Thoughts on achieving this look?

I’m looking for some suggestions on post processing and capture. For some shots, I love the muted color, slight overexposure, creaminess to the shots on the sites listed below for example.

To be upfront, these two fellows achieve this look using Fuji Pro400H, metering for the shadows, and rating the 400 film at 200, 100, and even 50 iso. What I’m curious about is how this exact type of look can be achieved using digital capture. My current DSLRs for wedding and portraiture are a Canon 7D, 40D, and Pentax K20D bodies. While I have no problems utilizing a film body and running a few rolls if film for this effect, if I can keep the workflow for this type of photography solely in the digital domain, I’d prefer it.

Any suggestions? I presume this would involve both PS work as well as the possibility of a film emulation type software package. It’s not really grain I’m after….it’s this particular color, contrast and exposure look from the overexposed Fuji.

If anyone can post some before and after shots using a technique they think would work, I’d love to see them. I’ve had no luck myself.

http://jonathancanlasphotography.com/

http://josevillablog.com

It should be easy to achieve in ACR, adjusting the basic sliders to achieve an over exposed, desaturated, lower contrast image. Aside from this, I am sure that there are commercial plugins which can emulate this look, but I am unsure which ones to recommend

Regards...

Allen

Allen Gerdes said:

It should be easy to achieve in ACR, adjusting the basic sliders to achieve an over exposed, desaturated, lower contrast image. Aside from this, I am sure that there are commercial plugins which can emulate this look, but I am unsure which ones to recommend

Regards...

Allen

Click to expand...

Thanks Allen. I'll see if anyone else can chime in as well. Otherwise, I'll just have to play some more with some test shots.

All the best.

I think you will need a full frame camera like 5d and a fast lens like 1.4 to get the shallow depth of field and creamy backrounds they have on many images.
--
-Pelle Piano
Blog at http://www.talesofthepixel.blogspot.com/
Gallery at http://www.studiobild.com



http://www.talesofthepixel.blogspot.com/

Dave, I have a suggestion. Why don't you select an example image, for the effect that you wish to get, as well as an image for us to work on. Post both images and see what the good folks here can come up with.....you might be surprised how close some may be able to get. Also, I am sure most would willingly share their workflow for any you edits that you deem worthy.

Regards...

Allen

I love this kind of challenge. I find trying to emulate a different style to be one of the best learning experiences.

I browsed both sites and downloaded a few images from http://josevillablog.com/ to analyze. I would load one of those images side-by-side with one of my own that was as similar in composition as possible. My own image would be one that was already post processed to death.

The most common elements of this "style" appear to be low contrast and low saturation, but of course it's not as simple as that. The color response of the Fuji film is not the same as digital, so things like skin tones and green foliage are hard to match exactly.

But after fooling around with the usual suspects I found two simple adjustments that would make my normal shots (medium to high contrast and high saturation) come pretty close to emulating this style.

First I added a Levels adjustment layer and moved the middle slider to the left. My settings were between 1.2 and 1.3 depending on the image. Most of the time that was enough. Leaving the Levels adjustment in Normal blending mode knocked down the saturation as well. But on some images the saturation was still too high, and on images with a lot of deep shadows the Levels adjustment made those shadows look a little too muddy.

So I would add a desaturation layer. I use home grown actions that saturate or desaturate using the Channel Mixer and saturation masks on the individual channels. To counter the problem in deep shadows I used a Selective Color adjustment layer and added black to the black channel.

That's it. Pretty simple, but I think it got 90% of the way there. Of course if I was starting with the original RAW the approach would be a little different, but the concept would be the same. Lower than normal saturation and contrast.

I must admit that for many of my images I tried this on, I liked the result better than the orignal. Most of the stuff we consume here on dpreview and other sites is about making images "pop" with max contrast and saturation. It's refreshing to go the other way for a change.

pellepiano said:

I think you will need a full frame camera like 5d and a fast lens like 1.4 to get the shallow depth of field and creamy backrounds they have on many images.
--
-Pelle Piano
Blog at http://www.talesofthepixel.blogspot.com/
Gallery at http://www.studiobild.com



http://www.talesofthepixel.blogspot.com/

Click to expand...

It's not the DOF i'm concerned with. I can achieve a lot of that with a 1.4 or 1.8.....

These fellows use a 645 MF body at f2 and f2.8 as well as 35mm film at f1.4 & f1.8.

It's the color I'm after.

I'll give that a try to see what I can come up with. 90% of the way there may be close enough.