How to get this look....again:)

[Rust]

Hello, i`ve come over this picture and like it a lot:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/4585995...7/in/contacts/

I my opinion it got this look or techniqued applied to it that it`s pretty common, and gives me a feeling of texture.
But i can`t quite get what she`s done to achieve this look, is it a solid color layer with some noise?? i`m not sure.
So please help me, figure this out

[jeljones]

Try Lightroom. Then download a preset from presetpond.com Maybe this one http://presetpond.com/presets/lightroom/vintage-cool/ and then add a bit of grain.

My guess is Lightroom, but they could have done it in Photoshop.

[Rust]

Hi thanks for the reply. The problem is that i don`t use Lightroom ,only cs4, and i would like to do it without any presets or plugins. Because i want to be more flexible.
I tried to add a black layer experimenting with different blend modes with some noise added,and masked it in. But i had no luck getting closer to the texture feeling the original picture has. Anyone else got a clue????

[Wolfman]

any chance of seeing the image you want to apply the effect to?

[Rust]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/40167298@N05/5033238370/
thinking of applying it to a color version of this picture

[marksiekmans]

HI, just give me a link of a photo and i will (try to) get you this effect and post it here with instructions :-)

[Beautyshoot]

I am curious about these instuctions too.
Also CS4 user.

Jorgen
www.beautyshoot.nl

[Juice Box]

This would be very interesting in finding out.

[MacBurg]

Thanks for posting an image you want to try with, however the image in your OP is very light in tone and the image you want to edit is a lot darker in its tonal range.

I had a quick play around with your image, I think the main effect you are seeing here is either a solid colour layer set to either the "Exclusion" or "Screen" blending modes and set to a low opacity.

It may also be a duplicate of the background, then desaturate the layer and fill its layer mask with 80% grey. Apply the mask to the layer so you no longer have a mask then blur the layer very slightly, say 8-15 on the web sized image. You can then set the layer to either "Lighten" or "Screen" and adjust opacity to suit. To this layer you could clip a Hue/Sat layer or a Solid Colour layer to add a colour to the glow.

The grain can be done in many ways too, for the image I edited, I used a basic 50% grey layer set to "Softlight" with grain applied, then a Gradient Map layer clipped to the grain layer and set to "Exclusion" this gives the grain better depth and more a more chunky look. From here you can open up the blending options for the grain layer and pull the grain out of the brightest highlights and also a bit out of the shadows.

Here's a link to the edited image -

http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/2160/hazeedit.jpg

.

[Flashtones]

It's not perfect, just tried to get it going in the right direction.

Original:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/40167298@N05/5023225915/

To match:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/45859953@N08/5075919667/

Used Curves and HSL

[Rust]

Hi guys thanks for the replies and interesting techniques. I read that the picture i `ve submitted is in a light tone. I submit a new one , and hope this will be more suited. This have not been retouched at all. I like both macburg and flashtones versions and think they`re into something. Interesting technique to give grain more chunky look

[Flashtones]

Originally Posted by Rust

I like both macburg and flashtones versions and think they`re into something.

Thanks. Truth be told I don't even know if I like it, I'm just trying to reverse engineer the effect of the sample provided. I do think the approach (curves and HSL (+ noise if desired)) are sufficient to get the job done.

[Juice Box]

reminds me a little of his work:
http://www.gregswales.com/

[Rust]

Looks like your effect flashtone was better on this picture. Can you be more spesific about what you have done? My guess is HSL that with a slight desaturation. Then curves, pulled the middle of the curve down to add more cyan, yellow and magenta??
And macburg, when i add a gradient map adj.layer (default setting ) it gives the grain a lot more subtle look , am i doing it right?. I usually use free transform on a soft light layer 50%gray... with noise added.Then adjust the size to get the grain to be more irregular and bigger.

[Flashtones]

Rust, busy now but I'll post some screen shots later. In the meantime, I'm curious to hear what you think still needs to be done to get a better match, and why the technique worked better on this image than the other.

[MacBurg]

Sorry yeah there are a few more steps involved, download the action I created here -

http://www.mediafire.com/?gsltago3djwln99

Experiment with different blending modes for the gradient map layer, I guess it does kinda make the grain a bit more subtle, but it does blend in the grain with your image below rather than just a global hit of grain. Try the action and let me know what ya think.

[Flashtones]

Originally Posted by Rust

Looks like your effect flashtone was better on this picture. Can you be more spesific about what you have done?

Couple of screen shots attached.

The primary effect comes from Fog+Color. The key is raising the blacks on the composite channel to fog the blacks, and the blue curve where I add blue to the shadows and yellow to the highlights.

The rest are variations on the theme, though +Contrast and -Corners are strictly luminosity moves to add contrast and darken the corners respectively. I also added noise to a 50% gray layer, blurred, and put in soft light mode.

I'd be happy to show you more of the adjustments if you'd like (or PM me with an email address or FTP and I'll give you the layered tiff,) but really once you get the idea the exact formula is relative to the desired end colors and the contrast of the original image. IOW, what works for one image might not work very well for another.

The trick is to be able to articulate (in your own mind) what the look you are going for is. The image you provided as a target is roughly: flat, desaturated, with cool shadows and warm highlights. There are tons of ways to get there in PS, but the final formula is dependent on the starting point.

[MacBurg]

Just updated my grain action in the previous post to include a new "Superfat" grain action, sometimes can be hard to put the tools away at 2am in the morning.

[Juice Box]

This is interesting, lots of information in this thread for a relative nubie. Thanks guys. Thanks RUST for asking. I've never heard of "fog" before.

[Rust]

Hi guys, thanks again for replies. First Flashtones you asked me why it works better on this image. I would say the first picture is ,in my opinion, to light for the effect, there is something about the skintones that doesn`t look quite right with the effect applied. It looks so much better in the second one. And i would guess it easier to apply your effect to an unretouched image than the first one , that already has kind of a "look".
And the effect fog have i never heard of but it understand now it`s what i primarily look for and like. I think in the original picture the effect is maybe slightly stronger. But i really like your version.
Macburg: Thanks for the action. I`ll have to play around with it some more. But for now i think i prefer the filmgrain,looks really cool. How many % do you apply i the gray-soft light layer??

[bigwegh]

Hey Guys,

sorry for pushing this post but I try to achieve something similar.
But I don't know if this is even possible with my picture.
In general I just want to achieve a kind of hazy/foggy mood. Also I want to reduce the general sharpness of the image. Kind of like a polaroid where the sharpness is never quite there.
I hope you understand what I mean
Now the picture is too crisp and "clean" I want it to tell more of a story.

http://m.cmcdn.net/14838510/780x1169.jpeg

I would be glad if someone could help me out here. I've been trying for days now.

Cheers!