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How to photoshop like this top LA wedding photographer?


wizardremix

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Dear Readers, I am an aspiring photographer and came across Duke Photography in Los Angeles. If you go to his site at "blog(dot)dukeimages(dot)com" and go to "London West Hollywood Editorial" his images have a very distinct style. I would love for some advise on what photoshop steps he is taking to create that look. Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks.
 
I skimmed the first few dozen images and spotted at least a dozen different PS techniques that he used on different images. Why don't you post an obfuscated link to one specific image so we can it / all be on the same page.

That being said, there are a LOT of lighting and photography techniques that he employs, without which, the post processing he does would be an utterly wasted effort.

T
 
Since he's a newbie, to prevent spam, he isn't yet allowed to post real links, but, because of possible copyright infringement problems, I also don't think it is appropriate for anyone to just lift images from someone else's website and paste them on our website, hence the suggestion for him to do what he did in his first post (which obviously wasn't spam).

T
 
You not only confused OP, thanks Tom, I had to go look that one up:banghead:
 
What is "That look" that you are referring to that he has? His photos are nice and elegant, his models are positioned well, he obviously has a $2,000+ camera body with some decent lenses...All that is going to add to the way your images look.

Do you have a decent camera? Decent lenses? Lighting? Once you have these things, retouching is minimal.
 
Thanks for all the replies. Yes I have top equipment and understand that lighting is important but I've seen Duke shoot weddings and he is using an on camera flash and another flash on a light stand. I am interested in the photoshopping technique he is using which carries through from his wedding photography to his fashion shoots to create a uniformity in his images.

Lets talk about this image specifically if possible.
sample image 2.jpg
 

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Layered with the background focus way off..The Bride could be a studio shot green background...I just keep coming back to the sky and gown the same color ?

Did I miss something here?
 
He definitely shot this shoot on location at a hotel.

If you look through his images they all have a bit of a "hue" (I'm not sure what else to call it) to them. This picture which is from a real wedding for example has that same something to it. Almost like a very faint layer of some kind to give the pictures a texture. I would love if anyone knows what this technique is called or what is being done in post processing to create that look...

example2.jpg
 
All he's doing is playing with the adjustment layers. Definitely some Color Balance. Also, in some photos he gives it that Instagram effect. Where as he creates a new layer, fills it with a color (or multiple), and changes the adjustment layer to Lighten, or Lighter Color, then plays with the opacity and masking tools to get it right.
 
There are many ways one could get a similar look, so the method I outline below (ie, a bunch of adjustment layers - same as BC's suggestion) is almost certainly not to be the exact steps the photographer took, but it should give you some ideas and illustrate that one can get a fairly close match starting from any reasonable photo.

As an illustrative example, I found a photo of the royal couple in a similar pose. Unfortunately, the skin tones (including their photographic saturation) were wildly different than the example, thereby making the transformation a bit more difficult.

I first made masks for the faces, hair, bits of the background, etc. so that they could be adjusted independently of each other .

Next, I almost completely desaturated all colors except blue in the background + their clothing. I then uniformly recolored (at partial opacity) these areas with blue using a hue/sat adjustment layer with the "colorize" option selected.

Next, I used separate adjustment layers to match the brightness, contrast and saturation of the different areas in the photo of the royals to that of the cited example.

The subjects in the image I used have a typical British red/ruddy complection, whereas the subjects in the cited image have a more yellowish complexion. I only made a very, very quick, half-hearted attempt to bring the skin tones closer, but if had more time (or interest), one could easily make the skin tones match better.

The OP was probably looking for a "one-button" fix, and may be disappointed that matching requires several steps, especially when one is starting from an arbitrary image.

However, if I had to do this in a production environment, it wouldn't be as tedious as one may think because, with one exception, all of my changes were made using adjustment layers, so one could get a real head start by doing little more than making up a new set of masks and then placing the next photo under the same set of adjustment layers.


HTH,

Tom
 

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Hi Tom,

Would you be interested i making two filter masks for me for $5 each? I'm am new to Photoshop and having a start to work with would go a long way. Basically I'm looking for 2 filters:

This one:
Filter1.jpg
Filter 1 example 2.jpg

And this bluish one:
Filter 2.jpg
Filter 2 example 2.jpg
 
Thank you for the vote of confidence, Wiz, but a while ago, I decided not to do freelance work on PSG. I've got a steady gig and I'm more the educator-type. :-).

However if you post the request in the freelance section, I'm sure you will have some takers. FYI, there is also a table of suggested rates, but I don't think there is an entry for the sort of thing you are looking for. Since I'm not in the running, I feel free to point out that IMHO, $5 is at least 10x smaller than what the likely charge would be here on PSG, and more like 50x smaller than what a commercial retoucher would charge to supply each such layer stack.

Don't hesitate to ask questions and let me know how it goes, tho.

Best regards,

Tom M
 
Looking at the images I would guess he shoots using cannon does appear to have a cannon colour look about it first image the girl in wedding dress I would say he was using bounce flash if at all coming of a large light modifier/white reflector not silver as there is not much contrast in the image.

Probably looking at a 50 -85 mm fast glass lense Overcast day which gives the very soft diffused light.

Post production very minimal
guessing lightroom with the shadows and highlights tweak sliders
Custom camera profile
maybe some contrast adjustments

The blueish 1 similar to first except I would say direct flash very low focal lenghth

Post production I would say some kind of cinematic filter

Software that may get you started in reproducing these effects quickly

Alienskin Exposure (particularly the fashion preset for first 1
http://www.alienskin.com/exposure/exposure_examples.aspx

RedGiant magic bullet Photolooks Especially for things like cinematic effects
http://www.redgiant.com/products/all/magic-bullet-photo-looks/examples/#tabs

Google for adobe lightroom/ photoshop presets/actions

nik software color effex pro 4
http://www.niksoftware.com/colorefexpro/en/index.php?view=intro/filters.shtml

many many more
 
here is some links you may like (in your price range as well
http://graphicriver.net/item/photo-...&clickthrough_id=129125777&redirect_back=true


http://graphicriver.net/item/vintage-summer-ps-photo-actions/2532481?ref=pxcr

http://graphicriver.net/item/motion-refocus-picture-action/2250384?ref=pxcr



And of course there is always free options and usually very good 1s
http://www.icanbecreative.com/useful-free-photoshop-actions-for-photographers.html

Just remember you may not get exact look with 1 click but with some playing around and assuming your image is high enough quality you will get there sooner or later
 
Thanks Hoogle. I have tried the Niks software filters. One of the challenges is that I don't like pictures to "look" photoshopped. Many of the preset actions I've tried push things more then I'm looking for. I want to have a subtle but consistent effect that someone who didn't know wouldn't know was photoshopped if that makes sense. One of the things I like about the style above is that there is a blue there but people might not realize it.
 
Thats why learning to produce effects yourself is key.

However filters and presets are only a starting point I dont think I have ever applied a preset/filter/action and then saved the image.

nik software I tend to do most effects on there own duplicate layers and play with blending modes layer opacity etc and mix them in a bit.

But I know many professionals who choose to do it all in 1 program. That whole right side of nik software is where the effects are made the left side is just the starting point.
 
That's why learning to produce effects yourself is key. ... filters and presets are only a starting point. I dont think I have ever applied a preset/filter/action and then saved the image. ... snip...

Hoogle's comment is right on the mark.

Learning to use layer properties / features such as opacity, the blendIF sliders, the blending modes, etc. is ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL.

If you don't you will (a) never get exactly what you want, and (b) wind up purchasing many more plugins / presets / actions than you really need.

For example, in the example of the royal couple that I posted earlier, after the masks were done, I probably spent the majority of the remaining time just adjusting the above parameters.

Tom M
 

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