Any idea on how he does this ?

Davidoff

This shot has stunning clarity, and it has to come from post processing, right ?

http://fototouchup.com/dooglla/jossanfeather1.jpg

How does he do this? I know she has a lot of make-up, but the eye, eyelashes, hair, skin texture and smoothing ! Just superb ! I think it's shot with a 1 D MkII but that shouldn't really show more detail at this size, right ? Well, any ideas ? :scratch

jdryan3

Stab in the dark, but it looks like strobes to me. Probably shot with a medium telephoto, maybe using a tripod. I'm not good enough to tell you if it is scanned film, medium format, or even how much post processing is done., such a sharpening.

Reading between the lines of your question, however, I most definitely have seen images this good in camera, 35 mm digital. But using strobes and really good quality glass.
It was all in the setup.

S. Horton

Looks like great lighting, very sharp, shallow DOF, very little PP, IMHO.

pyrtek

I, on the other hand, think that there is a huge amount of PP here. I'm
willing to bet the eyelashes are hand painted and that very little of the skin is
really hers. It's a very nice job, actually.

David_S85

Besides the studio lighting and control, I'd bet he sharpens, then adds another over-sharpened layer and a mask, then paints in the eye detail leaving the original bottom layer intact everywhere else but the eyes.

z_28

Studio flashes, medium format digital camera, a lot of postprocessing,
some painstaking handjob, skillful photographer

Did I missed something ?
Maybe Phase One ?

S. Horton

pyrtek wrote:

I, on the other hand, think that there is a huge amount of PP here. I'm
willing to bet the eyelashes are hand painted and that very little of the skin is
really hers. It's a very nice job, actually.

I noticed the PP on smoothing the skin, but the eyelashes I did not notice until I read your post! I think you're right!

claudermilk

z_28 wrote:

Studio flashes, medium format digital camera, a lot of postprocessing,
some painstaking handjob, skillful photographer

Did I missed something ?
Maybe Phase One ?

SloYerRoll

Almost all glamour shots are made this way. This guy just took his time and did a great job IMO.

Bruce Fraser (TRUE Photoshop Genius) has a book out called "Real world photoshop sharpening for Adobe Photoshop CS2" availlable through Peachpit press ISBN 0-321-44991-6. (I'm sure the CS3 version is on the presses now)

This book os not for the faint of heart though. Some of the actions I have created referencing this book are 30+ steps just to get the slightest ammount of detail out of the eyes..
If you really want to get into and understand digital sharpening. This book has no equal.

ChatKat

Look in her eyes for the light
There are at least two sources of light - probably more but there is one to the side and a small softbox facing her at the front. Her catchlights are square - a dead giveaway for the softbox.

bham

Looking closely at the skin and what looks to be very small freckles at first glance look a little sharp, but could be the skin sharpened and the freckles become emphasized. I don't think this would be done in pp, to much painstaking time.

I think its probably a great makeup job, professionally done an extremely well lit setup and then a couple hundred shots in front of the camera to get just the right one.

wxwax

Well lit and an intense amount of post processing. Nobody's face is that devoid of lines and minor flaws. It's unnatural. Make-up alone can't achieve this effect, you'd have to cake it, and that would be obvious.

drcarl

Almost makes me appreciate our "imperfections"
I found a couple of links to more of her work and post them here in case it's helpful.

http://myspaceprofiles.org/profiles/171415682.html

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=171415682&albumID=0&imageID=527846


Look at the Beauty Pageant samples of hers on this page (link below), there is a before and after of a darker skinned gal. Looks like she does a LOT of PP. (I'll try to paste it, too)

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=171415682

I'll link this one just because there is SOMEthing there I think I like....

MOD EDIT, changed this pic to a link

http://a227.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/39/l_e6a0b7cf810777dbbc42775137d540a2.jpg

RE: the shot that started this thread: I bet someone could ASK her how she does it!?!

From one of their sites:

"Maria and I have been working as graphic designers for over 10 years. We just started taking pictures a few years ago and find it very challenging.

Maria and I are also more into retouching of photos which make it more interesting to try capture in our photos. We just try to capture our models having a good time in front of the camera.

Our camera of choice is the Canon 1D Mark II along with 24-70L 2.8 and 85 f1.8 lens. Hopefully soon we will add the 135L f2."

More links to her:

http://mgah.se/

http://modelmayhem.com/member.php?id=357870


Nice...

pyrtek

A nipple shot was just what I needed to kick off this Friday. Thanks.


Re: the retouch - told ya! Nyah nyah.

claudermilk

Can't say that I disagree...though it was unexpected. :uhoh:tiptoe

IMHO that before/after shows WAY too much PP. She ends up looking like a plastic Barbie doll. I our current standard of beauty so meesed up now?

edgework

It looks to me like the initial shot in this thread is a fairly even blend of good photography and aggressive retouching.

I would bet that first thing in the morning that model's face still looks pretty good. It always helps to start with natural beauty, right? As for the level of detail, it really doesn't look like a lot of Photoshop was involved in the sharpness. It could actually be sharper, but it would start to look "digital," whereas the image as is simply looks like it was nicely focused. The skin is suspect, simply because it is so perfect. The color gradients are exactly what the ideal would ask for, even movement in all directions; much desired, but never attained in the real world. The colors have been blurred and texture replaced through some variant of the smoothing techniques I've mentioned in my tutes here, and which can be found all over the web.

I'm not trying to take anything away from the result, I think it's pretty damn good, although I think ski texture could be knocked back slightly: the detail level in the pores seems a good bit stronger than the detail in the hair.

Actually, that style really is not much in favor these days, at least in the fashion mags and the "laddie" mags like Maxim and FHM. They want perfect skin, of course, but they want it to look like someone might have actually been born with it, rather than having it attached later on, like a new paint job.

Davidoff

Sorry guys, for replying so late. I too think it has insane amounts of pp, but has anyone found tutorials coming close to this ?

( and great original pictures too, of course )