Erik Almas

[Orchid]

Did a search on here for him, and was surprised to find that noone's mentioned his work yet.. Website's at http://www.erikalmas.com/

Article/interview with him here http://www.thefstopmag.com/?p=81

He states there that his images are usually comprised of at least three elements, the sky, landscape and subject, although the image featured there was constructed from many elements.

I have a couple of questions regarding his work:

Firstly, has anyone got any links to resources or tutorials that cover at least the fundamentals of creating such a realistic composite? I understand masking and extracting, but it's just making everything seemless where I was wondering if there were any tricks I was missing.

Secondly, he has awesome colour tones, and was wondering if anyone could guide me as to how to achieve this. I've read the various threads about Christian Schmidt and advanced colour shading, but still can't fully understand how he achieves such striking yet realistic colour tones throughout the image, especially as it's a composite. This is particularly prominent in his sunset images.

Thanks for looking!

[Calvinhollywood]

I have many Videotutorials of my website from German Uli Staiger. But all in German :-/

But he shows detailled how his work is created.

Take a Look at his pictures
http://www.dielichtgestalten.de


lg Calvin

[Orchid]

Cheers for the link.. He's got some damn good stuff there, shame it's in German. Is it easy to pick up what he's doing even if you don't speak the language, or is it not worth it?

[shellby]

amazing work, love it

Looks like a mixture of HDR (not over done) and paint with light / dodge and burn

and gorgeous light

[sirespen]

@ Calvin: Where are these tutorials you were talking talking about? I can't find them...
Thx!

Ciao ciao Sebastian

[Svald7]

Originally Posted by sirespen

@ Calvin: Where are these tutorials you were talking talking about? I can't find them...
Thx!

Ciao ciao Sebastian

Hi Sebastian, you got to navigate to Calvin's site at http://www.calvinhollywood.de/ and click on 'online training' (set your browser to allow pop-ups)

He's got some very interesting stuff! Thanks, svald

[sirespen]

Oh, ok! thx!

[Calvinhollywood]

If you know the basics in Photoshop like layers, masks and and and you can follow easy the steps of uli staiger.

Its so easy when you will see how he create his pictures:-)

Its all photography...no cgi or painting.

Yo can also work with his pictures... all pictures from the final work is in the training.

lg Calvin

[sirespen]

Hi calving! Thank you for the hint. Now I remember that a few months ago i read his book (Photoshop composings).

Grüße nach Deutschland

Sebastian

[djslyda]

these 2 guys are awesome especially erik, i'm gobsmacked by his images, they are so clean and crisp

[djslyda]

i wanted to buy one of them tutorial videos but i don't understand german so i can't, bit disapointed tbh

[aussie]

looks like Michal Horevaj does quite a bit of his retouching

[Qinter]

Originally Posted by Orchid

Firstly, has anyone got any links to resources or tutorials that cover at least the fundamentals of creating such a realistic composite? I understand masking and extracting, but it's just making everything seemless where I was wondering if there were any tricks I was missing.

Secondly, he has awesome colour tones, and was wondering if anyone could guide me as to how to achieve this.

I do a good bit of compositing myself and I have some animated gif's breaking down some image builds on my blog. The color tones are most likely a layer filled with a particular color and then set to a certain blend mode. You can get different effects depending on the mode and you can adjust the strength with the opacity. Using this method is one of many ways to help the seamless look of a composited image.

[djslyda]

qinter, really like your work, great portfolio, i hope to start doing some compositing soon, one thing i want to know about is how do you get the lighting from one photo to match another or is this something you think about when taking the 2 shots?

[Qinter]

D- It's usually many more than just 2 shots but you do have to consider the light source and its general direction. Just as important is shadow as it also directly relates to the same light source and correctly placed, reaffirms the illusion of reality within the composite. Once you decide on the direction of light you can use several techniques for consistent lighting within the composite: Photograph in studio using controlled lighting per your specs, flip the object(depending on concept layout), or use dodge/burn effects to name a few. The D&B is much easier accomplished when the object(can be background, sky) is photographed in more of an even or "flat" lighting situation. Also, remember when compositing a night or indoor image you can have multiple light sources that need to be considered.

Thanks for the kind words as well and I hope I've helped a little...

[novella]

Wow i want to be able to do this kind of work but my skills just aren't that great in photoshop

[vapour]

Qinter I really awesome portfolio. Great comp work.

[L33t]

that calvin website it shows how the images was done step by step? but tutorial is in german?

[E Maguyon]

Originally Posted by Svald7

Hi Sebastian, you got to navigate to Calvin's site at http://www.calvinhollywood.de/ and click on 'online training' (set your browser to allow pop-ups)

He's got some very interesting stuff! Thanks, svald

how do you view the vids on a mac?

I clicked on "video starten" and nothing happens. Are you supposed to pay or register or something?

[sirespen]

Hi! You have to deactivate the pop up blocker!

Greetings

[E Maguyon]

Originally Posted by sirespen

Hi! You have to deactivate the pop up blocker!

Greetings

lol, duh....thanks

[novella]

on online training nothing pop ups for me?

[L33t]

yeah onlinetraining link has no pop up for me, something you have to pay I think

[amica999]

Folks, there are some sample lessons. Once you click on the "onlinetraining" tab, some finished collages appear, now right under those pics, there are some icons, click on one of them and the available sample lessons appear..choose one and click "Video starten"....