How do you achieve this effect - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

12/11/2010 11:57:27 AM · #1

lighting effect

keone

Canon EOS-5D

12/11/2010 12:01:41 PM · #2

I would say ALOT of dodging and burning in photoshop.

hojop25

Sony DSLR-A200

Sony DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspherical ED Zoom Lens for Sony Alpha

12/11/2010 12:03:23 PM · #3

Could be the lighting effects you get in photoshop, like the render effects, such as omni light, etc..

zeuszen

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

12/11/2010 12:03:56 PM · #4

Originally posted by keone:

I would say ALOT of dodging and burning in photoshop.

or minimal dodging by painting a mask, possibly vignetted...

Yo_Spiff

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III

Olympus 12-100mm f/4.0 M.Zuiko ED IS PRO

12/11/2010 12:14:20 PM · #5

A very heavy vignette. Dodging and burning for that would take a looooonng time. I would do something like that with layers and a very soft edged mask.

Message edited by author 2010-12-11 12:15:23.

spiritualspatula

Panasonic LUMIX DMC-LX100

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

12/11/2010 12:26:22 PM · #6

Yeah, it's definitely PP based in any case, if that's what you're asking. The two ideas posted so far are solid approaches IMO.

12/11/2010 12:48:56 PM · #7

I've tried doing vignetting by adding a solid color layer, using the marquee tool feathered at 100%, drawing an area, then backspacing to remove the section. But even at 100% - and low opacity - it leaves a definite demarcation line. This one is perfectly gradiated. Am I doing something wrong? Maybe I'll try the omni effect, which I think would work for the bright spot in the sky, but the pier is also beautifully lit, so it's also something else.

kirbic

Canon EOS R5

Canon RF 24-70 f2.8 L IS

12/11/2010 01:00:53 PM · #8

Try this... Add a curves adjustment layer on top of your image, then use the gradient tool to add a *very* soft-edged mask to the curves layer. Set the gradient tool to go from transparent to black, and use the radial gradient, not the linear one. Dragging outward from a center point gives a clear area surrounded by a slow transition to black. Adjust the curves layer to darken as desired.
A related method is to create a layer over the image, fill it with black, add a layer mask to it (starting with all black, fully masked) and use gradient tool to open the desired areas in the mask. Finally, the strength of the effect can be tweaked by changing the opacity of the layer.

Fujifilm XF 55-200mm f/3.5-4.8 R LM OIS

12/11/2010 01:17:05 PM · #9

Ah yes, that sounds right. Although I'm still struggling with the gradient tool...

ursula

Fujifilm X-T2

12/11/2010 01:23:28 PM · #10

Originally posted by tanguera:

Maybe it is at least in part because the image you used as example seems to have pretty good light to begin with, the post-processing emphasizes it, but it doesn't create the light. In other words, what they seem to have done in that picture is added all the darkness to the image, almost like what you get when you use the dragan effect without some of its components. But they didn't create the light in it, that was there already.

One thing that sometimes works for vignettes, to make them less apparent, is to not make them perfect (as in not perfectly oval for example). Make the standard oval vignette, and then use a large brush to brush out the edges so that it looks more random. It almost looks like they might have done something like that in your example image (see the light sort of going at a diagonal on the woods, and the light area on the water at right, in the middle, and a bit of the clouds at right). Either that, or they didn't add a "vignette" but instead painted in the dark areas (as you can do with the dragan action).

Another thing that can be fun to do, and might give you something similar to the picture in the example, is to make two processed images of the same base. One processed normal, bringing out all your good light. Run that processed image through the dragan action (except for the last few steps). Paste the draganized copy onto the normal copy, create a 100% black mask on the copy, then paint in whichever areas you want to have a bit of the dragan effect (with a very soft and low intensity brush). This one:

was made that way. But the trick (to my mind at least) is to have a base photo with good light to start out with.

Message edited by author 2010-12-11 13:29:57.

kirbic

Canon EOS R5

Canon RF 24-70 f2.8 L IS

12/11/2010 01:24:28 PM · #11

Originally posted by tanguera:

Ah yes, that sounds right. Although I'm still struggling with the gradient tool...

It does take some getting used to... I found it useful to experiment with it; just add a layer and play around. Check out what all of the different settings do, it's really rather versatile.

vawendy

Sony Alpha 1

Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS

12/11/2010 01:26:21 PM · #12

Perhaps the used viveza plug in for photoshop...?

It's a wonderful piece of software. There's a free 15 day trial -- you should try it out. It's very interesting.

viveza

(I heard of it from Ursula.)

Covert_Oddity

Nikon D700

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

12/11/2010 01:33:47 PM · #13

I tend to do all my vignettes manually using the brush, and it gives an effect very similar to the one you posted. Here's how I do it:

Add a new empty layer, change the blend mode to overlay and fill it with 50% grey (this can all be done as one step during the new layer creation)

Select the brush tool, use a very large, very soft brush, set your colour as black, your opacity as 10% (or adjust as you like)

Brush in the areas on the overlay area you want burned, I tend to use large sweeping moves across the edges initially then going over and over again but moving in towards the subject so that the outer areas get much more treatment than those close to your subject, this makes for a very nice gradient.

Apply a gaussian blur to the overlay area to smooth the whole thing out a little more if required, the extent of the blur will depend on how smoothly you have painted in the gradient.

This method gives a really nice, very custom vignette which with practise is much easier to apply than any of the automatic methods and gives far better results.

If you find by the end it isn't strong enough, just duplicate the overlay layer and it will double up the effect.

You can also use this method for dodging by just painting in white rather than black.