Popular Senior Portrait Editing Techniques/Effects

Joel M · Jun 22, 2009

Hey everyone,
I am new to the forum and fairly new to photography, at least as an occupation. I have PS CS3 and was wondering how I can get that popular "film look" treatment that seems so popular with portraits. The tutorials I have found give me a super over-the-top and amateurish effect. What I am trying to do is achieve a looks similar to this:

So far, this is what I am getting:

Mike_E · Jun 22, 2009

Welcome to the forum. Nice shots.

I like this software for a quick go.. Alien Skin Software: Exposure

GeneralBenson · Jun 22, 2009

The top one looks kind of like a split toning or even really mild cross processing. Both of them have some pretty heavy contrast adjustments. That's all I got, sorry.

Joel M · Jun 22, 2009

Thanks guys! I'll check it out!

GeneralBenson · Jun 22, 2009

Also, just a heads up... if those are someone else's photos and not yours, you're supposed to link to them, not post them.

Mike E that exposure program looks pretty cool.

musicaleCA · Jun 22, 2009

Agreed with the split toning on the first. As for the second, that has more to do with lighting than PP. Looks like she was lit from the upper left, with a really soft light (diffuser, perhaps?). Kinda odd though; personally I would've tried to go for short lighting with that face.

Oh, and the ToS of this site states in no uncertain terms that you aren't allowed to post (display) any work that isn't your own.

And one more tip: Practise patience. You probably won't have much success your first time trying to get a particular effect, and will have to go back, tweak things, look at it, tweak some more, ad nauseum. Or throw your hands up in the air and start over, either from the original image or from a different shot/shoot.

In both shots, the most important thing is to take care with lighting. Only very minor problems in lighting can be effectively fixed in Photoshop; terrible lighting isn't worth the time, IMO.

Perhaps you could post some examples of what you've done. It'd be easier to point-out what you might want to try doing to achieve the above effects.

JerryPH · Jun 22, 2009

On the first pic, though the PPing may be ok with that "beauty glow" effect, but the focus is off by just enough as to be noticeable.

Rule 1 of portraiture... if the eyes are not tack sharp, there is room for improvement.

blash · Jun 22, 2009

JerryPH said:
On the first pic, though the PPing may be ok with that "beauty glow" effect, but the focus is off by just enough as to be noticeable.

Rule 1 of portraiture... if the eyes are not tack sharp, there is room for improvement.

I agree with the focus-on-the-eyes part but for completeness's sake, there are other trains of thought - focusing on the cheeks, for example, with just enough DOF to make the eyes as sharp as they're going to get without actually focusing on them, to make it more likely to get the nose in focus as well. The portrait photographer in question for that pic may be subscribing to that train of thought - personally, the eyes look sharp to me (at least in my current fatigued state).

By the way, to the OP - the only way to truly get "that film look" is with, guess what, FILM. Digital can't do *everything* from an artistic perspective you know :mrgreen:

EhJsNe · Jun 23, 2009

I personaly dont like the look of the first one....it looks over processed and overexposed. I dont see why that "look" is soo poplular.
If you ask me it looks like crap and if I got that from out of my camera I would delete it.
But that is my opinion...

If you want the look of the top one...get the longest and fastest lens you can afford (I would go with a 70-200mm f/2.8 because its good for other things too and its an excelent lens) That will get you the blurry backround.
Other than that...in PS lighten the exposure...and if you want it to look like film....shoot the portraits with film! Get a film scanner and do the rest of the editing from there.

CxThree · Jun 23, 2009

Scott Kelby's 7 Point System book is good for learning what you can do to retouch photos in PS. It has one chapter with a picture of an old cowboy. They do effects to him that they call the Hollywood effect. I believe it's the film look you are asking about. You may want to check that book out.