Is this just a contrast bump?

[Kcupcake]

Sorry about the annoying "how do I do this" posts! I don't know what it is lately, but I can't seem to figure out post processing techniques. Everything is coming out looking like the same vintage-y effect (GAH!).

I can't 100% figure what's going on in these photos. Is it just a contrast bump? or a Contrast bump and ________? (yet nothing is going muddy)

Thank you and sorry once again!

(her work is just stunning)

[mistermonday]

Good contrast but also high amount of saturation.

[Kcupcake]

I tried that too, but that just brings out too much of a red/orange in the skin tones.... very unpleasant. It be very time consuming and too much trouble to mask out everyone's skin in portrait photography and then add a separate technique... you'd think...

[mistermonday]

Do you have CS4? The Vibrance slider in Camera RAW or the Vibrance Adj. Layer is designed to increase the saturation of the light colors while protecting skin tones and not oversaturating colors which are already strong.
Regards, Murray

[Godmother]

Vibrance and sharpening... there's quite a bit of sharpening that enhances the local contrast too.

x

[Kcupcake]

Bah! No CS4 here. Just plain old CS3. I'm in a rush out the door so I can't open up PS right now... does CS3 have anything close?

[bluray]

I believe CS3 also ships with a version of Camera RAW to edit RAW files. So if you have your RAW files, just open them up in CS3 and adjust the Vibrance. Cheers.

[pellepiano]

Seems the images also has some increased blacks, ( separate slider in Camera Raw ). You can move the left slider in Levels a little to the right.