Anybody here knows how to create this style on PS?

[hugorockz]

Hi guys! I'm new here, I'm a fashion designer and I've got a photoshoot coming up in 1 week. I'm not very good with PhotoShop. Hence, I'm here asking for help. Does anybody here knows how to replicate this style on PS? Thanks a lot.

 

[Tom Mann]

First of all, you will need someone with a good working knowledge of lighting because there are at least three lights on the subject:
1. Forehead illuminated by a well collimated, narrow beam (snoot or Fresnel - a gridded softbox probably won't be good enough) light that is to the viewer's left and slightly in back of the subject.
2. Near shoulder illuminated by another narrow beam light that is almost directly above the camera.
3. The back of the subject's head and his back are illuminated by yet another narrow beam light that is to the viewer's right and also slightly in back of the subject.

All three of the lights are probably gelled to get close to the orange look. You can't get quite the same color look using only the color balance sliders in ACR, even if you shoot RAW.

You will also need a camera with a relatively long, wide aperture lens - almost certainly over 100 mm (35 mm equivalent focal length) and probably f/2.8 or faster to get nice bokeh for the background.

From there, you will need to deal with makeup (eg, getting the glossy / reflective skin areas right), hair styling, fake beads of sweat, what is almost certainly a well painted, fake studio backdrop (well lit, obviously).

And, after all of the above are in place, then you can turn to the post-processing techniques, which, as far as I can tell, are with one exception, nothing terribly special -- maybe just a bit of tweaking to get the colors exactly right for the plugin I'll mention in the next post, and an application of "curves" to gently crush the blacks and deep shadows in various areas of the image.

If you try to duplicate this look using only PS, but without the proper lighting, lens, backdrop, and makeup, IMHO, you will be very disappointed.

HTH,

Tom M

 

[Tom Mann]

PS - I would also consider shooting this on film, not digital. It reminds me of Look and Life magazine photos from the late 1940s through the 1950s - sort of a still version of the three-strip, Process 4 technicolor color look (Google it). Since this process is no longer commercially available, I would still shoot with film, albeit a more modern emulsion, and use one of the plugins that try to emulate 2 & 3 strip technicolor. I don't have my PS computer on at the moment, but I'm pretty sure Tiffen's DFX plugin for PS can do this. There is another plugin that I have that can also do it, but, at the moment, I can't remember it's name.

Tom M

 

[peta62]

....... There is another plugin that I have that can also do it, but, at the moment, I can't remember it's name.

Tom M

Color Efex Pro may be the other software Tom is talking about.

 

[Tom Mann]

The name of the other plugin that emulates 3 strip Technicolor was driving me crazy, so I had to turn on my PS workstation and look it up: It is Alien Skin's "Exposure".

Tiffen DFX definitely does it, and much to my embarrassment, I forgot that it's also included in the LUT (look up tables) supplied with Photoshop (...at least the last several versions).

To show what's going on, I found the original of this image, ie, before the heavy handed color grading, and then applied the Tiffen DFX version of the 3 strip Technicolor effect. I duplicated it, switched the blending mode to multiply (to increase the saturation and darken it), and applied a bit of large radius USM to increase the local contrast and came up with something that's reasonably close to the example / goal version originally posted by the OP. Below is an animated GIF that shows the three version, the original, my tweaked version, and the goal version. With a bit more effort, the approximation would be even closer.


HTH,

Tom M

 

[Tom Mann]

hugorockz - FYI, we like to have only one technical topic per thread, so I moved your question on lens flare to its own thread and renamed it. It's in the same forum as this thread.

Tom M

 

[Tom Mann]

PS - About my comments on all the preparatory things that need to be done before the shutter release is even pressed, and certainly before one even thinks about post processing, take a look at the credits on the original. If I read them correctly, they give equal credit to the following individuals as to the photographer.

Styling: Brenda Tham
Hair: June Tan / Sublime Hairdressing
Grooming: Cindy Goh

 

[chrisdesign]

Maybe this will help you too.



before

after

 

[hugorockz]

Maybe this will help you too.

View attachment 61067

before
View attachment 61068
after

View attachment 61069

I tried your method, didn't really work though.

 

[Tom Mann]

With Chris' method, you don't get the same increase in contrast / darkening effect as I got when I duplicated the Technicolor layer and added some large-R USM. If you add in these extra steps to Chris' method and and tweak the yellows, I would bet you that Chris's method would produce a result not be all that different than mine. I used the 3 strip Technicolor method because I recognized the colors and figured it would save me a few steps. However, like all things in PS, there is almost always other ways to get to the same goal.

Tom M

 

[chrisdesign]

I tried your method, didn't really work though.

I forgot to mention that you have to change the blend mode of the orange layer to multiply (1). Then reduce the opacity to 75% (2).
This should work. Try it again.