View Full Version : High Key / Venture style images
ffej1405
04-09-2006, 07:58
Was asked by a friend to take some shots of their daughter and they want "Venture" style images.
Given that I don't have a studio or studio lights, is there a way to manipulate the images in CS2? I've given it a try, but am still on the steep learning curve of CS2.
This is the original image:
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/data/500/medium/gracie_orig.jpg
And this is what I've come up with so far:
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/data/500/gracie_mod.jpg
Any suggestions, help, links to tutorials greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Jeff
Marianne
04-09-2006, 08:12
this works, its a great shot BTW...the lighting effect has caused a grey vignetting which is a bit distracting....how about trying out the optikverve filters? They are free...also my other favourite image editor Photobrush has some brilliant effects within the programme.....
Marianne
04-09-2006, 08:32
I hope you don't mind me doing an edit...
I took the image into PS, adjusted levels then selected the eyes and brightened them..
I then took that image into Photobrush and ran the 'enhance photo' thingy and adjusted the sliders til the mid tones brightened up.
Then I ran their filter...called studio lighting and adjusted the sliders again to get the high key effect...
Then I ran it through the enhance photo thingy again but took some of the brightness and colour down a bit to get this effect....
http://www.barrianne-photos.co.uk/picperfic/venture.jpg
Well I just made a rather feeble 2 minute attempt with it in PS6, so feeble in fact, I think it best to leave to the pro's to show you what can be done :lol:
While mine doesnt look right either, I do think it looked better after I had masked Gracie out & then dodged the background to get rid of those shadows in the sheet.
I also put a catchlight in her other eye, which I think it needs if youre bringing the other side of her face out of the shadow.
I do think youve slightly over done either Curves or levels as the one side of her forehead looks too burned out.
Its a lovely image, so I hope you manage to sort it.
Marianne
04-09-2006, 08:35
the background is an issue and yes...another catchlight would be great....I reckon the background would be easy enough to get right, well worth playing with.
ShawWellPete
04-09-2006, 09:32
Hi Jeff, I did this with my family, link here (http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=9984&highlight=stick+venture)
I had the benefit of getting a photographer to help and he came with all his kit. The lighting really makes all the difference. By having the background lit independently from the foreground you don't get the greyness in your shots. This happens because the background is underexposed.
Any way you could rent the lights?
The second shot in the original post has by far the most natural looking skin tones and is the closest to a successful high key shot.
I had a quick go at it..
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/data/500/gracie_mod1.jpg
I lightened the left (our left) side of the face with a selective feathered mask, cloned the catchlight across from the other eye and lightened the background with a selective feathered mask. Unfortunately the highlights on the right of the shot are blown and not recoverable unless it's possible from the RAW file? Who really cares though, it's a lovely shot I'm sure you'll want to keep.
Producing good high key portraits is really down to careful lighting and metering and making sure you don't blow the highlights. It isn't easy! :)
Marianne
04-09-2006, 09:56
the eyes certainly have it in your edit CT....I just like to have a go lol
LOL me too Marianne. Impossible to resist sometimes. :D
ffej1405
04-09-2006, 11:46
Thanks for all the input so far guys, gonna have my nose buried in PS books this weeks to figure out cloning the catchlight, selective feathered mask etc.
I didn't think it was a bad attempt as I was working with a white sheet, 580EX and a reflector. Got my eye on some lights - Interfit Flash EX150 Home Studio. Anyone using these lights?
Add a couple of halogen spotlights from B&Q for backlighting and I should be good to go (hopefully).
If I may suggest something..
A couple of cheap remote slave Jessups flashes for blowing the background. Just let them nuke the white sheet while you worry about getting some light going on the subject.
if you're using static lamps, they'll probably be halogens, then adding flash light.; you'll get a mix of colour temperatures. Which can be good, can be bad.
Another tip for the halogens is to get a couple of the white storage bins while you're at B&Q, mounted over the lamps, these make good diffusers and drop some of the yellow tint too.
keep experimenting :)
If you do buy cheap halogen light fittings then buy some major brand lamps (philips, GE, osram, sylvania etc) to use in them. The cheap chinese ones burn at lower temperatures and yellower light to allow inferior materials to last longer.
ffej1405
04-09-2006, 19:47
Thanks for those tips. Anyone used the InterFit Kit I mentioed earlier. £210 doesn't seem to bad for a starter/budget kit.
I couldn't resist a proper go at this from your original shot. It really is an absolute cracker. :)
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/data/500/gracie_high_key.jpg
You can go lighter with it if you want to but watch the highlights, or give it a little more contrast if you prefer
ffej1405
05-09-2006, 07:56
CT that is excellent!!!! Any chance you could walk mw through what you did as I've got a couple of other images I'd like to give the same treatment.
As always there's so many different ways to tackle the job, but what I did was...
(1) Adjust the gamma of the image till it's looking like the high key result you're looking for. It will probably start to look too light, so add a little contrast - I just used the contrast slider. Use these two tools alternately till you get the result you want without the side of the face blowing out.
I didn't have to do any feathered masks or localised editing to levels at all.
(2) Adjust the skin tones to a natural looking colour using the RGB sliders. You'll probably just need to add a little red.
(3) Set the clone tool (Rubber Stamp tool in Photoshop) fairly small, say 7 ish pixels. Set the opacity of the clone tool fairly low and clone the catchlight across from the other eye. You can click on the same spot several times to get the density of the catchlight looking natural.
(4) To get the plain white background...
Set the background (paper) colour to white.
Select the magic wand and click on the background. It will select part of the background where the tones are within a given variance. If it overlaps the baby at all then undo it and reduce the tolerance until it doesn't.
I use PSP but the following also applies to Photoshop, but just check on the keyboard commands which may be different.
Having got your first part of the background selected without overlapping the baby, hold down the Shift key and keep it depressed from now on. Begin clicking in the parts of the background which aren't selected. You'll see your selection mask starting to grow with each click. Any time that the mask overlaps onto the baby just go to Edit and Undo (keeping that Shift key depressed) which will just undo the last click. Reduce the tool tolerance until baby isn't selected when you click. You may have to do this a couple of times on areas of little contrast between the background and lighter parts of the baby. Eventually you'll have a clean tight mask around the baby and the whole background selected. This does work... honest, even with quite difficult backgrounds. Don't feather the completed mask!
Now go to Edit and then Cut which cuts out the background leaving the pure white background (paper) colour.
That's it! You may need to do a little local softening of edges if they appear too sharp but you can easily do that with freehand feathered masks and then applying the soften tool to taste.
You can do it. There's no magic or easy way to get into this stuff, it's just a case of practice, more practice and trying different ways of doing things. :)
ffej1405
05-09-2006, 14:03
He's my first attempt following CT's guidance. Not sure about the hair tho.
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/data/500/medium/IMG_5111.jpg
Well done that man! It gives me a real buzz when someone actually reads my witterings and does as good a job as that. :clap:
It's not quite critically sharp. Although it will sharpen quite a bit I don't think it was quite sharp to begin with.
Do you mean the darker hair at the top? There's so many things you can do with that. Try drawing a freehand mask around the dark bit. Feather the mask to taste, and just lighten the area within the mask. You can even lighten it more and give the impression of back lighting if you wish.
Good job! :)
High-key stuff looks so much better in black and white. Well, mono with some slight colouring. Here's my effort:
http://img506.imageshack.us/img506/1866/gracieat4.jpg
Coincidentally, I've just posted a high-key shot on my photoblog. Here it is, you can click on the thumbnail to view the full-size version:
http://www.jameyhoward.com/images/photoblog/thumbs/270.jpg (http://www.jameyhoward.com/photoblog/index.php?id=270)
If you want to see how what I did to the photo of Gracie, you can download the Photoshop file here:
http://www.uploading.com/en/files/R63CMJD2/gracie.psd.html
The download box isn't immediately obvious. It's on the right, under the row of images at the top. You have to enter the number in the box and click the button to get the link itself.
I snarfed a copy Jamey - Gracie has fab eyes.
Im loving watching what youre all doing with this.
CT, love that pic... and a tutorial to boot! Im going to have to try that on one of my own pics now.
Really like the mono version too but what happened to the catchlights? .... can you tell Ive just discovered the importance of catchlights :lol:
ffej1405
05-09-2006, 18:09
Fingerz......I like that!!!!!!!!! Big fan of B&W. Hadn't even crossed my mind to ry it with that image. Just been one of those days....some ****er decided he was going to skim my card and go buy himself some new toys. Luckily the bank spotted it before he could dom serious damage to my bank account. thieving little...............
Off to download you PS file to see what you've done and cheer myself up.
had a quick go........just a mono conversion thats all
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/data/708/gracie_orig1.jpg
I couldn't resist having a go so here is my quick and dirty version although I realise the eyes are a bit overdone, but you get the idea, if I had more time I'm sure it would be better.
Firstly I selected the eyes and adjusted for levels, contrast and some USM, also added a catchlight to the left eye.
Adjusted the rest of the image using curves to try and lighten the background whilst retaining subject detail and colour.
I then applied an action called Midnight Sepia to to the image and used the dodge and burn tools to get the high key background and also to 'bring back' some colour to the subject lost in the action.
***Disclaimer: I haven't a bloody clue what I'm doing most of the time with PS so don't take this as gospel. :D ***
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f273/HackerUK/gracie_orig-copy.jpg
LOL @ Hacker. Real good effort mate. There's no easy way, you just gotta keep pluggin away and see what works best. :)
...what happened to the catchlights?
Personally, I hate catchlights but even if I liked them I think the fact that there's only one (the right eye is free from reflections) would annoy me. So the choice was either remove the catchlight or add one into the other eye and the first option was both easier and gave a nicer result (IMO).
Oh, and I used the patch and healing tools, if that's what you were referring to.
Here is another effort this time in mono, as before adjusted in curves, sharpened the eyes slightly and this time added the Midnight Black action. Made a selection around her head with about 40 pixel feather, inverted the selection and added Gaussian blur.
I must admit I really like this one and it has given me some ideas for some portraits I've got coming up.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f273/HackerUK/gracie_orig-copy-3mono.jpg
kelvinli1127
20-02-2009, 16:19
<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/m2Z-_wILG0n00Msvy9a9lw?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_LdlO00pMjDg/SZ7lUi-KGuI/AAAAAAAAEZw/KnqnhR4TWh4/s144/gracie_orig_charcoal.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">发件人 <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/kelvinli1127/TalkPhoto?feat=embedwebsite">Talk Photo</a></td></tr></table>
just done a quick edit and using a high key plugin might not be to everones taste didnt have the patience to mask the hair out so gave her a little trim...lol
http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc232/adamjt7/new.jpg
DiddyDave
20-02-2009, 16:48
Just found this thread - had a muck about too as I think you're all using the wrong crop :lol:
And NO CT - it isn't meant to look natural :)
DD
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/data/2068/ffej1405.jpg
This thread is so old that the cute baby is probably a moody teenager by now. :D
DiddyDave
20-02-2009, 17:01
This thread is so old that the cute baby is probably a moody teenager by now. :D
True - but I couldn't resist ;)
At least we can now say the original shot is pants :lol:
DD
Merovingian
20-02-2009, 17:02
<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/m2Z-_wILG0n00Msvy9a9lw?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_LdlO00pMjDg/SZ7lUi-KGuI/AAAAAAAAEZw/KnqnhR4TWh4/s144/gracie_orig_charcoal.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">发件人 <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/kelvinli1127/TalkPhoto?feat=embedwebsite">Talk Photo</a></td></tr></table>
Interesting first post!:cuckoo:
alexkidd
20-02-2009, 17:10
my 2p
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/4089/lebabykd5.jpg
dodged, contrasted, and saturation lowered so it doesn't look like the little critter is on fire :)
Holy thread revival! I can't even remember this one. :thinking:
DiddyDave
20-02-2009, 17:12
my 2p
dodged, contrasted, and saturation lowered so it doesn't look like the little critter is on fire :)
Not on fire - but that case of jaundice isn't healthy :lol:
DD
david1701
22-02-2009, 01:35
thread from the dead, gotta be a record I don't remember ever seeing a thread this old reopened on a forum :D Hi 5 that random code person
Can anyone have a go ?
http://i359.photobucket.com/albums/oo33/Ne0/gracie_origa.jpg
This is my very quick effort
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/data/500/gracie_orig1.jpg
...and how I did it.
Duplicate layer. On new layer use curves, pick white eyedropper and click on a dark part of the white background until the whole background is completely white keep sampling the background until you have achieved this. Of course now the subject is completely blown out. On the duplicate layer click layer mask and with the brush set to default b&w paint over the subject until the original image is revealed. Back to background layer and using curves colour correct and exposure till it looks right. (the subject here is a little dark, it looked better in PS)
This is a method I use all the time for my hi-key work. It does help if you can get the background as near to white as possible. I have two elenchrom classics for my hi-key stuff and can get the bg very close to white and just use this method for touch up.
Hope the description is ok.
BTW you will need to pay closer attention to the brush work than I have in this example.
Steve
thread from the dead, gotta be a record I don't remember ever seeing a thread this old reopened on a forum :D Hi 5 that random code person
There was one recently from about 3 years ago where I asked if Pixmania were ok to use to buy a lens from.
Craig2008
22-02-2009, 15:18
here is my effort
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/data/500/venture_style.jpg
Is this anywhere close?
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_4_R8TkwT74w/SaGNXmAG03I/AAAAAAAA-lo/yQ99wVJ2bWo/s800/20060903_122609_LR.jpg
ldwallis
22-02-2009, 16:49
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3458/3300161483_5558742976_o.jpg
well i thought everyone else was doing it...
ffej1405
24-02-2009, 18:04
Blast from the past here (I started the thread).
The little girl in the picture has just turned 3 (not quite a moody teenager yet!) and I'm due to do another shoot with here and her younger sister soon.
ArtAndLight
20-04-2009, 00:52
Hi Everyone
Just came across this thread & had a go.
Have been working on this look for a while with different images - Hope you didn't mind me having a try ...
http://www.artandlight.co.uk/test/Sample.jpg
kpstudios
07-06-2009, 10:41
hi everyone.. this is my first post, i have been told that my photography is very VENTURE STYLE so i thought i would share my thoughts with you, i have put a few sample son my flickr account:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/darren_motionlab/
i wanted to share my technique with you as it might help..
i find that most venture image are a combination of posr production and a cool eye for a good crop.
i take all my studio shots with three softboxes two on the subject and one boom soft box lighting the background directly behind it, then use adobe lightroom and photoshop for the post production.
i usually do the over exposure in lightroom as well as the saturation, then to make sure the white BG is white i pop the image in Photoshop CS3 (or4) then work on the background....
what i should do is over expose the BG then light the subject so teh BG is pure white i know, but studio size is mostly the reason that i do it this way as i don't have the space for two more lights.
hope this helps the cause.
TinySpark
08-06-2009, 23:08
here is my effort
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/data/500/venture_style.jpg
i have to say this processing is my fav so far, love the cool feel!
kpstudios
09-06-2009, 09:14
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/data/500/oli-1.jpg
heres my atempt
mercedes
09-06-2009, 16:04
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/data/500/oli-1.jpg
heres my atempt
Like it!
heres my atempt
As mentioned above, Nice!
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/data/500/oli-1.jpg
heres my atempt
Actually, would you mind telling us what you did to go from the original to this one? ...I mean to get the skin tone/colour so perfect. :thumbs:
kpstudios
12-02-2011, 14:34
Actually, would you mind telling us what you did to go from the original to this one? ...I mean to get the skin tone/colour so perfect. :thumbs:
I put the original one in lightroom and colour corrected it, cooled it to get rid of teh warm colours it had and then messed withthe exposure.. for all those who dont use lightroom ITS A MUST for al photographers (or its equivlant).
i have just put our new website online feel free to have alook
www.northwest-photographer.co.uk
misssassylassy
12-02-2011, 15:09
I would love to have a play if you wouldn't mind emailing me the full res image RAW if you have it
sarahwphotography@btinternet.com
swanseamale47
12-02-2011, 18:29
He's nearly 5 now by my rough reconing.
Never seen 'venture' style - but do they produce OoF pics with a yellow cast? Not something I'd aspire too.
p.s. BLACK is the new white! :)
kpstudios
17-02-2011, 08:08
Never seen 'venture' style - but do they produce OoF pics with a yellow cast? Not something I'd aspire too.
p.s. BLACK is the new white! :)
i agree withe black is the new white..... but commercially its not what people want.
http://northwest-photographer.co.uk/
here is my website, a good mix of high and low key photography.. i get asked everyday for high key and only the odd one or two people like low key shots..
but i do agree low key for face shots are amazing, specially with a ring light
D
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