Gritty feel to an image

Mozziephotography

Mozziephotography

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Stephen
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I have a number of fell races coming up in the next couple of months. I've been trying to create a style (preset) of my own which reflects the mud, grit and determination of the runners in the harsh landscape that they run in. Usually desaturate the colours and have used "Midnight" from Color Efex as well. It can be a bit too much at times. t does become messy when figures and sky meet. If you don't like the image, that's fair enough. Help and advice would be great.


Tigger Tor 2019-175-Edit.jpg
 
The idea is good in my opinion but it looks a bit too soft and overcooked HDR for my tastes. I’d create an action that desaturates and adds a sepia tone (you could try colour lookup layers in PS with 20% opacity to start with and adjust as you prefer), you can also play with colour balance, photo filter layers and add an auto curves adjustment (monochromatic seems to be best). I think the key is to keep the effects quite subtle so the action will work with all types of images - if the effects are so noticeable you’ve probably gone too far, although that type of picture might get away with it
 
The image looks (overall) soft to me - which could be some sort of forum/internet compression. However "grittyness" is usually assocated with "sharp" in my head so it's not hitting the mark for me.

Desaturated colours often sit in a kind of halfway house between "real" and "black & white" which gives a surreal look to them, which again isn't a word I associate with "gritty". My suggestion would be to go (or try) black & white purely for the removal of distracting coloured tabbards, backpacks and headgear. Either that or go normal colour to show how the "gritty determined" runners have a colourful side.

This is purely a personal opinion though, so please take what you like & leave the rest!
 
I understand what you are trying to achieve... Do you have any examples of what you would like to achieve so we can help you get the right look?

When I do 'gritty' sport images, I usually use a cooler wb / use split toning to give a cooler look. Raise contrast and clarity to suit to bring the rawness of the dirt and emotion on peoples faces. .. if that makes sense?
 
I much prefer black and white but there are SO many different coloured tops that it causes chaos when converting. HATE fluorescent tops, drives me mad. Thanks for the input, it's given me food for thought. One person's "look" doesn't suit everyone. @toohuge - I'll get back to you, maybe I'm trying TOO hard to be different.
 
I do sort-of get what you are trying to achieve. I think the example shot though has too much of an overcooked HDR look to it which I don't think is what you want yourself.

Keep on trying...... Maybe something more subtle? Maybe expose (edit) for the skin (boost orange luminance) & let everything else go dark? << I guess that one won't always work though given sunlight & backgrounds.
 
That midnight filter is too harsh, the effect is like orton - try doing it in photoshop for more control
Otherwise in your example it's like a moderately strong Hdr. In color effex for some reason that doesn't generate a new layer so do that manually so you can fade it.
It reminds me of Lucis Art software too.

I'll occasionally play about with all those to make an image more striking even cartoonlike, don't really care if others don't like it!

Pickering 2019 - Nostalgia Overdrive by Colin Grice, on Flickr
 
@4wd Thanks for that, much appreciated comment. It's a developmental thing with me, trying to create something a bit different from what I normally put out after a race. My images are for me, even if they have a large audience after a race.
 
I agree with what's been said above about sharpness, and for me grittiness can be brought out by local contrast. You've said that editing your images is OK, so I had a go. I added local contrast in On1 Photo Raw using the Dynamic Contrast adjustment and upped the saturation to bring back some of the colour. It still looks overdone, but to my eyes still looks gritty enough. What do you think?

26pYE78.jpg
 
@garryknight Thanks for taking the time and trouble to have a go. I'll probably take well over 1,500 images on Sunday, none of which I can control in terms of "runner" composition. he percentage of "love it" shots will be low. There's a "busy" feel to the photo above, scrambling up the hill or attempting to descend without falling. It takes me a long time to work through the shots, hard graft but rewarding when I feel that I've hit the spot as it were. The response on FB isn't always what I'd hope for. LIKE LIKE LIKE LIKE. Only a handful say thanks to the photographer, usually the same few runners. Another photographer can load them up within a couple of hours of the finish; they can be out of focus etc and … "Great photos Jim." There I am thinking; is it worth all the effort I go to? Never mind.
Weather looks crap for Sunday, never mind … it will add atmosphere.
I do like the image above and I do prefer to desaturate the colours a bit, especially those fluorescent tops. Thanks for having a go.
 
When I think of gritty I usually push contrast up a bit, and add some clarity, and maybe make the image a darker/moody. Your picture doesn't shout gritty to me, more a HDR feel IMHO. Still a nice shot though.
Edit. This is my version.
 

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@swanseamale47 It's personal preference, thanks for the shot. Love black and white but the range of colours can be difficult to cope with at times. When I look at my images on a large monitor, I wonder what people see when it's compressed onto an iPhone etc. One person's GRIT is another person's ????
 
Hi Stephen

.... thought I'd tell you about one of my favourite tricks. I do a lot of street where the focus is on an individual but still sometimes there are distracting BG elements, even though they're OOF.

It's not exactly the purpose of this thread I know but because you posted that normal sort of image, I thought I'd show you a subtle edit that takes a minute to do.

Make a duplicate layer, desaturate the bottom layer, then run a soft-edged eraser over BG colour on the top layer.

L. Original <------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------> R. My edit
O5BZ6-6A9wWsVPhrmCEhGPJTmuTxS8JPbSKkdfAsk9rfqR5dza8EKI9VSyOcRt9ahsp4x6pyQXJdb8mdhLpwe7Lu8MnbconMS11zylBTqTuFcA8gjYx5vPht76nPFwBZqJ0B9Barngkx9gIiKmKJUIEy2xI7ZMtAJbpJWSwRG0FywzkQc_V8P2WHwSezMCtCxF2xMNJ5VKYC4gob7FdUF8A9xFX9VpB-tWgMUwp77PNu4Y1tEaEBJUrdctK19l2kjqXip8FcAw46q18oa4l8wcvPxKiPi7YbnbGCz3UTUtinUj1-Oj-juaYZBgXD8kgv2dTAw8QBHefJNXKaETZUZIpjDCMsUlQlwWH8I1Uo3zPjB5_9w5RSPsyWYQXw_8JMAYbDSLjdJ92B5_PIgJc7Hg0XizwhqQu5Fb1lZQ6IqjS7CPnwwc5qy8PQvbbLvrEjvMwbMpaE5wdaIpdOalbZHQrEVXBkx8UVNwCYC2ngI6wcZvrItbyzUPbsiFoTjxpuzK2v2XKV2XrWid9SQDYd_mUFrJJKry5pECgPRPfoZ1329_hnEz-z9g3UKFhhvU63lMYn1n2yFMCKHvAFoqVM0NrNxyOTsmpwKaXDNR3P_wSWnpfZT-y1YCprSJcxRcw7pnHwkgL8J5JVclcNvCy5fJzjayJ4aoNOrBqesN6EsXf6A9j4s5RzONHA-IL6Z-WZbYtGMKOxyfuoANyOuFBiyLHg_oO0np_BMy-Y6ocXLOPw4Dmdug=w1764-h867-no



Small eraser required for the cone between his legs!

Bright colour directly behind the subject? forget it. But a distant hi-viz car plate, no problem.




>
 
mossienet said:
I have a number of fell races coming up in the next couple of months. I've been trying to create a style (preset) of my own which reflects the mud, grit and determination of the runners in the harsh landscape that they run in. Usually desaturate the colours and have used "Midnight" from Color Efex as well. It can be a bit too much at times. t does become messy when figures and sky meet. If you don't like the image, that's fair enough. Help and advice would be great.


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It looks good enough to me.
 
My edit is a combination of your original post and Swanseamale47's b&w conversion, with yours as the upper layer with 75% opacity.

I try to produce things close to the conditions they were taken in. When I see work from other photographers at the same event, sometimes I wonder if we were actually at the same event, as they've made their photos seem totally different. They may have boosted the colours suggesting a bright summers day, whereas in reality it was a gloomy overcast damp day in March.
 

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Thanks @andrewc Loving the responses from everyone and hoping I can do justice to the conditions and landscape at tomorrow's race.
 
Firstly, I almost always use B&W for this type of shot. Also remember if you apply a filter (including Topaz), you can immediately select Edit>Fade Filter in PS. I often do this and slide hard to the left so you are seeing the effect without the filter. As you slide to the right increasing the effects of the filter I stop when I feel it is right then back of a little. It seems to work for me and I rarely use 100%.

Dave
 
andrewc said:
I try to produce things close to the conditions they were taken in. When I see work from other photographers at the same event, sometimes I wonder if we were actually at the same event, as they've made their photos seem totally different. They may have boosted the colours suggesting a bright summers day, whereas in reality it was a gloomy overcast damp day in March.
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Sounds sensible!
Dave Canon said:
Firstly, I almost always use B&W for this type of shot.
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Sounds even more sensible!

Stephen I empathise with your quest, but there's often a danger of trying too hard. I think my base line would be to go mono and maybe a bit grainy, juggling the tones as seemed right. Think Don McCullin. You want a punchy realism, whilst retaining your integrity as a photographer.

Modern cameras / processes are far too sharp for this sort of stuff ...

The subject would seem to suit 35mm film of 400 iso pushed as necessary.

Forget arty, think gutsy.
 
mossienet said:
I have a number of fell races coming up in the next couple of months. I've been trying to create a style (preset) of my own which reflects the mud, grit and determination of the runners in the harsh landscape that they run in. Usually desaturate the colours and have used "Midnight" from Color Efex as well. It can be a bit too much at times. t does become messy when figures and sky meet. If you don't like the image, that's fair enough. Help and advice would be great.


View attachment 266653
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Some desaturation, a very mild colour grade and at the very most low amount of grain simulation would be enough. If you want better you'd have to choregraph the runners and creatively use some lighting outside of the scope of the event.
As is this is far overcooked.


mossienet said:
My normal sort of image. Bored with it though.

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Marathon runners? This is what they will ask you to do. This is it. If you want to get creative outside of the event bring some lights and choose the right setting. If you like mud get in the trenches full of water. I think this is what Joe McNally did for one of his Nikon campaigns. You have to get out of the mass production and into creative work. I appreciate it may not be easy nor quick but you have to start planning for it.
 
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