Processing Portraits

I have a sneaky feeling that the 500px website you mentioned might use 'portrait pizzaz' as a plug in. Perhaps look at their website and see what they offer
 
HopefulM said:
I have a sneaky feeling that the 500px website you mentioned might use 'portrait pizzaz' as a plug in. Perhaps look at their website and see what they offer
Click to expand...

Thanks, some interesting stuff there.

From what I've read Lisa Holloway uses just Imagenomic Portraiture plugin sometimes. I'm not aware of any other plugin she uses.

She does have an online processing class in which she takes you through using photoshop to process images, unfortunately it's mostly booked up for 2014.
 
HopefulM said:
I have a sneaky feeling that the 500px website you mentioned might use 'portrait pizzaz' as a plug in. Perhaps look at their website and see what they offer
Click to expand...

Don;t forget that those images are created with beautiful light. You can't create that in post process.
 
 
England has as much great light as anywhere else. It's the same sun.. sky.. clouds... We just get more clouds :)
 
I tried isolating the skin here and making it warming, isolated the background and increasing saturation.
Although I've been using photoshop for studio shots, I'm trying to evolve past lightroom :)


Playing with Photoshop by dancook1982, on Flickr

really need to practice more with outdoor portraiture though..
 
Much of this can be achieved using curves & levels layers in Photoshop. Often by changing these to add contrast there is no need to increase saturation.
Do you have any understanding of dodging & burning in Photoshop? That method can give you a little more control with highlights & shadows.
 
Noah_ said:
Much of this can be achieved using curves & levels layers in Photoshop. Often by changing these to add contrast there is no need to increase saturation.
Do you have any understanding of dodging & burning in Photoshop? That method can give you a little more control with highlights & shadows.
Click to expand...

I create a 50% gray layer, set to overlay and dodge burn that? That's what I've learnt to do.
 
dancook said:
I create a 50% gray layer, set to overlay and dodge burn that? That's what I've learnt to do.
Click to expand...

Yeah thats definitely what I'm talking about, sorry haha I didn't know what experience you'd had with photoshop :coffee: If you have the patience you can create similar contrast to the work in the first link you posted altho the even spread of contrast would suggest the photographer took more of the levels route. I find that often boosts saturation without having to touch the saturation adjustments.

The second link just seems to contain some beautiful natural light to create those stunning photographs. Not to mention her enviable gear list, which contain lenses with low F stops. I think she may enhance the colours without just upping the saturation, it looks as though she may adjust colour balance, channels & blue/green/red curves or some variant of these. No extreme colour swatches, just subtle changes to perhaps enhance the oranges in the autumn settings, for example. Subtle split-toning can also work beautifully on colour photographs altho at college they only introduced split-toning to black & white photo processing, I began to experiment with colour photographs too. All we can do is experiment! These are just my perceptions but I hope I could offer some assistance or inspiration as to new methods! :wideyed:

dancook said:
I sit and watch the golden hours go by at work
Click to expand...

This is one of my own daily hates :mad:
 
Last edited:
Looking at the first link, a lot is created by the strong darkening of the background (using a vignette)
 
The second lnk is all about depth of field. Possibly using an 85 f1.4 type of lens.
 
You can get a lot of these affects with the greater than Gatsby collection http://www.greaterthangatsby.com/ who have got 50% off sale at the moment $125 for the whole set :)
 
The first one tells you much of what she does. And, each to their own of course, but I certainly wouldn't recommend anyone follows her if they want to improve their post production. Non-sensical blurs and really harsh vignettes appeal to some people though, clearly.

A quick look at those before and afters appear to be mainly warming it up, along with your standard smoothing and contrast. Then there a couple of extras blurs here and there for good measure.
 
interesting thread & I'm subscribed to look forward to finding out your learning process on this.

My first grandchild is due in May & I love the style you've identified (y)
 
Jayst84 said:
The first one tells you much of what she does. And, each to their own of course, but I certainly wouldn't recommend anyone follows her if they want to improve their post production. Non-sensical blurs and really harsh vignettes appeal to some people though, clearly.

A quick look at those before and afters appear to be mainly warming it up, along with your standard smoothing and contrast. Then there a couple of extras blurs here and there for good measure.
Click to expand...

The first link, was probably not a very clear one. It was mostly the slideshow on the top right, and a few others with the even skin tones that mostly attracted me.

I suppose that's where my journey starts :) even skintones tutorial!

EOS_JD said:
The second lnk is all about depth of field. Possibly using an 85 f1.4 type of lens.
Click to expand...

I do have 85mm 1.2 and 135mm f2 - and I've £0 saved for the 200mm f2 (roll on pay day)

TG. said:
You can get a lot of these affects with the greater than Gatsby collection http://www.greaterthangatsby.com/ who have got 50% off sale at the moment $125 for the whole set :)
Click to expand...

It's a tempting prospect, I'm worried that it'll 1) not help me grow 2) has some kind of obvious greaterthangatsby gimmicky look - :D

Also looks like I need to understand photoshop actions and how to use them - it seems like a powerful part of PS i've overlooked.
 
Last edited:
You say, in one of your earlier posts you want to evolve past LR & I know that feeling. I have just deleted all my downloaded pre-sets as they may have been starting points but I got fed up with trying endless pre-sets only to start from the beginning (top of the menu in LR) working my way down & then sometimes revisiting a previous tweak to nudge it a bit more.

PS actions - mmm tried them & disliked them more than pre-sets in LR so resigned to trying to learn the start from basis way but it is time consuming & needs a good memory which is one thing lacking in my brain.

Persevere (y)
 
I still find presets in LR good for inspiration, it was a good way to learn how to manipulate the sliders to achieve certain looks.

After watching a tutorial on greaterthangatsby, I think I just realised an error I'd been making. For each component I wanted to change in photoshop (skin, clothes, background) I was duplicating the background layer, masking it off and apply the contrast/levels etc to that layer. When really I should have just been masking the contast/levels layers, and keeping one background.. oops.

I had a photoshop book for christmas, maybe i should read it :)
 
dancook said:
I create a 50% gray layer, set to overlay and dodge burn that? That's what I've learnt to do.
Click to expand...


That is correct... however... for portraits, Soft Light is better than overlay... unless you want a harsher effect. It's more subtle and controllable with Soft Light, especially if you use a graphics tablet with pressure sensitivity.

Noah_ said:
Much of this can be achieved using curves & levels layers in Photoshop. Often by changing these to add contrast there is no need to increase saturation.
Click to expand...

Adjusting curves CAN increase saturation though... in fact.. scratch that... it DOES increase saturation.

Here's an extract from a first year digital imaging class... I've removed college branding and references to things not relevant outside of the course.. I hope this helps.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/23953768/Week 16.docx
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the advice, I will take a look at this document.
 
Pookeyhead said:
That is correct... however... for portraits, Soft Light is better than overlay... unless you want a harsher effect. It's more subtle and controllable with Soft Light, especially if you use a graphics tablet with pressure sensitivity.



Adjusting curves CAN increase saturation though... in fact.. scratch that... it DOES increase saturation.

Here's an extract from a first year digital imaging class... I've removed college branding and references to things not relevant outside of the course.. I hope this helps.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/23953768/Week 16.docx
Click to expand...
Just took a look at this. I do use curves all the time but I don't really know the in's and out's of it. I just use it until my image looks good to my eye.I was not aware of the colours changing but that maybe because I only use the adjustments lightly.
I found the word doc really helpful
Thanks

Gaz
 
If it helped anyone.... I'm happy :)
 
Cool you wanna upload any more like that feel free. It mentioned levels any chance? Never really understood them as curves seemed to do the same thing but with more control :-)

Gaz
 
Pookeyhead said:
Adjusting curves CAN increase saturation though... in fact.. scratch that... it DOES increase saturation.
Click to expand...

Hence why there is no need to increase it... :confused::coffee:

I wrote that after the author posted a photo of work he'd processed & he mentioned he'd increased saturation. I suggested curves as an alternative because it means there is no need to increase saturation.. there is no need to touch that adjustment at all.
 
Noah_ said:
Hence why there is no need to increase it... :confused::coffee:

I wrote that after the author posted a photo of work he'd processed & he mentioned he'd increased saturation. I suggested curves as an alternative because it means there is no need to increase saturation.. there is no need to touch that adjustment at all.
Click to expand...


Ahhh... That makes sense.. sorry. Didn't realise that.
 
Hahaha I'm not always the best at phrasing what I'm thinking!

___

Dan, I noticed in the second link an 'about' page in which the photographer notes her equipment & the 85mm f1.2L II is in there. I've found that lens on a 5D MKII body creates a dreamy combination for portraits with smooth skin appearing, creating a wonderful canvas for evening the skin tones in post production. Did I read that's in your gear list also? It might be worth getting someone to pose for you to take close ups at different angles in different lights & with a frame full of skin to work on, you could experiment with any of the techniques we've suggested in here. Make a note of what techniques you find create the look you'd aspired for. I find playing in Photoshop good fun after work when it's too dark to shoot what I want!
 
Noah_ said:
Dan, I noticed in the second link an 'about' page in which the photographer notes her equipment & the 85mm f1.2L II is in there. I've found that lens on a 5D MKII body creates a dreamy combination for portraits with smooth skin appearing, creating a wonderful canvas for evening the skin tones in post production. Did I read that's in your gear list also? It might be worth getting someone to pose for you to take close ups at different angles in different lights & with a frame full of skin to work on, you could experiment with any of the techniques we've suggested in here. Make a note of what techniques you find create the look you'd aspired for. I find playing in Photoshop good fun after work when it's too dark to shoot what I want!
Click to expand...


I have the 5dm3 now, my wife is often my model for these things - just we've never specifically gone out for a photoshoot during the golden hour. The only extensive photoshop editing i've done is for studio like shots.

I definitely plan to shoot more outside, and with the 135 L

Tonight I did a photoshoot with my wife and her friends, here's the make up prep (quick process in LR)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/62198876@N02/sets/72157641373396305/

I will spend more time on the actual shoot, in photoshop.
 
Even better haha. I've never had the chance to shoot in the golden hour either.
I'd quite like to see what you find works for you if you try out any new techniques in Photoshop on the actual shoot.
 
Noah_ said:
Even better haha. I've never had the chance to shoot in the golden hour either.
I'd quite like to see what you find works for you if you try out any new techniques in Photoshop on the actual shoot.
Click to expand...

I like to think I used a few techniques here.

Using curves to give contrast, the luminosity b+w layer to desaturate, using levels to even skin tones.

Dodge, Burn to help even skin tones more. Then I sharpened, dodged eyes, increased vibrance of saree, cleaned up some hairs and blemishes


Davina - Saree by dancook1982, on Flickr
 
Last edited:
Dan
There are still a few issues here that I see.

THere are still shiny highlights on the cheeks and forehead that need work.
The teeth are very yellow.
The bags under the eyes are very prominent and could be doing with being toned down. Using the patch tool you can remove them (on a new layer) and then tone back to reveal just a hint).

I think the smile is a bit cheesy too - Some emotion would have worked better with the pose of the hands - Although she does have a great smile ;)
She's very square to camera and the crop is placed at her widest point making her look larger than she probably is. The hair could do with a little more separation from the dark background too I think.

For skin retouching do a you tube search on "Frequency Separation". That combines some of what you were doing above into one area

Cheers
Jim
 
Last edited:
One thing though. This type of image is a polar opposite of the images you posted above which are all fairly soft and light - the lighting is very soft.

You have chosen a pretty low key image with deep dark shadows (hard light as compared to soft).
 
Here's how I retouched it.

kL8FrMG.jpg


Here's a copy of my layered photoshop file so you can see what I did.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/23953768/green sari.psd

I'd need a higher res file to do it properly, but it gives you an idea of workflow. Took about 10 mins. With a high res file, it would take longer, as there'd be more high frequency retouching to do.
 
Last edited:
Thanks! I've just finished retouching.. when I refreshed this page, I was very confused :D as I hadn't uploaded it yet!!

Here's my retouch - will see side by side now to compare..


Davina - Retouch by dancook1982, on Flickr

Used this video and the two other parts that come after it
 
Last edited:
Yeah... used a similar technique.. probably way simpler than the one in the video though. You Tube video creators tend to add many, many steps that are just not necessary to try and out-knowledge each other.... not to the benefit of the user either.
 
dancook said:
It's a tempting prospect, I'm worried that it'll 1) not help me grow 2) has some kind of obvious greaterthangatsby gimmicky look - :D
Click to expand...

I use them sometimes and I don't see they have any gimmicky effect, than any other actions, you also have the ability to tweak them to what you want. Presumably if you made your own PS/LR actions you would save them as either, unless of course you have a very good memory :D
 
TG. said:
I use them sometimes and I don't see they have any gimmicky effect, than any other actions, you also have the ability to tweak them to what you want. Presumably if you made your own PS/LR actions you would save them as either, unless of course you have a very good memory :D
Click to expand...

I think i need to look into creating actions, I'm sure it'll save me a bunch of time.

Spending this much time on each portrait makes me want to be much more picky about which photos I process :)


Lauren - Saree by dancook1982, on Flickr
 
I'm not keen on the edit Dan, the teeth are too white and the eyes just look odd.

I'd be looking to edit out the strand of hair at the eye and the shadow caused by your light.

You've just gone too far I think
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top