Peter Pham photo. What PP do you think he has done?

Vantage

Vantage

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Roger
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To me Peter Pham is a wonderful photographer. Also a huge inspiration because of his brilliant travel photography.

I'm really new to photography and even newer to pp. Would love to know what pp you guys think he has done to the below link to make it pop like it does.

http://peterpham.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/Portfolio/G0000EH8zKq5DaX4/I00004kVYbeEH.es

luckily for me his shop is 5mins away from where I live so I might just purchase a canvas for pride of place above my desk.
 
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I don't see too much heavy PP in the shot, there's certainly flash involved and that's what really makes the end result pop. And the effect of the fog from moist air chilled by the ice is very nice.
 
I don't understand why somebody would spend time on enhancements, and no time at all straightening horrific distortion..:shrug:
 
joxby said:
I don't understand why somebody would spend time on enhancements, and no time at all straightening horrific distortion..:shrug:
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Ia ctually like the distortion in this shot! It gives it a sense of movement for me.

As for PP... As people have said, it's mostly the lighting. There's a single flash to camera left up in the air a bit. The only PP I can see is a bit of a contrast and saturation bump, and some burning on the left, and the edges of the frame, and quite possibly a bit of dodging on the top bag on the man's shoulders
 
Thanks All. I thought there may of been more pp in it, but the more I look at with the use of flash in mind, I see the pp is not as much as I thought. I'm just trying to get my eye in on such things.....so what distortion is there? I can't see it. And if there is isn't that just another form of pp. Sorry for being blind. :shrug:
 
Vantage said:
Thanks All. I thought there may of been more pp in it, but the more I look at with the use of flash in mind, I see the pp is not as much as I thought. I'm just trying to get my eye in on such things.....so what distortion is there? I can't see it. And if there is isn't that just another form of pp. Sorry for being blind. :shrug:
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Don't worry at all! You'll learn to see and deconstruct images in a technical fashion soon enough. If you want to learn more about off camera flash (the same thing that this photographer used), go check out www.strobist.com when you've got some time.

The distortion is mostly visible in the lower right hand corner by looking at the man's legs. They're quite skewed, and don't follow a natural line. Distortion can be added, or remedied in post, but this distortion is likely from the use of a wide angle lens. The wider the lens, the more chance you'll have of getting distortion, as the frame is trying to fit more in, which is always going to mean things get distorted to some degree. Most lenses counteract this to some degree, and tools like 'Lens Correction' in Photoshop help to rectify this issue even more

Hopefully that helps, though if you have any other questions, fire away. :)
 
many thanks b16a2. I've had a look and still don't see the distortion in it. Maybe its my eye or monitor that is making up the natural difference, but I'm sure, from what you say, its there. I'm sure I'll see it soon.

Just as we are here what do you think of the photo in genral?
 
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[Image removed to prevent any infringement]

Have a look at this image, and compare it to the original, and that should give you an idea of the distortion. Let me know when you've seen it so that I can take it down, as I am conscious about the fact that I am linking and have modified Peter's original photo. I want to show you what distortion is, but I also want to avoid stepping on Peter's toes.

In general, I really like the shot! It does a great job doing what it's supposed to.
 
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Thanks so much b16a2. Yep I see the point. Especially with the right leg of the guy. It seems less stretched. Am I right here? I've also noticed you have cropped the left side a tad and more importantly the distortion in question. (shoot me if I'm wrong.) The problem I now have is you've eliminated the force in the guys leg to lift the ice. In the original it seems he's really giving it some to lift it, but in the edited version i think that is lost a bit.

Thank you so much for your time on this and yes you can take it down.

Let me know if I got all that arse-about-face.
 
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Vantage said:
Thanks so much b16a2. Yep I see the point. Especially with the right leg of the guy. It seems less stretched. Am I right here? I've also noticed you have cropped the left side a tad and more importantly the distortion in question. (shoot me if I'm wrong.) The problem I now have is you've eliminated the force in the guys leg to lift the ice. In the original it seems he's really giving it some to lift it, but in the edited version i think that is lost a bit.

Thank you so much for your time on this and yes you can take it down.

Let me know if I got all that arse-about-face.
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No worries! Glad to have helped. I didn't change the crop, only distortion, and you're right, to me, it removes the action, which is the important part.

As for your other image, I think it's mostly in camera, with a bit of luck, and a shutter speed of somewhere around 1/60th. In post, there may have been some blurring done, though it doesn't seem to go in one common direction, which indicates that it was either manually blurred, or it was motion blue in the actual capture. The white balance has been cooled down, and a bit more vibrance in the colour. He's also added his own vignette (darkening around the edges). I also keep trying to convince myself that he doesn't have another layer overlayed onto this one adding the texture from the flying sand... I would say more likely than not this is skill in Photoshop than it is on camera, though I could also be wrong. :)
 
Definatley some PP brushes used on the second pic.

As a strech i think he has used a layer effect too. The way i'd do it is to duplicate the layer, make a layer mask on the new layer, apply image into mask, fill old layer (backround layer) with white.

Gives a nice de-saturated fresco quality to it. (if it looks messed up, invert the mask)
 
Looks like the first shot he exposed for the sky and filled in with flash for the foreground, then just usual levels and tidying up.

The second looks to be a combination of in camera and PP, definitely some motion blur, but it looks like he almost painted it in.
 
iancandler said:
Looks like the first shot he exposed for the sky and filled in with flash for the foreground, then just usual levels and tidying up.

The second looks to be a combination of in camera and PP, definitely some motion blur, but it looks like he almost painted it in.
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Possibly a duplicated layer with motion blur and some masking? I'm leaning towards some panning myself.
 
Theres definitely real blur in there, the guy has used a panning technique, but there is some PP used too, no question.

At least some kinda of layer effect, like i described earlier, plus a high pass filter too most likely. I still reckon there could be some brushes used, some of those blur trails dont seem to correlate with the whole image, for example the dust/dirt blur all around the bull.
Oh, and a vignette.
 
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