What's This Technique?

[The Phototron]

Okay I've been wondering this for a long time, how do they achieve ultra crisp details like this:

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/55774205/

Is it a photoshop technique?

 

[Garbz]

You mean how to bring out the age in a face? This is done by tone control after an image has been converted to black and white. Bumping up the contrast in the face, or converting to black and white using the blue channel brings out the roughness of skin.

Also the lighting needs to play along too. Side lighting, top lighting or doing something to show the texture in a face helps.

 

[Big Mike]

It all starts with lighting.

 

[The Phototron]

You mean how to bring out the age in a face? This is done by tone control after an image has been converted to black and white. Bumping up the contrast in the face, or converting to black and white using the blue channel brings out the roughness of skin.

Also the lighting needs to play along too. Side lighting, top lighting or doing something to show the texture in a face helps.

Lol, yes "bring out the age in a face". Age is character and beauty is plastic. :>

I figure it couldn't simply be high contrast. I have tried the blue channel, but it also the makes the face extremely dark, I guess I could try lowering the opacity.

As for lighting, I'm still pretty inexperience, I don't have anyone to play around with. :/ I know side-lighting give the face a 3d illusion.

 

[Garbz]

Not just side lighting. But the size of the light matters. If you sidelight with a tiny flash every single bump and pore will show. If you sidelight with a diffuser you're back to square one.

I still believe the above to be the result of a lot of careful and contrasty processing.

 

[TDSapp]

Go pick youself up the July 2007 issue of Digital Camera World and check out page 78. They do a step by step "How-to" on this very subject.

1. Duplicate, desaturate, and Multiply
2. Add a filled layer
3. Add noise
4. Blend and boost saturation
5. Solid Color Layer
6. Painting with light
7. From light to dark
8. Fine tune


granted there are a few extra steps for each line here. But you get the idea.

Tim Sapp

 

[lightmajestic]

The effect is known as Draganizing & you can download plenty of free photoshop actions - just type it into google. Some are better than others and you can duplicate it yourself using dodge/burn/screen etc with a little tweaking.