Is this a certain known technique?

[JerrfyLube]

Yeah I agree, he has lots of good stuff on there!

About asking him, I find it rude to just ask it straight out if you don't know the person very well. And I have had a bad experience in the past where I did ask another photographer about his PP.

Show serious interest, compliment his work and ask politely... Worst your gonna get is a "no". If it turns ugly, well...thats why God invented the wonderful and ever useful delete button...

 

[white]

I think the technical term is called fucking around with the color balance.

 

[twoboysnmygirl]

I think the technical term is called fucking around with the color balance.

I know a photog that does some editing to her shots that I can't figure out. They are ALMOST blown out, but not really, just very bright, and sometimes it looks really good. I'm interested, but another photog friend of mine asked her about her PP and she was very vague about it and wouldn't answer. So I guess I'll never know. :raisedbrow:

 

[sam_justice]

That kind of PP is so simple, it's not a technique it's just photoshop. There's nothing special going on here.

What you're talking about is sharpening for web, lots of people love the effect. Take an image of yours, resize it to 800px wide (whatever PS says for length) then run filter-sharpen. It makes good images look great for web.

The rest of the PP is skin cleanups and colour casts

on further examination it appears the images have a certain "fog" to them, which is also simple. I'll give you an example to play with, create a new layer, fill it with magenta, turn down the opacity.

 

[sam_justice]

Here's one of my images with the above done to it

Before magenta

and after

 

[Derrel]

Google around and search out some of the Mom With A Camera-oriented portraiture blog sites; there are several of those types of sites I have seen run by moms who photograph other mothers and their kids, and who actually SELL Photoshop actions to create these types of looks. You can purchase packages of these types of canned PS actions for very reasonable amounts of money. Some of the actions look okay, I suppose.

 

[sam_justice]

Google around and search out some of the Mom With A Camera-oriented portraiture blog sites; there are several of those types of sites I have seen run by moms who photograph other mothers and their kids, and who actually SELL Photoshop actions to create these types of looks. You can purchase packages of these types of canned PS actions for very reasonable amounts of money. Some of the actions look okay, I suppose.

Be intetesting to pull apart the actions to see what steps are involved

 

[Chamelion 6]

If you process it through LR 3, go to the clarity slider and slide it all the way to the left. That will you give that soft hazy quality, if that's what you're referring to.

 

[Derrel]

here's an example of just three of the types of pages I was referring to:

flourish - an emporium for photographers

Actions by Brenda ? photoshop actions and textures

Jean's Custom Photoshop Actions | Facebook

 

[djacobox372]

It looks to me like color shifting to try to achieve a more film like look. Which is basically a blue cast in the shadows, a red cast in the midtones, and a yellow/green cast in the highlights. This can all be done with curves in photoshop.

 

[Derrel]

It looks to me like color shifting to try to achieve a more film like look. Which is basically a blue cast in the shadows, a red cast in the midtones, and a yellow/green cast in the highlights. This can all be done with curves in photoshop.

Agreed, djacobox372,agreed. Your comment is a very reasoned, seasoned one. It is also a lot like saying, "You can make anything in the kitchen with flour,salt,butter, baking powder,eggs, chocolate powder, sugar, a mixing bowl, mixer, and a recipe book."

Mere mortals simply buy a boxed cake mix from Betty Crocker for 89 cents on sale....chocolate cake with....an egg, some oil, and 1.5 cups of water...

 

[pharmakon]

It looks to me like color shifting to try to achieve a more film like look. Which is basically a blue cast in the shadows, a red cast in the midtones, and a yellow/green cast in the highlights. This can all be done with curves in photoshop.

Thanks! That was a fun exercise. My result didin't turn out exactly like the OP example, but I kind of like the effect (at least for now until the newness wears off)

 

[davisphotos]

The first two have that washed out look with no solid dark blacks-I hate that, but it is easily achieved by using the curves tool. Call me old school, but I like the zone system, and I really don't like the trend of super washed out photographs.

 

[Xo0]

Thanks everybody, I appreciate every single reply!

I'll have a more detailed look at the examples posted here when I come home after work. But I am a lot wiser now thanks to you guys.

Davis, about the blacks and the zone system, that's an everlasting discussion. I've seen the zone system in school and passed it, but I don't like to be too technical about my photos (maybe I started to hate this because of my teachers who emphasized too much on it). I try to believe more in what I feel is good instead of it's technical correctness.
The fact that the first two have no solid blacks is because (somebody else here brought this up earlier) he shifted the dark tones to blue I think.

 

[Bend The Light]

Google around and search out some of the Mom With A Camera-oriented portraiture blog sites; there are several of those types of sites I have seen run by moms who photograph other mothers and their kids, and who actually SELL Photoshop actions to create these types of looks. You can purchase packages of these types of canned PS actions for very reasonable amounts of money. Some of the actions look okay, I suppose.

Be intetesting to pull apart the actions to see what steps are involved

I try to do this. If I am not sure what sort of look I want, I will find actions on t'interweb. I try them, then see if they can be broken down into steps...I try to recreate each step individually and see the effect. Then I might record my own action, possibly with some steps missing, or added, to get what I want.
Not saying it always works, or that the my pictures are any good, but it's interesting to see how things work and store the info for later use.

Cheers