Need assistance in creating a particular style

[aperture1]

I am trying to determine what process(es) is/are involved in making the photos shown in the below link (it's flash based). The photographs are amazing looking, but I know, from experience, that there is a repeatable sequence of steps to carry out to make an ordinary photo just like these...

http://www.blusites.com/antonio/index2.php?v=v1

Also, is there a label or name for this style of photograph? Any help or tutorial links would be great! Thanks!

Tom

[aperture1]

Any ideas? Anyone ?

[0lBaldy]

I think you may have few responses because to me it looks like basic photography 101.. I see nothing special there!

[aperture1]

I disagree, there is definitely some creative post processing with regard to the photos themselves. If it's Basic Photography 101, why don't you enlighten us all with the steps to do it...

[aperture1]

Originally Posted by 0lBaldy

I think you may have few responses because to me it looks like basic photography 101.. I see nothing special there!

It's also worth mentioning, I've gotten photos I've taken to look very similar to these photos, but there's something missing with regard to the contrast or color curve and I can't quite put my finger on it. Since it's a no-brainer to you, I would love to hear what it is.

[Verywierd]

I agree with OlBaldy. Good lighting, and normal post processing. Some shots very saturated, others not. Dark vignette applied in many of the shots. No one is deliberately being unhelpful, but without a comparison or a specific example, it is difficult to make any comment. Perhaps if you indicate one of the images on the website and then post a similar image done by you and then point out where you are dissatisfied with your image, someone can help.

[djslyda]

some grunge and texture work going on also

[Swampy]

I tend to agree, djslyda. I don't particularly like the grunge look applied to people's faces. The posing and framing of the shots is good, but either the white point was not set or the photograher really likes to add a red cast to his shots.

[aperture1]

Originally Posted by djslyda

some grunge and texture work going on also

I think that is what I am missing. Can someone point me to a tutorial for that? I've been experimenting but have not had the success I see in those photos.

Thanks,
T

[MacBurg]

Head over to Texture King or CG Textures and download a texture you think may work with your images.

Open the texture image in Photoshop, convert to B&W, resize to match then duplicate the layer into your photo image. Now you can experiment with different blending modes, multiply, overlay and softlight are popular and will interact with your image differently, and you will want to adjust opacity and can also create a mask to avoid the texture showing on faces.

You can also leave the texture in colour and experiment with how it affects your image.

[garibaldi]

Whats with wedding and portrait photgraphers and putting crappy ass music on ther sites, ughhhh ....puke! Im sorry, I only got through the first couple of words to the song then I had to close that site, looks like results from any of the tons of plugins you can buy for ps, that simulate film look, ya know, big color shifts, plugged up blacks, over saturated tones, grainy overlays, etc. noting too magical going on there, its your basic photos with some creative preset treatments that make you go oh my , its so gorgeous, and the music helps to really set the mood too

[garibaldi]

Originally Posted by aperture1

It's also worth mentioning, I've gotten photos I've taken to look very similar to these photos, but there's something missing with regard to the contrast or color curve and I can't quite put my finger on it. Since it's a no-brainer to you, I would love to hear what it is.

Hit any number of the presets in adobe lightrooms develop panel and it will not only get you in the ballpark, but it will almost valet your car right into the first parking spot for you. The scratchy overlays, noise (err grain) and such would be done outisde of that

[aperture1]

Originally Posted by garibaldi

Whats with wedding and portrait photgraphers and putting crappy ass music on ther sites, ughhhh ....puke! Im sorry, I only got through the first couple of words to the song then I had to close that site, looks like results from any of the tons of plugins you can buy for ps, that simulate film look, ya know, big color shifts, plugged up blacks, over saturated tones, grainy overlays, etc. noting too magical going on there, its your basic photos with some creative preset treatments that make you go oh my , its so gorgeous, and the music helps to really set the mood too

WOW! Now thats a reply! I thought the first one was rude and condescending, but this one takes the cake. Garibaldi, if you don't like providing assistance and constructive input, why do you bother even typing the words. It's strange someone would become so enraged and childish by looking at a website. I actually like the way that photo looks, that is to say, my eyes are please by it and the music, I think, is a nice touch. Now, stating that, it is an opinion, and you should respect that; not come one the thread that *I* started and start waling away about how the world is ending with sarcasm, poor spelling, poor grammar, and ridiculous statements about how easy it is to make those kinds of photos. You're an embarrassment to the craft.

Now, I know this photo is not rocket science, in fact, since posting this, I've achieved the results of the color and tone fairly quickly using just Lightroom and/or Photoshop. I guess the hard part is the recipe itself, i.e. what texture looks good with what photograph and what method to blend it in with. I have to say though, this forum has not impressed me so far with it's responses. Mostly cocky, condescending losers reply to a thread to make themselves feel superior to someone genuinely interested in finding assistance.

Thanks for all the help guys, you've been amazing

[garibaldi]

Oh for Christs sake dont get your panties in a bind! Tell you what, Ill come over to your computer and sit on your lap, you put your hand on your mouse, and ill put my hand right over yours and ill guide you around your mousepad and lead you over to the Direct Positve preset on the lightroom develop panel, then move you over to the HSL slider and we can tweak each color independently, then go down to the split toning panel and add some color to taste, then if that not good enough we can shoot the image out to ps and apply a curve layer and hit the cross process preset up in the top, then set it to soft light and adjust it from there, maybe also dup the layers and put a gaussian blur and then mask it with a gradient, and then so a texture overlay and crush it ontop of the image. LOL is that better? Come on man realx yourself, this is the internet, nobody has manners up here dont you know that? Im standing by my opinion though, the music does suck, I dont care what you say, and the rest of the site doesnt make sense its like reading Star magazine. Maybe you shoudl call him and ask how he does it, his number is (333)-333-3333 and his office line is (444)-444-4444

Ok for real though, and this may be a little off the point, but still, there is no real big magic to what is done to those pictures, I apologize if my sarcasm rattled your cage, and my spelling, well, eh whos got time to spelll check these days with gas prices as high as they arte. So a wedding photog usually winds up with a buttload of images, and more often than not they are using quick and dirty presets or set actions to process, since going through and edit with as many images as youd walk away from a wedding with would be quite time consimung.

So now are you happy?

[Verywierd]

Your thread asked for help in creating a particular style and gave a website as an example. Unfortunately, the images on that website were all fairly standard images with a few very basic effects. There is no particular identifiable "style" to the images. I did ask you to point out what in particular you would like to duplicate, but you did not respond, despite your claim to be "genuinely interested in finding assistance".

I cannot see how this comes across as condescending. If you bother to read some of the other threads you will see people here going to extraordinary lengths to help others with both very basic and some nearly impossible problems. However, the person asking for help must be able to clearly identify the assistance required and be willing to work with his would be helpers by providing clear answers to their questions. I doubt that demanding help and then insulting everyone who is trying to help you will get you very far anywhere.

[HuBBa]

hm... re the music. "Enter artist name - 03_Chasing_Pavements.mp3"

Why does this smell of a unlicensed use of music to me? =) I mean a google takes about 2 secs to find the artist (Adele), and to use it on an obviously commercial webpage aswell.

And yes, it's a bit OT to the post but there isnt much about that post processing that haven't already been mentioned =)

[aperture1]

Originally Posted by Verywierd

Your thread asked for help in creating a particular style and gave a website as an example. Unfortunately, the images on that website were all fairly standard images with a few very basic effects. There is no particular identifiable "style" to the images. I did ask you to point out what in particular you would like to duplicate, but you did not respond, despite your claim to be "genuinely interested in finding assistance".

I cannot see how this comes across as condescending. If you bother to read some of the other threads you will see people here going to extraordinary lengths to help others with both very basic and some nearly impossible problems. However, the person asking for help must be able to clearly identify the assistance required and be willing to work with his would be helpers by providing clear answers to their questions. I doubt that demanding help and then insulting everyone who is trying to help you will get you very far anywhere.

I must admit I was taken back by the last response I had gotten. Sure, I asked for help and have been a little slow to get back to this thread on the specifics, but I don't think it warrants the sarcasm and condescension that was laced in the reply. If you can't see it, I can highlight what I interpreted as pure condescension and criticism that serves the ego rather than the subject matter.

I'm sure you're right about the assistance people receive on these threads and many people are very helpful and enjoy providing assistance to others without the same level of experience--that's why I joined this forum; that being said, it appears others also see it necessary to write long, protracted replies about how the photo is so "simple" to make and is terrible anyway. That's not exactly the kind of "assistance" one would expect, even if they hadn't yet gotten around to posting the exact details of the assistance they require. I think you are sidetracking here about how I did not provide specifics as of yet, therefore the replies I've gotten are all I should expect. And lets be clear, I'm not the one who started this, I was responding to what I thought was a clear and distinct contempt for the assistance I was requesting because of it's simplicity and poor quality as judged by the aforementioned individuals.

Now that that's out of the way, I will post some examples and specifics this weekend sometime, I just didn't like being ambushed. You have to admit, the initial replies basically distilled down to "well you're retarded for not knowing how to do this and they're bad photos anyway". Most people would have a defensive and visceral response to that.

Thanks for the input and I will re-calibrate my expectations.

[aperture1]

Originally Posted by HuBBa

hm... re the music. "Enter artist name - 03_Chasing_Pavements.mp3"

Why does this smell of a unlicensed use of music to me? =) I mean a google takes about 2 secs to find the artist (Adele), and to use it on an obviously commercial webpage aswell.

And yes, it's a bit OT to the post but there isnt much about that post processing that haven't already been mentioned =)

It's actually just a template example. I don't think it's a real website.

[Benny Profane]

People pay good money for that style of wedding photography?

The in-laws must be rolling their eyes ..............

[aperture1]

Man,

I must be out of my mind. I think that stuff looks pretty sweet.

To each is own I guess....

[Benny Profane]

You have a mother in law? Show it to her.

[Verywierd]

I look forward to seeing your examples. I have to admit that I am curious as to what you are trying to achieve. It really doesn't matter what others think of the site, so long as it can help develop your technique. I'm still learning myself, so I can't guarantee that I will be able to help, but I will certainly try.

[aperture1]

Originally Posted by Benny Profane

You have a mother in law? Show it to her.

Oh come on, of course there are "old people photos" and then there are photos that a 20 something year old couple would find edgy and cool. That's the beauty of non-destructive editing, or layers. You can crank out copies for both audiences....the old school B&W/Sepia and then the (what I consider) newer, bolder, active light photos where they look best when viewed on an HDTV or monitor. That being said, it's not a signature style I'm trying to achieve, just another trick in my hat for certain photos for certain times.

[harkain]

I grab any fancy pants PS actions I can find and dissect them to see if someone is doing something cool that I don't know. It's really all very Borg.

My wife uses Boutwell's (Totally Rad) actions. This effect you speak of resembles one of those. If you use Rusty Cage, you can create that fuzzy, orange/red effect quite similar to some of those photos. It takes about 3 seconds, if you have slow fingers. I think Rusty Cage uses a duplicate Gaussian Blur layer blended with Multiply for its glow, creating a darker cast, a curves adjustment layer that bumps up the red and lowers the blue, a levels adjustment where the output levels are shifted, and a channel mixer w/monochrome checked where the blue/green are +25ish and red is +50ish. After all this, stamp visible and set blend to screen. Just like a cake recipe, adjust each adjustment layer until desired.

Take a photo shot at a wide aperture, toss Rusty cage on there, then some noise or a texture overlay, and halleluyah and amen. Tweak adjustment layers and call me in the morning.

But you are right about there being some funny business in the tones and contrast. Only...now... no one is laughing.