Photoshop technique question

[hacksaw35]

I am just learning Photoshop right now, and I have seen a bunch of photos like this one...

http://flickr.com/photos/valpopando/331628381/in/set-72157594327558179/

...with such vibrant colors. I was wondering what kind of technique this is and if it's a a lot of work. Thanks for the help.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

It's just a ton of saturation. You can get the effect with some types of film and on digital, you just crank up the saturation up all the way.

 

[highwoodhiker]

He has the same effect in many of his photos. You can't do this only by increasing the saturation. It's HDR.

 

[harkain]

HDR is an adventure in itself. Look in the sample folder in your photoshop CS2 installation for some images to play with the Merge to HDR command (under File/Automate/Merge to HDR). I have experimented with HDR a little and it can produce richer results. In Photoshop, it produces a 32-bit image with a wider range of shadows and highlights than you could normally capture with one shot. If you normally take 3 or 4 shots and try to layer mask them together, HDR is a much more effective method of getting the most out of multiple exposures.

You can make your images more vivid in many ways. Try experimenting with blending modes in Photoshop. Create a duplicate layer and set it to Overlay and adjust the opacity downward to a low %. Try adding a gaussian blur to the layer before you set it to Overlay and you can get subtle glows from your highlights. If its too dark, add another layer in Screen mode to lighten it up. You can add another layer and run the High Pass filter over and set it to Soft Light or Overlay. It's important to adjust the opacity to something reasonable and usually subtle when using blending modes. Vivid Light makes your image look ridiculous but if you turn it down to 3 or 5% on some images, you get a slight effect. And, of course, you can always layer mask the effects and only hit the areas that need it. And use Saturation Adjustment Layers to saturate each part of the image to appropriate levels (Adjustment Layers are very handy, g00gle them if you aren't familiar, they are non-destructive, can adjust them anytime, and have a layer mask).

 

[hacksaw35]

Thanks for the help guys. I have read a little about HDR, but I still need to learn more of the Photoshop basics first...can the HDR technique only be achieved by taking multiple exposures?

 

[Big Mike]

can the HDR technique only be achieved by taking multiple exposures?

That's the general idea. One exposure simply can't capture such a range of tones.

However, you can try the same sort of thing with one exposure by adjusting parts of the image separately (layer masks etc.). Another technique is to shoot in RAW and make two or more different conversions and layer them like you would with multiple exposures.

 

[pulpmojo]

I'm not much of a fan of HDR myself, it works sometimes, but I tend to get far better results doing the same thing by hand using multiple layers ...of course it's a lot more tedious but I think it's worth the effort, you can't always rely on automation.