The reinvention of Dave Hill

[Martin B]

Hey guys

We've all heard of Dave Hill right? I mean his technique has been dissected for years. I kind of evolved from making my images want to look like that a while ago as part of the natural process of growing as a photographer and moving on to different inspirations. However, I stumbled across his new work yesterday and am blown away with the work he has done with Fiat! Not that I would ever be in a position to call a successful pro a 'one-trick pony' but i think this proves he most definitely isn't!

Anyway, aside from the immense lighting setups, medium format camera etc, would anyone know how to get these soft orange tones in an image?
davehillphoto-5240dc0014fcfed copy.jpgdavehillphoto-5240dbd014fcf64 copy.jpg

[Tony W]

Re: The reinvention of Dave Hill

Why not try reverse engineering i.e. try and colour correct the image first globally then selectively - try Curves?

A curves adjustment layer on an original will probably get you somewhere close, reduce contrast in the Green and Blue channels in particular and maybe a touch overall in the composite channel

[skoobey]

Re: The reinvention of Dave Hill

White point in blue channel down, also white point down on white channel.

Mid point in blue curve up.

Black point in RGB and blue up.

Then fine tune the global, and go for the local curves.

I hope I helped.

[Martin B]

Re: The reinvention of Dave Hill

Mmm, thanks guys. It's kind of going in a direction but feel it's kinda passing it by. The curves I've played with a bit but not getting the 'orange' I'm after or the softness. I'll keep trying....

[AKMac]

Re: The reinvention of Dave Hill

It might be a good idea to deal with the tones first. Once you've nailed the tones you should find it a lot easier to work on the color moves in Color Mode. Global adjustments will get you the approximate values you need. Then, as Skooby said, you need to fine tune locally.

[bmcfadzean]

Re: The reinvention of Dave Hill

There is a write up here:

http://vsco.co/features/vsco-film-dave-hill

Dave Hill used VSCO presets for this latest work.

[Martin B]

Re: The reinvention of Dave Hill

Dave Hill used VSCO presets for this latest work.

Yes, I've just discovered this myself today! I'm now torn between purchasing these ultra cool looking presets and a steely determination to do it myself and create the look myself!

I was surprised to read he'd used presets but it's easy to see why with so many to edit.

[klev]

Re: The reinvention of Dave Hill

There is a write up here:

http://vsco.co/features/vsco-film-dave-hill

Dave Hill used VSCO presets for this latest work.

I'm not big on these plugins, because most give too much of a flat shaded look for my taste. I considered writing one some time ago, but it's a ton of work. To do things right it needs some kind of access to raw data. It's easy to miss that here, as you're looking at the work of a good photographer who planned on a known set of software capabilities and set up his scene accordingly.