Wild and Cool Post Processing

[laawaaris]

I am amazed by some of the work that I see at http://www.davehillphoto.com/

Anybody have any clue how some of this stuff is achieved? I tried to Plastic Wrap some of my photos, but its not really the same thing ...

[Sonny]

This was a quote by Dave Hill

"Wow, I'm flattered by all this talk! I'm glad some of you like my work. I really can't share much about specifics, and I'm not a photoshop guru, but I am definitely down to discuss. I haven't used HDR or that tone-mapping stuff. I just recently heard about it, and it seems you need to bracket your images to do it well. That would be almost impossible when shooting humans! :-) In terms of cameras, depending on the budget, I use canon digitals and H1's; all prime lenses. Canons are SOOO fun and easy to shoot with, but the H1 files are crisp, edge to edge, and print bigger. Kinda a trade off. I'm a big fan of using lights, and I'd say the primary factor of how my images look is the lighting setup. Photoshop is of course crucial as well, but you gotta have a clean raw file to begin with. Too much processing can give you nasty digital grain, halos, all that stuff, which may look good on Flickr, but when printed on paper for a portfolio that an art director sees, looks like junk. I would totally suggest that new photogs spend less time on PS and more time shooting and playing with lights, and learning how to direct their subjects. As to the comment about $50k shoots... haha... that made me laugh. For sure my budgets have been getting bigger, but a lot of the stuff on my site paid peanuts. You really have to work your butt off; lots of sweat, set-building, hauling lights all over the place, day after day, for at least a few years etc. But that's part of the adventure, right!? Let me know if u guys have any more questions. Thanks!"

[mivy00]

Try this
http://www.flickr.com/groups/strobis...7594577686705/

[dsjsws]

Try a photoshops action called "Dragonizer". I can't remember where I found it. Follow this forums sticky note on PS actions and you will find it.

Donna

[Redmouse]

It all starts with lighting. Shoot it right. One of the key elements to the effect is high speed sync and plenty of light. A lot of light. But you can almost get that effect straight out of camera. The are controlled in raw or photoshop.

[jesswhs1323]

just want to subscribe to this post =)

[LonestarMan]

Subscribing too!

[laawaaris]

what do you mean by a lot of light?

i have not played with light enough ... but lets say i am just standing against a wall in my bedroom and i use my on camera flash in TTL ... it will emit enough light to bounce & expose me perfectly well ...

what would you add to this situation? i assume you would add some highlights for the hair, and some speculars for the eyes and maybe some more if i have on dark clothing ... maybe some more to eliminate dark shadows under the eyes, nose, etc

but all of these are mainly accent lights - how can you achieve the creamy and radical look on a person's skin with just lights?

since jordan is saying it, i'm sure there is a way, but i am just asking out of naivety from not playing with lights enough ... also, i'm sure others have the same thought/question

[Redmouse]

You can use the Dragan action to get close to the effect. But, the effect by action, is random. You'll never know what the turnout is. Other than dark.

When you are going through is website, pay attention to the light sources. Start counting them. The minimum on most of them is 3. There may be one or two that only has one. Spend some time and go through his behind the scenes videos and photos. It's a wealth of infomation. The best one to study is the photoshoot with My Chemical Romance. Lighting plays a major, major role.

Going back to disect the MCR photoshoot, by memory, I recall counting up to 8 light sources. Pay attention to them in the video. 2 rear lights, 2 front lights, 1 giant fill behind the camera, one ring light (I think), one beauty dish, and most importantly, one giant sun for hairlight. Compare the final images with the video. Look at the time of shoot. Bright sun, harsh lighting kinda hour. Final image is dark. Using Nikon/Canon flashes, I'd do high speed sync. If I had the budget/equipment, the strobes will probably sync around 1/200 to 1/250. Not near dark enough. So, that could mean, f13 to f22. Obviously, low ISO.

I don't want to tell you step by step on how to do it because you won't experiment. If I did tell you step by step, your mind may not expand to try new things. Go outside and try it. Right now with the storms in the gulf, you'll get some great clouds for your background. If you have any questions, I'll try to answer them to the best of my ability.

[my3peas]

thanks Jordan :)

[jdwme]

it's very similar to what was posted here not too long ago
http://www.texasphotoforum.com/forum...ost+processing
but you can also achieve a similar affect in acr, which may be how dave hill is doing it. Simply by playing with shadows, contrast and saturation
This is when I tried it using the USM method



don't have anything online yet using acr

[ShaneKislack]

I'm disappointed in the quote by Dave Hill. I hope he knows as well as I do that it's not his lighting that we are looking at. It's the heavy post pro work. And he may not be a photoshop guru but someone in his camp is. Just like Jill Greenberg's style should really be credited to Amy Dresser whom does her post pro. Sometimes it's too easy to give all of the credit to the photog.

There have been many masters of lighting throughout the ages and their pics don't look like this. Not better or worse...just not like this. Which tells me that it's not a lighting trick. Infact, I think he uses to many lights for anything but this kind of post pro. In 'before and after' pics of similar images..they look kinda flat until digital artists start drawing on them.

I'm not picking on Dave Hill, I like his images and think the final products are excellent...I just don't want my buddies to be led down the wrong track or add to their insecurity because they can't do this with 15 strobes.

[Redmouse]

In case anyone has not taken a look at the behind the scenes video or photos, please take a look a these two links if you're interested in trying to figure out the process.

Photos
Video

You can do these with both Nikon/Canon/Sigma off camera flash. I've done it with the sb800, sigma and 580ex. Never tried it with others like Sony or Olympus, but they might work also.

[kachina]

Here is a try from this afternoon with rough post processing. Unfortunately, my remote panel burned out on me right after I got all of my lights properly metered so this shot used an ABR800 ring light instead of the 4 light setup that I spent an hour arranging. Comments welcome - except for those pertaining to sweaty fat guys

[kachina]

Another one...