Official "The Look" Thread

[Fadewoodarts]

Greetings RetouchPRO!

I am creating this thread on behalf of all of you out there seeking to take a look at and critique, debate, or learn more about "The Look" that is well-known around the globe in photography. "The Look" is simply re-named from the most looked at Dave Hill Photography, Jill Greenberg and more. In this thread I would like all of you amateurs, professionals, and newbies to post new work that you have done using your knowledge of Lighting techniques and Photoshop post-processing. Details are important in your image, and this thread is intended to learn more about how to make your image look like a masterpiece after using basic and professional ways of Lighting, Dodge and Burning, Sharpening, Noise, Textures, Composites, and much more. If you are one of those people who are tired of this look, then this thread isn't for you. Photography is growing at a very rapid pace, and this isn't your ordinary snapshot era. Please post only if you are wanting to learn or help others with "The Look". A great example of someone who has dedicated his time to showing others how to do great photographic work is Calvin Hollywood, and with that we should all be thankful.

I will start with one of my images

http://www.fadewoodarts.com/ScottRX600.jpg

Lighting Setup:
3 Travelite 750's
Nikon D70s on Tripod
Sigma 20mm Super WideAngle

Composite Image with 2 Exposures

[lallu2004]

Hi Fadewoodarts,

Great job on Scott and bike. Can you tell us, what was your PS-process when creating that?

[Fadewoodarts]

Picture with Scott on the Bike:

RAW Processing always comes first..
2nd: Clean up the image
3rd: Sharpen and Enhance details
4th: Dodge & Burn
5th: Little enhancement tweaks, finalize the image, look for dents.. ( I like to call problems or little things that stick out that don't need to be there "dents")

I got a pretty basic work flow like most of us do.
To get the image how you want it, it all starts with planning and integration of how its all going to be done, with lighting, subject matter, and props... backgrounds... etc.

[lallu2004]

Hi Again,

If it is all possible, it would be great if you could describe your workflow with details.
Raw processing - what settings do you tweak there, fill light to get details. Just one raw conversion or 2, something else...?
Clean up the image - Noise reduction/something else?
Sharpen details - Plugin /(Lucisart), USM?.... How much? Whole picture/some parts?
D & B - how much, which technic, which parts?
Little enhancements tweaks - like?

It would be great if you could/had the time to post screenshots of each part, showing what and how are doing this.
Before and After and how to get there, with this Scott's picture.

Thanks.

[Fadewoodarts]

Originally Posted by lallu2004

Hi Again,

If it is all possible, it would be great if you could describe your workflow with details.
Raw processing - what settings do you tweak there, fill light to get details. Just one raw conversion or 2, something else...?
Clean up the image - Noise reduction/something else?
Sharpen details - Plugin /(Lucisart), USM?.... How much? Whole picture/some parts?
D & B - how much, which technic, which parts?
Little enhancements tweaks - like?

It would be great if you could/had the time to post screenshots of each part, showing what and how are doing this.
Before and After and how to get there, with this Scott's picture.

Thanks.

&lallu2004

I do what is called Raw Smart Object editing, you can do it in both CS3 and CS4 I believe, you open your raw image in bridge or ps, and you open object. This way you can duplicate your raw layer into a smart object to where you can edit both raw layers to different settings then merge when your finished. Now with how I do my photography, I rarely have to tweak any major settings such as exposure, so I usually just enhance details easily with a little clarity and contrast adjustments. After you tweak in raw I then turn that top raw layer into a mask and paint in my detail enhancement to where I need it. I'll post some screen shots soon.

Cleaning up the image is easy, I look for dust spots from camera, I check the skin to make sure nothings wrong with skin such as blemishes or wrinkles. I do some noise reduction if I have to after I do skin treatments. As for sharpening, I just do Filter - Sharpen - Unsharp Mask. This is my favorite as it is for quite a few people in these forums, and I only use a little bit of it at a time so i don't destroy the image quality. I only work with 6.3MEGApixels lol so I gotta be careful when I edit my images because the quality deteriorates fast. I have Lucisart, but I rarely use it on my talents, if I do use Lucis its for enhancing little details in the background or objects. I like using Nik Color Efex Pro for some detail editing such as Tonal Contrast (which is what Calvin Hollywood mentioned in his Webinar on Sunday evening.) Ive used that for some years now, and is a fun plugin to use. Although I did not use it this time on my Scott RX600 image above.

Dodge and Burning is simple, I just do a 50% grey overlay layer and paint in with white enhancing highlights, and paint in with black for darkening shadows but not too much or you can easily destroy your image.

[d00dle]

just a question, do u use vignette? your before & after would be really nice.

[Fadewoodarts]

Originally Posted by d00dle

just a question, do u use vignette? your before & after would be really nice.

Yes I do Vignettes usually just to bring out the talent.
Before:
http://www.fadewoodarts.com/beforescott600.jpg

After:
http://www.fadewoodarts.com/afterscott600.jpg

[HelloPiccadilly]

hello!

nice thread, I'd like to participate here )
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/213/ppc.jpg

this is my work, but smthng is wrong...what should I fix?
and if u want, I'll describe workflow..

[Fadewoodarts]

Originally Posted by HelloPiccadilly

hello!

nice thread, I'd like to participate here )
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/213/ppc.jpg

this is my work, but smthng is wrong...what should I fix?
and if u want, I'll describe workflow..

HelloPicca

Nice shot man, very cool concept!

Did you shoot your subjects separately? IMO I believe you need to tone down the noise reduction, you got something sweet going here, right now it just looks pretty blurry in some areas due to the noise reduction. What are you shooting with, and what did you use for lighting?

Anyways I still like it alot.

[HelloPiccadilly]

it was d80 with tamron 11-18 (cheap lense)

I really can't get sharp image from this camera and lense...I used noise reduction only for sky..((

yeah, I did shoot separately..but it's quite possible to shot at once.
I took with me 3 source of light (600 Joule each). But, only 1 worked...because of fail synchronization by light..(I have to fix it). So, I didn't get what I wanted...

Anyway, I'll try to fix some patchs of sunlight..too much I guess..

[Fadewoodarts]

Retouch that same image again, do your same techniques, try to do less noise reduction, some grain can make things look nice and sharp as well. Then post it again!

BTW Don't you hate that when lights don't sync how you want them to? Happens a lot when the sunlight is hitting the sensors, gotta watch out for that.

[HelloPiccadilly]

im not lazy, but I've wasted a lot time for this image, and do not want to do it again ))

yeah, I hate sync by light )) definitely should buy smtng like radio sync )) (i have that only for one source of light)

So, this is the last version:
http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/671/garag.jpg

[TimeActor]

Hi your last one is much better than the one before. You did it right. The other one had to much different colors and the sunlight was to much. This was the first Picture Details i see when i look at your picture.
But now with reduced Colors the important Picture Elements such Car, Guy and Golf Lady coming out and make the picture perfect.
Sorry for my bad English!

Martin

[Fadewoodarts]

Originally Posted by HelloPiccadilly

im not lazy, but I've wasted a lot time for this image, and do not want to do it again ))

yeah, I hate sync by light )) definitely should buy smtng like radio sync )) (i have that only for one source of light)

So, this is the last version:
http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/671/garag.jpg

Looks much better, keep it up I wanna see more images.

Thought this was kinda cool...

http://www.fadewoodarts.com/cassheadphonessmall.jpg

[HelloPiccadilly]

I really like idea with pregnant girl ))

[Fadewoodarts]

Thanks piccadilly

Man nobody really hangs out on these forums very much, so with that I guess I'll post another:

http://www.fadewoodarts.com/ryan1.png

[nick24a]

Hey Fade

I love your images, So how did you get this result? PSD workflow?

http://www.fadewoodarts.com/ryan1.png

[snook305]

Originally Posted by Fadewoodarts

Thanks piccadilly

Man nobody really hangs out on these forums very much, so with that I guess I'll post another:

http://www.fadewoodarts.com/ryan1.png

Hey you getting better every day...:+]
See you don't need that Putz Mtmm to help you either..
pretty soon he'll be asking you for help..Again

Good Job
Snook

[skilove73]

my inspiration with your thread, thanks
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2590/...875ba26b_b.jpg

[HelloPiccadilly]

Originally Posted by skilove73

my inspiration with your thread, thanks
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2590/...875ba26b_b.jpg

I like how was done background, man and car, but separately ))

really nice )

so, what was ur gear? workflow?)

[skilove73]

i shot everything seperatly the background is a pano of three shots, the car was abandoned somewhere, i shot it for hdr (only the car is hdr), the subject was shot in a studio (white backgroud) with one beauty dish above, two softboxes on each side 45° with elinchrom rangers.
photoshop is dodge and burn
local contrast with luminosity masks (medium light, highlight, shadows)
different setting depending on the light
played with multiply layer to add drama
and then a warm filter.
the camera is a 5D mII lens 16-35 mm

[HelloPiccadilly]

Originally Posted by skilove73

i shot everything seperatly the background is a pano of three shots, the car was abandoned somewhere, i shot it for hdr (only the car is hdr), the subject was shot in a studio (white backgroud) with one beauty dish above, two softboxes on each side 45° with elinchrom rangers.
photoshop is dodge and burn
local contrast with luminosity masks (medium light, highlight, shadows)
different setting depending on the light
played with multiply layer to add drama
and then a warm filter.
the camera is a 5D mII lens 16-35 mm

Good!! Hope see more ur images!)
p.s. "local contrast with luminosity masks (medium light, highlight, shadows)" give some details about that pls!

[skilove73]

you can look at this thread for the sharpening :
http://www.modelmayhem.com/po.php?thread_id=439098

and for the luminosity mask :
http://goodlight.us/writing/luminosi...tymasks-1.html

it's very helpful and constructive.

[HelloPiccadilly]

many thanks!

[pellepiano]

Heres an image that leaning a little towards Jill G, that I did some years ago. This is Lisa who has a wine tasting company, and after a few rounds of boreaux I imageine she can look something like this =) Getting Wine Screwed, would be a proper name maybe.

There are two lights from back. left and right, and two lights fron, top and bottom.
She is Dodged and Burned quite heavily, as you also can see by attached, combined layermasks. Also highpass sharpened.

[morpheus1870]

Originally Posted by Fadewoodarts

Thanks piccadilly

Man nobody really hangs out on these forums very much, so with that I guess I'll post another:

http://www.fadewoodarts.com/ryan1.png

This image is sick! Please tell me your lighting setup!! I have one 580exII and two 430exII's can achieve the same effect with a three light setup? All the lights can be triggered via my canon ste-2. I also have a ring light modifier for the flash gun.

[skilove73]

another compo with the same settings
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2571/...56d497a9_o.jpg

[nick24a]

Hi Ski, Your images are amazing. I understand the techniques that you said you used, ie the Luma masks and sharpening. But how have you implemented them to get these amazing results. any chance of a workflow? or a rundown of how you used the techniques on the images?.

[lallu2004]

another compo with the same settings
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2571/...56d497a9_o.jpg

That is really cool.
It would be really cool, if you could describe in detail your workflow for achieving this.

[eraanexact]

I've been doing the Luminosity Mask technique for years and never knew it by that term! I always referred to them as Auto Masks, that were then of course edited with curves to fit the need and situation.
That technique is one of my faves, and has always been, to me, like giving the image a 'digital zone system' makeover. I've worked alongside many a retoucher with little-to-no photography background, so this stuff was very foreign to them.