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Out in the fields…
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Very Nice shot Ellude, love the sparkle in the eye. I’ll never tire of seeing images like these, extremely heartwarming :D.
For those interested in contrast, this is how i usually end up doing it. I’ve attached a psd and used the “Wind swept shot” as an example.
download here (1.2Mb)
John, it is a technique for images where the difference between the shadows and the highlights is quite extreme, and it works to lower the overall contrast by bringing detail back into the shadow areas and slightly darkening the highlights. Pretty useful for photos taken in bright sunlight, whether landscape or people photos.
Ross
LoGill wrote:
…… – but I’d love to see more wrinkles :?
Have you looked at this in BW ?
L
The wrinkles were the first thing I thought about too, lol. So I played around with the pic a bit to see if I could make them a more prominent feature. Then I thought it looked a bit overcooked and just posted the orignal (it’s a common thing, the more I do to a picture the more I mess it up :) )
Anyway, here’s the version I was working on. It certainly brings out the wrinkles – makes him look like a coal miner! BTW, I don’t think I’d crop it like this – have just zoomed in here and posted it bigger so you can see the details better…
Jesus .. thats sharp ! I really like this look… he has the most astonishing eyes!! They look so bright and fresh in that weathered face . I Like this more and more.
Now … submit to your adoring public and post in black and white – WITH a turorial :wink: hehehe
L
Thanks Lorraine!
Have to go out this evening but will try when I get back, although I think Ciaran, Brandyman and Ali, quite apart from being far more accomplished photoshop users than I, might have it pretty well covered already…
:)
Okay, as promised an attempt at a black and white version, lol :)
(btw, that ‘don’t edit my pictures’ thing seems to be turned on by default – but if anyone knows better ways of doing black and white conversions then please feel to step right up!)
I certainly can’t claim to be an expert with photoshop (or photography in general for that matter). So a couple of months ago when someone at the Bpic camera club suggested that I give a talk/demo on a subject of my choosing – and just wouldn’t take ‘NO!’ for an answer – this was the only thing I could think of covering. I used a nice new laser printer they’ve got at the place I work to print out handouts for the club members ;)
Here it is….
Adjusting contrast in Photoshop
Contrast masking is nothing new. Film photographers used to do it by sandwiching two negatives together. Nowadays it’s a popular and well-known technique among landscape photographers. For some reason, it doesn’t appear to get mentioned much in discussions about ‘people’ photography, but I’ve been using it on portrait shots for a long time. The effect is subtle rather than dramatic. Don’t expect miracles on badly exposed pictures. This technique is probably best suited to pictures that have *nearly* blown-out highlights or many deep dark shadows – or both. In some cases it can help put some detail back into both the highlight and shadow areas. The real reason I like it, however, is that it often improves skin texture and gives pictures a ‘nicer’ look!So its nothing new – just a small step that sometimes seems to get overlooked or forgotten.
Here’s the method I use:
– Open your photo and duplicate it into a new layer (Layer> Duplicate Layer).
– Desaturate and inverse the image (so it looks like a b&w negative).
– Apply a light Gaussian blur.
– Change the blending mode to ‘overlay’ or ‘soft light’.
– Reduce the layer’s opacity until your photo looks right – 30% is a good starting point.
– All done!Flatten and you’re all set to do any further adjustments necessary.
An alternative and slightly more advanced method is to create two contrast adjustment layers. One for highlights and the other for the shadows (I think this is the method Ali mentioned earlier in this thread). The main benefit being is that, in addition to dealing with high contrast pictures, you can also increase the contrast on ‘washed out’ shots.
– Open your photo and duplicate it into a new layer (Layer> Duplicate Layer).
– Add a layer mask to the new layer (Layer> Add Layer Mask> Reveal All).
– With the layer mask selected, open the Apply Image tool (Image> Apply Image). Use the following default settings and click OK (Layer: Merged, Channel: RGB, Invert: Unchecked, Blending: Multiply, Opacity: 100%).
– Duplicate this current layer (Layer> Duplicate Layer) to a new third layer.
– With the new layer mask activated, Invert (Image> Adjustments> Invert).
– With the layers created, the next step depends on your desired effect…
1. Reduce contrast: set the top layer blending to multiply and middle to screen.
2. Increase contrast: set the top layer blending to screen and middle to multiply.
– Adjust the opacity on the top two layers to until your photo looks right.
– Flatten and then adjust the levels to recover deep black and bright white.I think the end results from both methods are fairly similar. But because I’m a lazy sod I always opt for the first method for the simple reason that it’s quicker and easier :)
Hope this helps…
Lovely shot Ellude, I think the conversion works best for me-
though this picture has a lot of things going for it,
with lots of detail wherever you look,The framing works very well
altogether there’s a very ‘authentic’ feel to it;
of being caught in a moment rather than being overly posed.Good tutorial too, very clear and well written-
With film, a half a stop underexposure would help bring out this skin texture for this kinda shot,
if you were lucky enough to find it in the first place-
But a Raw file is so much handier-
I never did get round to 35mm contrast masksj
Love the conversion Ellude, definitely works
better than the original in my opinion. And thanks
for the detailed tutorial also. Perhaps one of the
mods might be good enough to move it to that
section of the site?Rob.
Very Nice both BW and Color……………..
Have you shown the final to the gentleman?………If so was he pleased?
Thanks !!!
As JB says – this is a striking image that will work any number of ways .. and I completely love the conversion . ..
Thanks for the tutorial, I’m off to set up an action and try it out ;)
:D:D:D:D
L
Thanks for the Tutorial Cliff cant wait to give it a go. Would love to see this image printed I think it would be stunning.
John
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