more light on this!


here is the link to the psd file of the picture here...

http://in.solit.us/archives/download/88896

high res version of the original image

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/505715

cheers

Gerry

[pellepiano]

Heres my try ... or version ...

[superkoax]

very nice, pelle...but not so Jill? Found the overall feeling and tone some what strange/odd(in a good way)...so a nice example of your arsenal!

[pixeltek]

here's one i had done awhile ago...different pic but was going for jill-style...

[pellepiano]

Nice.

Yes its easier when you can control the lighting yourself. I also did some sort of Greenberg shots a while ago.

[thumbslinger]

Pellapiano-
I loved your first example, even better than Jill's general look. Your's approached that boundry between an illustrated look and photog but not quite hyper-real.

Anyway, just wanted to add that.

[palms1]

Gerry
I am posting this image so that i can stop looking at it and "fiddling" with it, I know i am not going to get anyway near the other posters but i have tried in fact i have been trying all afternoon and that is it now, think i will head on back to the photo art forum

I think your demystification threads are a brilliant idea and i do have a good read of them

Pelle Piano I really like your work

Palms

[Peter S]

I thought I'd join in with this one as well.

Peter

[superkoax]

PELLE: nice photos! This portray more of your style then Jill, your style is more upfront and this style fits your pictures in a nice way!

PALMS: Thanks for your words! The picture you posted is a bit blurred in the skin, but the feeling is nice!

PETER: Thanks for replying! Your picture is as same as mine, not sharp enough! i miss more highlight details here!

[nevie]

Her work is mostly about the lighting. She uses at several lights on the faces of her subjects. Her retouching is to make the people look, shiny or fake. She spends tons of time retouching to get that specific look. Pellepiano's lighting situtation is close to her lighting but you made is your own.

[Peter S]

Originally Posted by superkoax

PELLE: nice photos! This portray more of your style then Jill, your style is more upfront and this style fits your pictures in a nice way!

PALMS: Thanks for your words! The picture you posted is a bit blurred in the skin, but the feeling is nice!

PETER: Thanks for replying! Your picture is as same as mine, not sharp enough! i miss more highlight details here!

Sure your right, not as sharp as it could have been, but the pic I worked from was rather small so a lot of detail was lost. You need to be a member of Stock exchange to get the large original, and I'm not.

Peter

[pixelzombie]

Originally Posted by pellepiano

Heres my try ... or version ...

i really like this version better than jills, hopefully you'll explain some of the steps involved...

[RossF]

Yes, pellepiano, can you please explain how you did your first example? How did you get that glow/sheen on the skin, it's hard to imagine that it could be done with just dodging and burning...

[pellepiano]

I mostly painted with white ( wacom bamboo tablet ) on a layer set to Overlay which is kind of burning. I also added a new layer with a more brown skin tone and lowered the reds in the original. Jill Greenberg has the most fantastic skintones imo, I would love to know how she does it.

[edgework]

Well, if the consensus is that Greenberg starts with multiple lights to capture all the subtle contours of a face, could there possibly have been a worse image to start with, here? This is the textbook example of flat lighting.

Also, the kid's just so happy. Much more activity in the face muscles with crying babies, many more contours to capture.

That said, I tortured him into a semblance of shape and detail, though Greenberg's skin tones eluded me. They're amazingly cold, but so full of life.

http://edgework.tripod.com/samples/fauxGreenberg.jpg

[joannaras]

Here's my try...
http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/8085/12ul8.jpg

[mr.aj]

well, i have traveled to this wonderful forum from the great land of NAPP. It is a pleasure to see such beautiful images, especially when it involves a style I am trying to understand. A quick question...

This is the demystification...would it be possible to throw together a brief tutorial or further explaining the steps outside of burning via overlay.

Again, thank you for your time in reading this, and I hope to read again soon.

Aj

[learza]

Originally Posted by pellepiano

Nice.

Yes its easier when you can control the lighting yourself. I also did some sort of Greenberg shots a while ago.

Hello,

nice work. Are you able to remember your lightning setup.
Maybe you could explain in a few words.

Greets

learza

[pellepiano]

As you can see on most of Jills images and the two that I did there are strong highlights at both sides of the face. So the answer is simple, its 2 backlights.

Jill also use very special frontlighting at times, like with the children, you can see three frontlights making very nice catchlights.

[EternalTomorrow]

Originally Posted by pellepiano

As you can see on most of Jills images and the two that I did there are strong highlights at both sides of the face. So the answer is simple, its 2 backlights.

Jill also use very special frontlighting at times, like with the children, you can see three frontlights making very nice catchlights.

Do you have a screenshot of the painting layer you used for white? that would be really helpful!

Or even better, do you have a PSD with the different layers of what you did on it? that would be EXTREMELY helpful to us all!

[pellepiano]

The PWL layer isnt much to look at, but here it is ... ( there is a Amy Dresser .psd file somewhere on this forum, its a better source for PWL layers ).

[prizo]

Originally Posted by pellepiano

Nice.

Yes its easier when you can control the lighting yourself. I also did some sort of Greenberg shots a while ago.

Dude...awesome shots.
Care to elaborate on lighting setup and post-pro?

Really cool stuff.

[pellepiano]

Thanks. Strong backlights to get edge highlights. Dodge and burn with PWL to add some contrast and shine. See previous post for the PWL. And some usual cleaning up, of skin etc.

[superkoax]

PELLE: Thanks for sharing your technique here! I really like it! It gives me confidence to see I'm on the "right track" when trying for my highlights as well!

Captainhook: Nice picture, the blue background is nice, but it lacks a bit of stronger highlights and a better skin color correction ...

[knottyy]

Hi,
I'm brand new to the forum. Is there somehwere I can find a tutorial on how one might go about trying this? I'd like to give it a shot.

Thanks so much.

[edgework]

Originally Posted by knottyy

Hi,
I'm brand new to the forum. Is there somehwere I can find a tutorial on how one might go about trying this? I'd like to give it a shot.

Thanks so much.

There are some good pointers right in this thread.

[snook305]

Jill also many times uses a Big octoBank behind her and a Ringflash on her lens.. Pretty sure one is for fill...:+}
In any case she was on like CNN or some program like that I saw on the net and she was using this style.
2 Kicker/side lights,hairlight above and the frontal light like I explained above...:+}
Snook
PS. and of course a lot of retouching.!!

[knottyy]

Originally Posted by edgework

There are some good pointers right in this thread.

There are, and I appreciate them...but being very new to retouching, it's hard to get a sense of some of the specifics. I realize that everyone probably has their different variations to the end product. I loved pellepiano and captainhooks versions...they looked great! I'd love to read a tutorial if anyone has one or would want to write one, and of course, I'll take any hints anyone has.

Thanks!

[transoptic]

Originally Posted by knottyy

There are, and I appreciate them...but being very new to retouching, it's hard to get a sense of some of the specifics. I realize that everyone probably has their different variations to the end product. I loved pellepiano and captainhooks versions...they looked great! I'd love to read a tutorial if anyone has one or would want to write one, and of course, I'll take any hints anyone has.

Thanks!

Well as it says in the original post, without proper lighting, it's pointless to even try.

But yeah after that a painting with light layer helps, as shown above.

[knottyy]

I can light. I just don't know how to post process that well.