Seeking help with Editorial

[Oliver.S]

Hi and thank you for taking a look at this thread

I am a photographer and I'm in need of some very experienced guidance or help with retouching a recent shoot.

Most of my work is kept as simple as possible and I'm more comfortable with b&w, but this shoot calls for extensive colour knowledge and good work with skin tones and tonal separation/compression.

I shot it all outside on a sunny day and the model had fairly tanned skin. My limited knowledge provides nothing but grief when trying to separate the golden/green fields from everything else.

I'm very fond of Jacques Olivar's treatments and also Le Page's weird icey grading and illustrative editing. Of course, like everyone wants, it would be great to have a Mert&Marcus grading on this. The shoot is organic as is the way I like to shoot, but it needs some pro on it. Very high end garments and great credits, full of colour - reds, greens, gold and yellow. I see very separated deep saturated colours in the final.. emarald green, gold, deep ruby reds etc. with pale muted creamy skin tones.

If anyone is interested and has the skills please get in touch asap.

Thank you

Oliver

http://oliversutton.net

[ShadowLight]

I think photographers don't have one "style", and although you know the names of some you like it does not say much about the look you are after.
So post some links to their images you may have in mind.

posting one of your imgs will also help to figure where the difficulty is.

[Oliver.S]

Hi Shadowlight

Thanks for your response.

I mentioned these two photogrpahers, buecause anyone who knows them will know they have a distinctive style that can be recognised immediately. If you see it, you will be able to get a feeling from their body of work and go -- ah! thats Olivar or thats Le Page - the colours and tones especially, besides the actual image.

Regardless, If I'm allowed to post links here are some good examples, and the idea is to give a general feeling. much of the work is treated to give a similar dark appearance with some colour coming through:

http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/...cated-elegance
http://vacascom.blogspot.co.uk/2008/...es-oliver.html
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/a...quesOlivar.jpg
http://useen.me/wp-content/uploads/2...ues-Olivar.jpg


Le Page is a different story so here are some good samples mostly shot outdoors. He has a very specific lighting technique and mood but the colours are always interesting and tend to lean towards an icier blue with a lot of the subjects lit sharply or blown out slightly.

http://www.cgunit.net/2010/12/jean-francois-lepage.html


My work has to be published so unfortunately its not up for commentary - I started this thread not for people to guess how to get a look, but for real professional retouchers to get in touch with me if they have the skill.

Once again, thank you.

Oliver xx

[Oliver.S]

I know how forums are and a sentence can be misinterpreted quite easily. I just read back my reply and I didnt mean to offend any readers with great skills that aren't currently working as professional retouchers. Thanks for your help and this is a great community.

O xx

[ShadowLight]

Originally Posted by Oliver.S

I shot it all outside on a sunny day and the model had fairly tanned skin. My limited knowledge provides nothing but grief when trying to separate the golden/green fields from everything else.

It is hard to "imagine" what is the exact situation you need help with just based on the vague description on what you "start with" especially when you are not quite sure what you want to "end with", besides a general "feeling".


for something like this I would have started with -1Ev, or even more... but lets assume you have captured the full dynamic range of the scene (and you don't have blown up highlights for example) and if you have properly exposed skin you should be OK for the adjustments.

In some of the shown examples like this one:
http://api.ning.com/files/vJQSy*PO-X...s_olivar03.jpg
you probably see that the light-source for the model in not the Sun, so it would also depend on your setup when you are after a specific style, so it is not all "toning".

if you pay attention to the shown images, you should see that all models have fair-skin and are not tanned as yours, so just from that you will have a whole different look.


.. so considering the differences only you know at this point

... think about the key and contrast, pull them to what you are after, and after that think about the hues.

In about 50% of the images you can see a coloration in the neutrals toward the shadows, something typically done in the movie-tones, in others there is none, but the black-level is clipped and pulled up. (decide on which style you want and go for it)

as I said, to get some of the selective tone corrections, you can use the "selective color" tool.

I suggest you make a search about "color grading" as it looks like this is what you are interested in. You will probably notice that often those looks, or at least most of them are already preset (lets say in C1) and the photographers see the toning result before they even press the shutter.
Those decisions about the looks are not usually left to the retoucher, but are handled by the photographer.

I hope you don't get offended as most of the things I said are quite basic, but it looks like you are asking for a recipe for a "soup", but you are not saying "which soup".

in short, again - to make selective corrections you can use "selective color" or mask what you are after and make corrections this way.
hope some of this helped you

[Julian Clemens]

Originally Posted by Oliver.S

... I started this thread not for people to guess how to get a look, but for real professional retouchers to get in touch with me ...

Originally Posted by ShadowLight

... it looks like you are asking for a recipe for a "soup", but you are not saying "which soup".

I think this is a misunderstanding.

Julian

[Oliver.S]

Shadowlight thanks for your suggestions.

Julian read my comment straight after that post.

thanks

[Julian Clemens]

I saw your post, but it seems I was the one misunderstanding things.

I thought you wanted someone who could work on the images or walk you through in private.

Sorry for the confusion.

Julian

[Oliver.S]

ah, now it makes sense. i misunderstood your quotes as 'seperate' misunderstandings.
thought you meant i was misunderstood which didnt make sense.

so far i have had some great retouchers email me kindly and offer help.. and thanks to those that have already taken a look at my work.

thanks for trying to clear that up.

O

[nancywilliams]

Originally Posted by Oliver.S

Hi Shadowlight

Thanks for your response.

I mentioned these two photogrpahers, buecause anyone who knows them will know they have a distinctive style that can be recognised immediately. If you see it, you will be able to get a feeling from their body of work and go -- ah! thats Olivar or thats Le Page - the colours and tones especially, besides the actual image.

Regardless, If I'm allowed to post links here are some good examples, and the idea is to give a general feeling. much of the work is treated to give a similar dark appearance with some colour coming through:

http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/...cated-elegance
http://vacascom.blogspot.co.uk/2008/...es-oliver.html
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/a...quesOlivar.jpg
http://useen.me/wp-content/uploads/2...ues-Olivar.jpg


Le Page is a different story so here are some good samples mostly shot outdoors. He has a very specific lighting technique and mood but the colours are always interesting and tend to lean towards an icier blue with a lot of the subjects lit sharply or blown out slightly.

http://www.cgunit.net/2010/12/jean-francois-lepage.html


My work has to be published so unfortunately its not up for commentary - I started this thread not for people to guess how to get a look, but for real professional retouchers to get in touch with me if they have the skill.

Once again, thank you.

Oliver xx

Colouring shades and setting of edges were awesome.