Help me get to Oz

DavidTO

This is a call for photos. I'm reading, and learning a lot from, Welcome to Oz: A Cinematic Approach to Digital Still Photography with Photoshop, by Vincent Versace.

I plan on writing up a review of the book with some examples of before/after from what I've learned.

The first chapter focuses on a portrait that Versace took of an actress. His lights never showed up to the shoot, so he was stuck with single soft light. Step by step he shows you how to light that scene in Photoshop.

I want to practice on more images, so I'm looking for portraits. They should be portraits that have no major flaws. They should be in focus, for example. But maybe the DOF was too deep, and there's too much in focus, or they're just kind of flat and boring.

If you have a portrait that you've never really been happy with, post a link here, or send me a PM. I'll choose some to rework and post the results here. I'll need the original, untouched image to start with.

pathfinder

My copy was shipped yesterday, but has not yet arrived.

Any of the portraits in my Smuggy acct that you would like to use, just give me the word.

Looking forward to this book and your write up.

pathfinder

My copy of Oz arrived today!!

Interesting book! - the techniques look very powerful and involve more chair time than shooting time. Some software sales involved also.

You going to do a book review, Dave??

DavidTO

pathfinder wrote:

My copy of Oz arrived today!!

Interesting book! - the techniques look very powerful and involve more chair time than shooting time. Some software sales involved also.

You going to do a book review, Dave??

I'm planning on it. I want to spend some more time with it, though, and I got distracted with my site redesign.

DoctorIt

Oh, it's a book, I thought you might be coming with me this summer.

No portraits to offer, but I'm

pathfinder

I thought is was about Gus' native land also, until I gathered it was a more metaphysical land.

DavidTO

Allright, so after 1) giving the concepts in "Welcome To Oz" a chance to settle and 2) taking another look through my own images, I found that I have plenty of my own images that are great for this.

So how about giving me some feedback on these? I'm still on a definite learning curve, but here goes:

before1:





after1:




before2:





after3:

DoctorIt

Yup, cinematic, for sure. It's a neat approach - I guess the first thing I notice is a lot of your very own "pop" and then some more darkening of the background?

I like it better on 1 than 2... the outer portions of your subjects head got too blurry for my taste there.

System

help me out here, david-

just got the book and very up for going thru it-

especially the bw section-

looking at the portrait he worked on in chapter one-

1) she looks too yellow-

2) the lighting is such that she looks like she has a mask on; it reminds me of someone you see on tv who has makeup on and it ends at their neck-

any thoughts?-

or am I just not all there?-



and I do like your examples-

DavidTO

DoctorIt wrote:

Yup, cinematic, for sure. It's a neat approach - I guess the first thing I notice is a lot of your very own "pop" and then some more darkening of the background?

I like it better on 1 than 2... the outer portions of your subjects head got too blurry for my taste there.

Your faults with 2 are all to do with the shot, as I didn't add the blur that I added in 1.

Yeah, there's some pop in there, as the befores are just plain jane RAW outputs.

The concept is to draw an image map, outlining how the lighting, depth blur and shading will end up. Then you use the map to light the scene.

DavidTO

The review is live, here.

Andy

w00t
thanks David!

I love our little books section!

DavidTO

Hey, George. I missed this post first time around.

Yeah, I agree. He went a bit far on that first portrait, IMO. The lighting is focused on her face, for sure. It's a matter of taste, I suppose. But it proves the point, don't it?

gefillmore wrote:

help me out here, david-

just got the book and very up for going thru it-

especially the bw section-

looking at the portrait he worked on in chapter one-

1) she looks too yellow-

2) the lighting is such that she looks like she has a mask on; it reminds me of someone you see on tv who has makeup on and it ends at their neck-

any thoughts?-

or am I just not all there?-



and I do like your examples-

System

re proves the point-

yeah, I agree-

just wanted to make sure I wasn't seeing things-


the first photo I had seen by him was a flower he had lighted up-

most impressive-


just tried to go thru some bw-

ugh, complicated-

gonna have to hunker down on this one-

DavidTO

gefillmore wrote:

just tried to go thru some bw-

ugh, complicated-

gonna have to hunker down on this one-

I haven't gotten that far. I'm still practicing chapter one.

System

DavidTO wrote:

I haven't gotten that far. I'm still practicing chapter one.

hah!-

I skipped-

and more than likely to my detriment-

Tango

DavidTO, i received your e-mail, thanks!
i will get to it! (like yesterday already!)

Tango

ok, i have read through the book first without doing any of the step by steps,
so wheres the smily icon running in circles with his head on fire? thats the one i need here. ><

its really wierd having my eyes opened like this, i am really excited to put this knowledge to work. i just need time and ofcourse the right shots with a "vision"
i will get them. give me time.

i hate the results of the first model, but i really can use these steps!
(i almost thought the book printing may have gone wrong)(but what do i know)

i am really happy to have this book. thanks for the review that pointed it out!

Duffy Pratt

When I saw this book, I was interested at first. I read the first chapter in the book store and decided against it, mostly because I too didn't like what he did with that first portrait. I'm rethinking that decision now. I'd like to hear what people think who have made it through some of the later chapters.

Duffy

schmoo

Duffy Pratt wrote:

When I saw this book, I was interested at first. I read the first chapter in the book store and decided against it, mostly because I too didn't like what he did with that first portrait. I'm rethinking that decision now. I'd like to hear what people think who have made it through some of the later chapters.

Duffy

Duffy, i agree that I wasn't too pleased with the results of the first chapter, but I found the concepts and tools useful (used more sparingly) in works that I did on my own. No knowledge lost there at all.

I admit that as the fall semester started for me I fell off the wagon and only got through Chapter 2, but again the tricks I learned and the bits of creative process philosophy he talked about through those chapters have been immensely helpful to how I approach my work. Additionally, I have more tools at my disposal.

Well worth a read, even if it's uhhh, slow going for some of us.

Tango

the author gave me some needed reassurances....
inspirations, and motivations... !
for me this isnt just a book i read and shelf.
i will return to it many times.

Duffy Pratt

I will probably give it a go. In the back of my mind, I am always wondering which will be better: plowing through a new book, or going through one of Dan Margulis' books again. So far, I've never been disappointed with the latter choice

Duffy

Tango

btw, i forgot to mention that i will keep returning to the book because there is no way i will remember the step by steps.

also, note:
chapter 5 for me was pure golden. oh, i mean B&W

peedee

Just received my copy yesterday from Amazon but dismayed to find out that the accompanying disk may be defective. I have tried every which way to get the files to my C:\ drive - i.e. copy and paste using Explorer, the Windows media reader, opening direct from Photoshop - both CS3 and CS2, opening direct from the CD drive. In each case I can't get past the first image of Chapter 3. All subsequent images freeze up whatever app I'm using at the time sometimes accompanied by a message that informs me of a cyclical reduncancy error which my limited knowledge tells me is not good.

By the way I've tried with both the 8 bit and 16 bit files but not yet tried inserting the disk into another computer to see what happens.

Can any one point me to where I might be able to acquire these files or offer any other suggestions that I may not have yet tried?

Aside from the technical problems I'm having the first 17 or so pages that I have read has been revelatory. I look forward to be able to incorporate Versace's techniques into my workflow and to implement his philosophy of seeing the finished image before taking the picture.

Regards,

Tango

peedee wrote:

Just received my copy yesterday from Amazon but dismayed to find out that the accompanying disk may be defective. I have tried every which way to get the files to my C:\ drive - i.e. copy and paste using Explorer, the Windows media reader, opening direct from Photoshop - both CS3 and CS2, opening direct from the CD drive. In each case I can't get past the first image of Chapter 3. All subsequent images freeze up whatever app I'm using at the time sometimes accompanied by a message that informs me of a cyclical reduncancy error which my limited knowledge tells me is not good.

By the way I've tried with both the 8 bit and 16 bit files but not yet tried inserting the disk into another computer to see what happens.

Can any one point me to where I might be able to acquire these files or offer any other suggestions that I may not have yet tried?

Aside from the technical problems I'm having the first 17 or so pages that I have read has been revelatory. I look forward to be able to incorporate Versace's techniques into my workflow and to implement his philosophy of seeing the finished image before taking the picture.

Regards,

im sure Amazon will re-issue you a new book if the cd is defective.
amazons really good for that sort of think...

peedee

AaronNelson wrote:

im sure Amazon will re-issue you a new book if the cd is defective.
amazons really good for that sort of think...

Thanks, I've already sent them an e-mail.

ifocus

I got the book a three weeks ago. I had high expectations about images harvesting and visualization but I left empty. I am probably missing the point but it feels like a receipe book where you learn very little depending your skill level at post processing. The author shall have though us the reasons of its choices, its creative process following by the implementation process. In fact, such a learning shall be applicable to any pixel editing tools not only Photoshop. The book is almost an advertising for PS and some plugins.

The hollywood portrait chapter is pretty neat but if you are already a good photoshoper, well you shall be able to do this. The plant one is not too interesting, well good in a way that you can turn a boring picture into something not to bad.

On a positive note, the images presented in between chapters are really amazing. Verdict, my book is for sale if you are interested! Look in the flea market section.

JY

peedee wrote:

Thanks, I've already sent them an e-mail.

Art Scott

Good thing I read this thread before posting...cause the yellow brick road is less than 1 mile from where my humble abode....:D D

BPerron

I am very interested in picking up this book....

What software is needed to take full use of this book?

GJMPhoto

I liked it
I know this thread's been out here for a while, but I just saw it. I went through Oz about 5 months ago and really did enjoy it. Maybe because I didn't look at it as a 'new techniques' book. I just wanted to see how he thought and apply it to my PS skills...and that was interesting.

I have spruced up some portraits using his thought patterns (as a previous poster said, more sparingly) and have been very happy with the results. So, for me, it was worth finding a used copy of the book (at Strand) and going through it.

Since you can pick it up nowadays for under $25, I'd say, check it out.

- Gary.

manda

Finally bought the book after almost a year of prevaricating ... just wanted to see if any one has the time to discuss the techniques? I did the below photos for my local flickr gang, but thought it might breathe life into an old thread?

First image map (view large):




C&C welcome.