Making colours pop and giving dimension to images

[YoungRetoucher]

Too often have I been told that my images looked flat or 'journalistic'/'old fashioned' now I have tried every technique I know (not too many since I am self taught) and while a Dragan effect might work on an older man if it isn't overdone it obviously doesn't work on women, it just doesn't look good anymore. Then there's HDR/Tone mapping which I have tried using Photomatix but I feel this is better done to the background only. So what are some other techniques to really make colours pop and give dimension to the people you are shooting as we often saw this summer in fashion magazines? Any advice would be very much appreciated! Thanks everyone!

[edgework]

Forget Dragan and flashy filters. If your feedback tells you your images are flat, start there. Learn some basic contrast moves with curves. Try working with color and luminosity separately so you can stretch out the tonal range without butchering your color. LAB is one place to try it. You can also have curve adjustment layers in Color and Luminosity mode. Learn some numbers so you can open up highlights and punch up your shadows without running your color off the grid.

Curves won't solve all your problems but without them, you won't solve much of anything.

[Crapaud]

Without a sample pic to look at, YR, it's difficult to really make any specific suggstions, but I'd be inclined to agree with Edgework - forget fancy effects for the moment.

In my own journey with PS I used to download pics to colour correct. All were taken by amateurs and usually looked flat and murky. Simply by correcting the colour (and a little sharpening) they became a totally different beast. I'd suggest curves in RGB as a place to start.

[Boneappetit]

Agree with edgework 100%... Here's a link (search the image on the thread) of a simple and natural way to sharpen your images with Spatial Frequency Separation, which also makes your image pop some more...
http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/cri...y-retouch.html

[julianmarsalis]

What I find to add depth to an image is about a combination of sharpening and painting with light ala dodge and burn nothing beats it.

http://www.tipsquirrel.com/index.php...otoshop-drama/