[Request] How to achieve colors like this

[wilku]

Hi,

I would like to learn technique how to achieve final image with that kind of color tonality. I was trying different ways but with no luck. This is quite popular fashion type edit.
This is kind of muted / creamy toned / slight desaturated effect


Anyone who would share some quick tutorial or help my find the way of doing it.
Thankd

 

[iDad]

The outer edge looks like they've feathered the selection and used levels to bring it darker than it looks to me as though they created layer on top of the image with a beige color and played with contrast and put the layer mode in hard light and played with the opacity and fill levels. that image looks like it may have been done in studio and not outside, almost impossible to say what was done if you haven't seen the original image. but that's my guess at it, for what it's worth

 

[ibclare]

IDad is certainly right that without the original image we're just guessing. First thing with this image is it is professionally done, whether outside or in (iDad would know better than I). It is important to start with a good photo to really get the whole effect. But you can still simulate the result for just about any photo.

But you can see, this starts with a woman and an environment that is not full of saturated color. No red dress. Also, I think there may be a selective enhancement of color on the rocking horse and some punches of color on her lips and cheek.

I gave it a quick shot with the following picture. By no means is it a perfect reproduction of the model above. Of course.

I duplicated the original layer and desaturated it, set it to screen with a lowered opacity of ~65. Then I made another desaturated layer and set it to multiply at about 30% opacity. I also went back to the color layer and added a sepia photo filter. (to be found under layer adjustments, not filters)

Reproducing this kind of effect without a tutorial from the photographer/post-production person or from someone who regularly does this kind of effect, means that you get to experiment. The steps I took might not work for a photo you have in mind, but will put you on the right track.

Of course, this being Photoshop, there are more ways than one to go about almost anything. I was going to see what might be achieved with the HDR toning effect. So . . . :mrgreen:

original photo by sunniede82, deviantarts.com


altered photo

 

[ibclare]

One way to put color back into an area, like the lips, cheeks, whatever, is to add layer masks to the black and white layers and in black paint out the desturated pixels to reveal the original color. Vary the opacity of the brush to get varying results.

 

[wilku]

I know that without original photo is hard to guess what exactly has been done to it. But i have seen this effect on so many pictures from different photographers that there must be some guide on how to achieve that and for sure it;s not photoshop only. The picture needs to be taken in some specific set-up.
I believe this picture was take in shade and therefore colors are cooler. Similar effect i ve seen on pictures taken inside so i believe this is the starting point.
At first i was wondering whether this is a composite picture but then the small bushes at the bottom confirm that this was more likely taken at the location (don't think they would put that effort to mask those small branches).

to ibclare - i think your method may be close to it, the different is that you were playing with picture which was taken in the full sun and starting color temp i believe is different than on the picture posted by me. (if you bored, maybe you could try it again with the one taken in shadows or somewhere inside )
I know how to desaturate skin tones but the problem is not sure how to match the tones on the model with the background so it almost look like duo-tone image
anyway thanks for the effort so far (will try to provide different picture to start off)

 

[Tom Mann]

I used four main techniques on Clare's starting image:

1. Start by generating accurate masks to separate subject vs background; select skin of subject; select hair and lips (only areas / colors to remain at nearly full strength);

2. Select the background; blur it, almost totally desaturate it, and adjust (reduce) its contrast;

3. Select the skin: use the standard "porcelain skin" trick, ie, put a white adjustment layer on top of it, blending mode = soft light, and adjust the blendIF sliders to exclude dark tones;

4. In the cited image, the lips were nearly fully saturated. In this example, make sure some spots of color also come through. I selected her hair and lips;

The result certainly isn't a perfect match to the cited image for a variety of reasons, especially wardrobe, separation of the model from the background, lighting, etc., but hopefully it moves Clare's image in the desired direction.

Cheers,

Tom

 

[Tom Mann]

PS - With a bit more effort, I could have added in a creamy wash. (To be honest, I forgot about this aspect of the cited image.)

 

[ibclare]

Wilku, that's a good idea. Find an appropriate image and we can play with it. Lots of ideas from Tom. Personally I wouldn't have done so many selections but I used a different approach anyway, preferring to make my selections in the masking. I like the "blend if" idea. It would be fun to see what we can come up with given your model. Honestly, I had trouble finding one which had similar lighting qualities and color of attire, etc., so I went with one that had similar tones even if the bright sunlight was very different.

 

[wilku]

Hi, i was browsing a bit and found 2 images that would be good starting point to try this out, i believe they were taken in similar condition and probably there is already some retouch done to them but they still look "natural"
Both are from deviant art as i didn't have a chance to take my own pictures that would be good.
So the goal is to get this beige color cast / desaturated effect
1. could be good and there is wood, wall and a bit of red

http://emilysoto.deviantart.com/art/The-Whispering-Tale-302942957

2. this is already a bit desaturated with a bit of green cast


or one of these (just found them)


http://wildplaces.deviantart.com/art/Kirsty-inverted-in-black-1-261940852
Not able to post the proper links, but paste like it is and this should work

 

[sprucemagoo1]

Had a quick go at replicating the effects on the first image.

View attachment 32089
I'm not very happy with it though.

 

[sprucemagoo1]

Went far too far with the de-saturation, and added more black!
View attachment 32090

 

[wilku]

it's not bad, but i think there was to much red in the original picture (the temp of colors is quite high) and the contrast was a bit high so it's hard to get soft desaturated effect.
I think we should try with one of those i provided above.

 

[Tom Mann]

Using the method I previously described ...

PS - ignore the lousy masking job. Since that wasn't the main focus and I didn't have much time, I rushed through the process of setting up high quality masks.

 

[wilku]

the part with the model looks, very good, but i think it's a part of the task
my goal is to make the whole picture with this beige color cast that matches with the model. In this case probably would help just adding fill layer with blending to color for the background. Also in this example the bench would need to be a bit desaturated as now it stands out.
Did you do anything with the dress or you played only with the model ?

I am traveling this week and don't have access to my PS but if somebody could try to do it with the first picture (the girl standing in front of the wall) and the skin part only is the easier part of it.
I am interesting in the final result with matching backgroung

@Tom - with your edit the picture looks better then original one, this should have been done by the author as this skin tones now match better to the rest

 

[Tom Mann]

Hi Wilku -

I did absolutely nothing to the background because I felt that it is always more important and more difficult to get skin exactly right. It should be very easy to adjust the background to get a decent match to the example you cited in your 1st post. I'll give it a shot when I get the chance.

Did you do anything with the dress or you played only with the model ?

Humm ... Although I'm tempted, I won't touch the last part of that sentence with the proverbial ten foot pole.

Seriously, though, yes, I also adjusted her dress, but I used a very different method than the method I used for her skin. From experience, I felt that applying the same method to the dress that I used on the skin would have been too extreme, and even if I lowered the opacity, it would look odd.

The main problem with the dress was the high contrast and conventional saturation, so I just applied a bunch of "brightness/contrast" adjustment layers + 1 "vibrance /sat" layer to the dress.

HTH,

Tom M

 

[Tom Mann]

@Tom - with your edit the picture looks better then original one, this should have been done by the author as this skin tones now match better to the rest.

Thank you for the compliment. Decisions like that are a matter of taste and often are stated explicitly in guidance from the art director for the project.

I can usually do what is required, but personally, I like his original better than my tweaked version because I feel that mine looks utterly formulaic. These days, with Instagram and similar apps, everyone and their little sister are producing desaturated (and similarly modified) images. IMHO, it's a fad that will eventually fall from the wide popularity it now has.

My philosophy has always been that there are vastly more ways to move an image away from reality (eg, selective desaturation), but a much more limited set of approaches one can take to get a better representation of reality, so the latter is actually more challenging to do, and hence more interesting to me.

Personal philosophy not withstanding, thank you again for the very kind words.

Tom

 

[wilku]

I will try your technique with the skin once i am back home don't have a lot of experience with blend if but i know it does wonders
your skin tones on that picture look very good in my taste.
So for the clothes you just using some light desturation + brightening through curves ? I agree the same method wouldn't work for other parts, would be too strong

 

[Tom Mann]

For the clothes, I used my usual approach which is to:

(a) always work in 16 bits per channel so as not to incur posterization; and,

(b) slowly converge on the desired look by a slow, multilayer iterative process.

So, for the clothing, in order (ie, rising up the layers stack) I used:

- an initial pair of layers, one "levels" and one "brightness/contrast" (I only used contrast) to get the tonality into the right ballpark.

- I followed this by a couple of color adjustment layers: "photo filter" and "vibrance" to get the color in the right ball park

- I finished up by doing a final tweak of the tonality: a "curves" and a "contrast" layer (both set to luminosity blend mode, so I don't disturb the colors I just achieved in the last set of layers.

- note: I used the blendIF property on all "brightness / contrast" layers to avoid them influencing the deepest blacks. Along this line, I certainly did NOT use the "legacy" option on any of them.

I'm sure the final result could be achieved with many fewer and different adjustment layers, but I always approach the final goal by building up to it slowly using lots of layers, always making a small improvement at each step.

HTH,

Tom M