where is the secret?

[umutyildiz]

i'm very curious lighting technique, db technique...very flavored enhance and saturated photo.

http://www.korayparlak.com/EN/Work/Latest-Works/Trump-Home-By-Dorya-2014/1865/

[skoobey]

Re: where is the secret?

As I told you on another forum... Secret is in repeating the darks and highlights in order to give image a perception of depth aka Dodge and Burn.

Apart from that, great soft lighting, and great team of MUA, model, location...

As for the color, dress is obviously separate, so is the skin, and so are the "blue" darks on the furniture.

Note how the background has been made more dynamic by dodging around the lamps.

[klev]

Re: where is the secret?

If you have to ask about a secret, you're quite far off from figuring this out. There are some broader adjustments on the thing, but I can see so many different points where the image was detailed. I see it in the lips and eye makeup. I don't know whether they did, but I would have needed to at least loosely mask the skin to get the color correction right there. Dress, skin, and background seem to be adjusted a bit differently from one another. It can be broken up further trying to get the right color to the wood or something.

Start with something simpler though. You're likely to learn much more from succeeding at something simple than you would by dissecting this entire thing. Eventually you should start to pick up on signs of where something was adjusted. You'll see a detail like eyes and know that in the context of the lighting, they wouldn't be that bright or quite that color relative to the overall color balance. At that point while you may not be able to reproduce this, you'll at least be able to make a more informed analysis of the image. Lighting plays a big role too. It helps if something is photographed well, but in either case you can learn something.

[jklier]

Re: where is the secret?

If you have to ask about a secret, you're quite far off from figuring this out.

I think that needs to be repeated. Much in creating great imagery is not about 'secrets' but understanding the craft which comes with dedication and practice.

Learn lighting. Learning seeing. Learn color. Learn looking at an image to see what needs to get changed. Learn to reverse read an image for color and lighting. Every image is different, there is no one-size-fits-all formula.

If you look at the last image, there are some reflections that tell you about the lighting.

[Aladdin]

Re: where is the secret?

This is also a medium format camera, body plus digital back plus lens = $40,000~50,000
You will not get this results with just any camera, Phase One and the likes. Look at the dynamic range, you can't achieve this with anything less that medium format.

[skoobey]

Re: where is the secret?

Lol, Koray shoots Canon 5dmkIII.

[klev]

Re: where is the secret?

Lol, Koray shoots Canon 5dmkIII.

I was actually wondering which it was. Digital back files often have more subtlety when it comes to difficult areas like eyes or shadowed portions, but it's not always as obvious now.

[adtechniques]

Re: where is the secret?

How separate dress, skin, lips and other? With Pen tool? I use to try separate all of things like that with pen tool, channel and it's take a lot of time to finish per file, although the result is quite good for me. i don't know another ways. I would love to hear your advice how to separate model, dress and other like that,

[klev]

Re: where is the secret?

How separate dress, skin, lips and other? With Pen tool? I use to try separate all of things like that with pen tool, channel and it's take a lot of time to finish per file, although the result is quite good for me. i don't know another ways. I would love to hear your advice how to separate model, dress and other like that,

You are missing the point. It's not like you have to mask out every last thing with the pen tool or other methods. What I said was to recognize where things are adjusted separately. I think some of it is made with broader adjustments. For example on several it looks like he adjusted the blacks to be more bluish using selective color or something during raw processing. In many cases I see where the skin and possibly hair appear to have been adjusted separately. I would use a mask in such situations. You should be able to tell that the contrast on the background differs slightly from the subject. As for lighting, I'm not sure what type of lights.

It looks like a fairly large with the background darkened a bit, blue added to shadows, eyes, lips, and clothing with their own treatment tweaks, corners darkened slightly, and skin color corrected a bit differently from the other elements. If you're wondering where I got this, take a look at a file processed with default settings of someone that close to a set or background. You'll see much less of a striking difference both in how dark they are in comparison. You also get more background color reflection. There wouldn't be the striking color difference with the skin. The blue added to shadows is obvious. Otherwise you wouldn't have overly blue shadows. The darkest areas don't have any translucence, so they would have a much lower level of saturation. I think it's a large primary light source because I'm used to looking at these things. It's not a case of where I can examine catch lights for reference, but that's how the lighting looks to me. Some of the shadows are emphasized in post, such as along the cheekbones. There are parts where the clothing stands out to me with its own color palette. When the subject is basically clothing, it's not that uncommon. The eyes and lips are once again obviously offset in color. Look at enough of these and you'll start to recognize it. They're frequently adjusted points. The corners are also visually obvious. You can see them darken a bit just by looking at it.

Now if I had to work on something like this (not saying it would be easy), I would probably start off trying to figure out the broader things, figure out what masks I need, and get a rough idea on shading. If he works with the same person frequently and tends to use a similar pattern to this stuff, it may allow them to accomplish this in a reasonable amount of time. I know it would initially take me a long time.

[jklier]

Re: where is the secret?

If he works with the same person frequently and tends to use a similar pattern to this stuff, it may allow them to accomplish this in a reasonable amount of time. I know it would initially take me a long time.

I think that is an aspect overlooked too often. Developing a style and reverse engineering a style/copying are very different things.

The ideal is to study images (better yet techniques by experienced retouchers) to build your toolbox of possible techniques (and with that I mean not just corrective techniques like D&B, but also stylistic techniques as blue shadows, selective hue shifts, vibrancy masks, etc. etc.) and then learn how to read and interpret an image while rummaging through your toolbox until you end up with one or more versions of the image that are better than you started with.

Too much focus on copying, not enough focus on being creative. Every image, every brief, every client, every concept requires a different approach, but all based on a small set of techniques.

Retouching is part of the creative chain of creating images. Make it that way. Whether you retouch for others or your own work.


Regarding the choice of camera, clearly MF has a few unique capabilities. But in architectural/interior shoots like this DSLRs are often better because of their low light capabilities (which allows you to blend practical light sources) and its easy enough to bracket in these scenarios - even if talent is in the shot. That's very different than other cases where MF has the advantage. With retouching you can make DSLR shots look closer to colors you might get of MF. But in the end it comes down to knowing what your gear can do and using it properly.

[skoobey]

Re: where is the secret?

Yes, every masking takes time.

Those experienced retouchers(especially volume retouchers) that say it takes me 5 minutes to path out a subject... yeah right.

It takes me 5 minutes to path out a silhouette of a bald model wearing jacket and jeans, or a nude model, or a scuba diver.

Pathing out a dress with ruffles in 5 minutes? Pathing out lace in 5 minutes? Never gonna happen.

In cases like this where there are lots of merging in tone between dress and backdrop, I'd use pen tool for the dress, but obviously you go to channel selections for things like hair.

Don't path something you won't need! Or in general, masking something never to use it is just a waste of time.