It can not be that complicated.

perryfletcher · Jun 4, 2008

what ever it is he is using is placed over the entire image. I personaly think it is all done with lucis art but I do not know how he gets the exact look. I mean how many layers at what settings.

Big Mike · Jun 4, 2008

Please keep in mind that it's against forum rules to directly post links to photos that we do not own (that others have taken). You can link to them, but not post them directly.

perryfletcher · Jun 4, 2008

sure let me go back and link them

epatsellis · Jun 4, 2008

One big suggestion, get your octabox closer, that will cut down the contrast quite a bit.

erie

perryfletcher · Jun 4, 2008

Okay removed the images and added the links.

Bifurcator · Jun 4, 2008

Yeah, That's all post work. I've done that before if you have any questions. It's allot of brush work in photoshop is what it is. I learned how first from a Japanese CG magazine called "Step By Step" about 7 or 8 years back. Very basically it's the patch and healing brushes and painting in hue and color modes for the face layers and guides guides guides multiply stroked for the hair layers. Everything is done in layers with lots of repetition in subtle steps. Recently I've seen time-lapse movies of the process being applied from start to finish on YouTube. It's actually allot of fun to do! There's a PhotoShop plug-in called "Portraiture" from Imagenomic that has a preset called "High Glam" that looks like it's doing allot of the same work and would speed things up allot I think. http://www.imagenomic.com/pt.aspx Or see the video here: http://imagenomic.cachefly.net/portraiture/ptoverview1/ptoverview1.html Get on youtube and see if you can find those times-lapses though - very kewl stuff!

EDIT: BTW, a tablet (Wacom or other) is almost a requirement for this.

Funky · Jun 4, 2008

Not exactly easy to replicate =\

perryfletcher · Jun 4, 2008

Bifurcator said:
Yeah, That's all post work. I've done that before if you have any questions. It's allot of brush work in photoshop is what it is. I learned how first from a Japanese CG magazine called "Step By Step" about 7 or 8 years back. Very basically it's the patch and healing brushes and painting in hue and color modes for the face layers and guides guides guides multiply stroked for the hair layers. Everything is done in layers with lots of repetition in subtle steps. Recently I've seen time-lapse movies of the process being applied from start to finish on YouTube. It's actually allot of fun to do! There's a PhotoShop plug-in called "Portraiture" from Imagenomic that has a preset called "High Glam" that looks like it's doing allot of the same work and would speed things up allot I think. http://www.imagenomic.com/pt.aspx Or see the video here: http://imagenomic.cachefly.net/portraiture/ptoverview1/ptoverview1.html Get on youtube and see if you can find those times-lapses though - very kewl stuff!

EDIT: BTW, a tablet (Wacom or other) is almost a requirement for this.

Look almost exactly like what I want to be able to do.

Bifurcator · Jun 4, 2008

Funky said:
Not exactly easy to replicate =\

Yeah, it's an advanced technique. I guess if you're super fast in PS and you've already done 30 or 40 of them then it's about 1 to 2 hours of solid work. Your first time through I bet it takes longer than one 8-hour day of solid work - although maybe less with that plug-in I linked to??. It's a great learning exercise for PS users who already know the basics of image editing. It really shows off in a rather intense way some of the seldom used tools - like the guide splines I mentioned.

I'm was a Computer Graphics and Animation professor for many years so this kinda thing really turns me on.

Bifurcator · Jun 4, 2008

perryfletcher said:
Look almost exactly like what I want to be able to do.

What? That plug-in? It's a really good start on the process for sure! I have it. I like it!

perryfletcher · Jun 4, 2008

Bifurcator said:
Yeah, it's an advanced technique. I guess if you're super fast in PS and you've already done 30 or 40 of them then it's about 1 to 2 hours of solid work. Your first time through I bet it takes longer than one 8-hour day of solid work - although maybe less with that plug-in I linked to??. It's a great learning exercise for PS users who already know the basics of image editing. It really shows off in a rather intense way some of the seldom used tools - like the guide splines I mentioned.

I'm was a Computer Graphics and Animation professor for many years so this kinda thing really turns me on.

Well that is exactly what I am trying to do is to get the graphic animated look from a photo and since I can not afford the program at them moment is there any way you can tell me how to do the process you are talking about, or is there a tutorial on it. I guess I have to do it the slow way. Any help you can give me is very much appreciated.

Bifurcator · Jun 4, 2008

Yes there are tutorials that I've seen over the years including that "Step By Step" magazine 5 page Japanese tutorial I first took translated into English. The YouTube videos I mentioned are probably the quickest way to pick up the technique - or would be for me.

I haven't seen the hair-spline technique tutorialized except in that "Step By Step" English translation but I noticed in that pic you posted he didn't really do the hair right. He just went high-contrast which is a cheap imitation of the original (as I know it). For the hair you basically:

copy and paste the hair to a new layer,
create multiple curved spline variants from her natural highlight streaks and/or wherever you want them to be,
flatten the detail,
increase the contrast,
multi-select the set of splines you want to work with,
stroke the splines with highly transparent brushes (like opacity 5%) in color and/or lighten mode (darken for platinum blondes maybe),
increase the brush size slightly,
repeat from step 6 until satisfied,
blend the newly created layer back over the original,
tweak adjustments and blending options.

The face part would really need me to make a video or write a very long step tutorial and those both already exist in some multiplicity. It's just a matter of finding them. I think not too hard to find tho. Give it a shot and if you draw blanks after a day or so let me know and we can combine our search efforts. I'd try YouTube first and search with "Photoshop", "Makeover" "Glamour" and "Before and after" as terms. It's basically the same technique as removing mass amounts of wrinkles and blemishes so if you find a tut that does that but doesn't end up with the classical Japanese "White-Face" look go with it - the differences should become obvious as you proceed.

I remember seeing an especially good one for that actress from the 60's variety show umm, ""Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In". What's her name? Oh yeah, Goldie Hawn... so that might make another good search term.

Bifurcator · Jun 4, 2008

This looks kinda close (slightly different method similar result) and there's a downloadable action too.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4362982107637626304&ei=8hhHSKXbKYakwgO3t5XtCw&hl=en

ksm · Jun 4, 2008

This look's like a technique David Hill uses on his photos. If you do a ggogle search on him there is a bunch of people that are trying to figure out how does it. He claims it is all in the lighting, no PS no Lucid Art. I don't know if I believe that but you might want to look at his photos.

perryfletcher · Jun 4, 2008

Okay, hold the phone. I just downloaded Portraiture and it works great. I have perfect smooth skin on my photo now. All I need to be able to do is to give it that pale look on the skin and bright glowing look on the eyes, lips, and hair (I kind of like it the way he does it, call me cheap) and tattoos if any. I am getting closer.