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Out in the fields…
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I came across this farmer when out for a walk in the countryside (he’d stopped to open the gates into a field). We got talking and I ended up taking a picture. Just one picture, and it was taken very quickly, but I liked the way the weak winter sunshine lit up his face (you wouldn’t know it from the shot, but it was bitterly cold and blowing a gale at the time!).
Jpeg mode
Lens: 50mm
ISO: 200
Tv: 1/500sec
Av: f2.8
Exposure: Manual
WBal: DaylightI like it too, focus is great can see the
texture of his skin.Shutterbug
And you said you struggle with skin tones? This looks BANG on to me and absolutely stinks of your style/work. Very nice, sharpness, colours, composition.. everything. So when are you planning on giving tutorials? :)
Nice one Cliff, very sharp at f2.8 at the crucial areas of this photo (ie the eyes and mouth) Can I ask, did you do a ‘contrast mask’ with this (ie putting an inverted mono image on top, with low opacity in overlay or softlight mode?) I tried that technique and I believe I can see a similar sort of effect on this one?
Ross
Thanks for the comments.
Ciaran – I’d wondered if the skin tones in this picture might look
too red? When the sun is low in the sky, however, I guess it might
look more unnatural without a warm glow, so I decided just to leave
it.Brandyman – I like that contrast technique and use it quite often. In
the above shot, however, I was just playing around with some of the
other controls to see how things turned out :)
The picture posted here actually has very few changes from the original straight
out of the camera. I also did a more extreme version intended to bring out
the lines on the man’s face but thought I’d gone a bit too far – maybe
I’ll post it later when I get it resized etc :)He has amazing eyes and a superb shot. I love it, I think the light really works… and … I hope no one EVER says this about a pic with me in it ;) – but I’d love to see more wrinkles :?
Have you looked at this in BW ?
L
LoGill wrote:
… I hope no one EVER says this about a pic with me in it ;) – but I’d love to see more wrinkles :?
Surely better than someone saying, “I’d like to see fewer wrinkles”?
PeteTheBloke wrote:
LoGill wrote:
… I hope no one EVER says this about a pic with me in it ;) – but I’d love to see more wrinkles :?
Surely better than someone saying, “I’d like to see fewer wrinkles”?
:lol: :lol: :oops: :lol: eh yes! .. VERY true either way
L
Ross & Ellude can you explain this contrast technique a little more. Cairan’s right when are we going to see a few tutorials?
John
brandyman wrote:
Nice one Cliff, very sharp at f2.8 at the crucial areas of this photo (ie the eyes and mouth) Can I ask, did you do a ‘contrast mask’ with this (ie putting an inverted mono image on top, with low opacity in overlay or softlight mode?) I tried that technique and I believe I can see a similar sort of effect on this one?
Ross
That’s a pretty cool technique.. just tried it there. One question, what mono image did you use? I just went with the red channel for a test.
wjklewis wrote:
Ross & Ellude can you explain this contrast technique a little more.
Go to the channels tab.
Click on the red channel
Control A (selects all)
Control C (copies selectoin)
Go back to the main backgroud layer
Control V (pastes the red channel in as a new layer)
Change blend mode to either “Overlay” or “Softlight”
Change opacity down to something like 15%ellude wrote:
Ciaran – I’d wondered if the skin tones in this picture might look
too red? When the sun is low in the sky, however, I guess it might
look more unnatural without a warm glow, so I decided just to leave
it.Yup it is red, but it’s red because of the warm evening sky… The skin tone looks spot on to me for this lighting.
My reference to contrast mask is as follows:
1. Duplicate layer.
2. Image>adjusyment>Desaturate
3. Image Adjustment > Invert
4. Change blend mode to OVERLAY
5. Blur > Gaussian blur (use a fairly high level, say 60% or higher – you can play around with the level and/or opacity)Any questions??
Ross
Link to one of the many tutorials on contrast masking:
http://www.outbackphoto.com/workshop/photoshop_corner/essay_06/essay.html
The blur basically softens the mask, making the effect more subtle. If you need a stronger effect then dont blur so much, but it is rare for no blur to be required in my experience.
Another one here:
http://pstutorialsblog.com/50/contrast-mask-photoshop-tutorial/
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