"Painted" Look

[mr1862]

Hi guys and girls

Hoping someone can help me out here on what this effect is called...

Basically I've been noticing it creeping up in a lot of people's work on the net and in photography magazines.

I've posted some examples below. I can only describe it as a kind of "painted" effect. Perhaps something to do with removing detail?
Is it a play on the Dave Hill look?

If anyone has a name for this effect or can point me to any resources (paid/unpaid), I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks!

[AKMac]

Re: "Painted" Look

A good place to start might be to research the following terms:-

Local Contrast Enhancement

Hiraloam

ACR Clarity

Topaz Detail

HDR Effects

Basically, the trick is to seek out tonal variations in significant detail areas, and to emphasise them without changing the values of the broader tonal areas of the image. Technically, this is in the same realm as Spatial Frequencies, High Pass Filtering etc.

One of the reasons this approach often produces a painted look is that the painter, unlike the camera, is selective in the areas which receive the most concentration of detail, contrast, etc. In photographic terms, the painter combines a number of exposures and levels of focus in producing a painting. This is similar to the way we see - as we scan a scene, our eyes are constantly refocussing and our pupils (apertures) are constantly changing exposure in order to see important detail in shadow and highlight areas. So the information we get by using our eyes is far greater than can be captured with one single photographic exposure and chosen DOF. This is why the HDR approach presents so much more scope. The big problem in picture making is that you have to decide what are the focal points in the image. If you simply bump up the detail in every area, like a lot of HDR images we see these days, it can be too much. So a good approach if you are using one of the Local Contrast Enhancement techniques, is selectively painting in the Layer Mask.

[mr1862]

Re: "Painted" Look

Thanks so much AKMac!

[HeavyTheory]

Re: "Painted" Look

Nice info AK

[adtechniques]

Re: "Painted" Look

Basically, the trick is to seek out tonal variations in significant detail areas, and to emphasise them without changing the values of the broader tonal areas of the image. Technically, this is in the same realm as Spatial Frequencies, High Pass Filtering etc.

Sorry, but someone can clarity for me or give me some video, link to help me details understand of this technique? I try to search but seem alot of information that make me confused.

What is Spatial Frequencies? How High Pass Filtering can make some look like that?

[sara1976]

Re: "Painted" Look

hi, I would say some of these pics are edited using plugins such as alien skin and/or nik software, there are many videos on youtube about them, and very interesting by the way, check it out !! )))

[Isedo]

Re: "Painted" Look

Good explanation AkMac.
What I see more is also some good old style Dodge and Burn. ;-)

All my best,
Martin

[Benny Profane]

Re: "Painted" Look

Hiraloam? I learned a new word today.

[rudym]

Re: "Painted" Look

Hiraloam sharpening is from Dan Margulis book " Professional Photoshop fifth edition"

[AKMac]

Re: "Painted" Look

Personally, I think it's a horrible word.

[adtechniques]

Re: "Painted" Look

Personally, I think it's a horrible word.

Why : )

[AKMac]

Re: "Painted" Look

Try pronouncing it with a Scottish accent. (Like Willy in The Simpsons)

[capice]

Re: "Painted" Look

... LOL, but nice info

[edgework]

Re: "Painted" Look

HIgh RAdius LOw AMount describes what you do, but calling it "Local Contrast" better describes the effect. It's not really a sharpening move, even though you use unsharp mask. It separates adjacent items from each other in a way that curves can't.

[daygraphics]

Re: "Painted" Look

HIRALOAM actually accentuates the differences in adjacent pixels by darkening the the darker pixel adjacent to a lighter -which will be lightened. This is all contingent on the tolerance level you set. The difference between the pixels must be separated by a tolerance level based on the 256 levels of gray. Each channel (RGB 0r CMYK) is assessed individually. A high Radius simply means that the effect will continue beyond the adjacent pixels, perhaps as far as 3-4 pixels. Again, relative to your overall image size. Sometimes if my image will allow a CMYK conversion (without a color gamut loss), I have an extra channel to differentiate the details within. I oftentimes add a higher radius to the Black and Cyan channel - where most of my image detail may exist. You can do that separate of your Magenta and I almost never do anything within Yellow as this simply tends to add noise and fringing. Attached is a similar effect that was popular with my client for a while. Same HDR, but a sort of ghousting of the color.