Portrait Colors

[taz]

I stumbled upon this site the other day, James Day, and looked at this photographer's portraits.. As you can see they have a special feel, it's like the colors are clearer or something, a special filter maybe or something. (Look for instance at the portraits in the subcategory Audi Magazine or Spacemen).

How is that result achieved?

Thanks,

taz

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

They look overexposed or desaturated to me.
And some funky distortion.

 

[musicaleCA]

Oooh, those are quite cool. I agree with Bitter; it's a nice colour high-key effect. I know you can probably do something similar with OnOne's PhotoTools Professional quite easily. As for the funky distortion, a little warping and liquefy in PS could probably get you there.

I do wonder though, the noses on all those portraits seem to look bigger than usual. Done in post, or with a wide-angle and then just tweaked a little in post?

I'm also going to guess that there's a fill flash in the back, behind the subjects, perhaps even pointed at the camera through a screen, with a snoot, if the halo effect around the heads isn't in post.

 

[haggis]

Certainly looks like there is some fill lighting used, probably some desat and contrast boost, and I'm curious as to what lens was used for some of these as it looks like it could have been quite wide angle.
Shooting "up nose" also makes noses look bigger and is generally unflattering.
Quite nice shots but certainly not my taste!