Dragan Style treatment

Barryboy

Barryboy

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Rob
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Hi... I've got a couple of environmental portraits that this process would suit and I'm looking for a Photoshop preset or action that I can download. I have only found one - from the USA - and it's part of a suite of presets costing $79.00 which is way too much for me. Can anyone suggest anything please?

Rob
 
There's no such thing as a preset for the Dragan effect ( Hate that term... such processing has been around longer than he has). The reason is, the Dragan effect makes use of a great deal of dodging and burning on a 50% grey later, which you do yourself, with skill... and practice... preferably with a pressure sensitive tablet (although that's optional).

Presets suck... no skill... pressing a button. How can you take credit for work where you've pressed a button? Seriously. Look at some tutorials that walk you through it in Photoshop... stop being lazy. Do you not like learning?

I've only really ever used such similar processing once (lightly)... at client request, but it wasn't difficult to do.
 
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Pookeyhead said:
There's no such thing as a preset for the Dragan effect ( Hate that term... such processing has been around longer than he has). The reason is, the Dragan effect makes use of a great deal of dodging and burning on a 50% grey later, which you do yourself, with skill... and practice... preferably with a pressure sensitive tablet (although that's optional).

Presets suck... no skill... pressing a button. How can you take credit for work where you've pressed a button? Seriously. Look at some tutorials that walk you through it in Photoshop... stop being lazy. Do you not like learning?

I've only really ever used such similar processing once (lightly)... at client request, but it wasn't difficult to do.
Click to expand...
/sigh

It's not what you say, it's how you say it.
 
Barryboy said:
Hi... I've got a couple of environmental portraits that this process would suit and I'm looking for a Photoshop preset or action that I can download. I have only found one - from the USA - and it's part of a suite of presets costing $79.00 which is way too much for me. Can anyone suggest anything please?

Rob
Click to expand...
Pookyhead isn't wrong - presets will be a very blunt tool in this scenario, dodging and burning (highlights and shadows) will give you much greater control allowing you to work in the context of your individual photo rather than treat the whole canvas as the same. Took at some of the tutorials out there and see if you can adapt one to the software you have.
 
You pay a great deal of money for Photoshop and Lightroom, so why reduce them to a mere operating system on which to run presets and plug-ins when you have industry standard, professional software that can do anything your imagination can conjure up? All you have to do is learn how to use it. There's shed loads of books, videos, step-by-step guides and real life courses out there.
 
Pookyhead, we're not all as informed/clever/skilled/bloody superior as you. Some of us need a little help, and a lecture on the morality of using presets and a veiled accusation of plagiarism just isnt it.

Presets, to me, are a tool. I don't expect to have to make a hammer every time I want to drive a nail home, and I don't want to have to write complex macros every time I run a report in work. And I have no compunction in using presets or actions if they get me the result I want.

So back to the original question... Can anyone help me get a Dragan styled preset?
 
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Barryboy said:
Pookyhead, we're not all as informed/clever/skilled/bloody superior as you. Some of us need a little help,
Click to expand...

So you're uninformed, stupid, un-skilled and inferior? :)

No.. you're none of those things, which is why I'm trying to get you to help yourself and learn. If you don't want to, just say so and leave you alone to reap the rewards of other people's efforts.


Anyway.... never mind that, the point is....

The Dragan effect, done properly needs localised dodging and burning... by hand. It can't be fully automated so you'll not find a preset for it that actually works properly. The best you'll hope for is something that ramps up micro contrast and edge detail. Will probably look crap, but may be a rough approximation to the easily fooled. However, that contoured look to faced and muscle tone that is the halmark of this effect is done by dodging and burning on a 50% grey layer set to overlay, or soft light blend. It's simply impossible to automate, which is why I suggested learning how to do it properly.

Barryboy said:
I don't expect to have to make a hammer every time I want to drive a nail home,
Click to expand...

Photoshop IS the hammer.... presets are a dumb robot that wields the hammer for you while you sit on your arse.


However....



http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Dragan+style+presets

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Dragan+Style+photoshop+actions



They'll at best, approximate the style as you can't automate the dodge and burn processes of doing it properly.
 
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Cobra said:
/ Throws away camera ;)
Click to expand...

Gregory Crewdson doesn't even press the button :) He has however, directed and set up everything before that camera.. which is, after all, where the skill is. Anyone can press a button.
 
Pookey is a great comunicator and very helpful...... It just won't be sugar coated or very gentle and quite often brutal
He makes a lot of sense tho, and often makes me giggle with his replies
 
Here's what I think pookeyhead means.... try it and see! :)

Open image in PS
click on the 'create a new layer' ICON at the bottom RHS of the panel (looks like a square with a corner folded up) whilst holding down the ALT key on your 'puter.
A 'new layer' box will appear, and will have two drop down menus - the bottom one is called 'mode'
click on this drop down and change it to 'overlay' and also check the 'fill with 50% grey box, then 'ok'

now, press "B" which engages the brush tool - make sure that on the LHS the two squares that overlap are black and white (if not, click on the tiny black & white symbol just above and to the left) and "paint" in lightening or darkening as you like.

Alternating between black and white either adds darkens or lightens your image in a non destructive way - and make sure you change the opacity on the toolbar at the top - 100% might either turn your image black or white, so start off using about 10% and see how you go.

Good luck! :)
 
Thanks, Maria. You explained that perfectly. Well worth an hour or two's trial - I've actually bought a used Wacom Bamboo graphics tablet at very moderate expense in an effort to improve the accuracy of my selections so when that arrives I'll give it a go.
 
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