My Father

[BlueRob]

Inspired by the "Old Smoker" thread I decided to explore the work of Dragan and why not...give it a shot. At first I was aiming for a color picture but ended up not liking the result so I shifted to B&W...some tweaking here an there... and here it is my first attempt.
Please shoot C&C.

Rob.

[Frog]

I'm afrraid the first thing I notice is his right eye and face side are too shadowed.
Other than that, I think it is very good.
Did you shoot in raw?

[caleb]

The lighting looks great, but I think for the Dragan effect it needs a lot more grit and much deeper blacks with a simpler background.

[BlueRob]

I'm afrraid the first thing I notice is his right eye and face side are too shadowed.
Other than that, I think it is very good.
Did you shoot in raw?

Thanks for the comments Frog. The pic was taken as a standard JPGE with my father´s new toy and oldy but goofy Lumix FZ7.
The deep shadow on half of the face was bolded in the PS work and I intended that way in search for a more dramatic outcome. Again all this as a tryout in search for the Dragan look, which I have to mention in no where near to what I was aiming at the begging, but, I ended up liking it.

I would like to try this but with a more frontal portrait to have both eyes visible and then bolded.

[BlueRob]

The lighting looks great, but I think for the Dragan effect it needs a lot more grit and much deeper blacks with a simpler background.

Thanks Caleb, I´ll try something more drastic and grittier. What type of background do you think will make this stand out? any ideas welcomed ;)

[caleb]

the background appears to have a door jamb or light switch and a shift of tones (on the far left side) that distracts from the man. So cropping or quick cloning/copy pasting would help.

The grit could just be some extreme sharpening and trying out some different layer modes (see the original post you referred to for the how-to, obviously)

[OldClicker]

What background??? It must be a whole lot lighter on your monitor than mine. - TF

[Shebang]

I see the background stuff as well. Your dad doesn't look like a smoker (be thankful - mine has emphysema). His skin in this photo is too clean and smooth (he'll like that!) as compared to Old Smoker, IMHO. It's a good photo but I don't get the same feel from this one as I do the other.

[Greg McCary]

I agree with Frog on the right eye. Also crop a little off of the left, sharpen it slightly and give it a touch of contrast.

[jetrim]

You could try to use the dodge tool to lighten the upper cheek and eye on the far side, but if your father is game to shoot it again, try using a peice of white posterboard to reflect light back up on that side of the face - cheap solution that works great!

[Frog]

If you want that side of his face dark for effect, I think it would work better if only his eye was brighter.....might be rather dramatic. I have no idea how to achieve that but can see it in my mind.

[BlueRob]

the background appears to have a door jamb or light switch and a shift of tones (on the far left side) that distracts from the man. So cropping or quick cloning/copy pasting would help.

The grit could just be some extreme sharpening and trying out some different layer modes (see the original post you referred to for the how-to, obviously)

Thanks Caleb, now I see what you are talking about....in my house monitore the background was almost black all the way. ow that I see it on my office screen you can distinguish waht you mention. I´ll do the appropriate corrections:thumbsup: and increase the sharpening and details and see how it goes,

[BlueRob]

What background??? It must be a whole lot lighter on your monitor than mine. - TF

LOL! I said the same thing...on one monitor the background is plain black, and in my office monitor I see what Caleb is mentioning.....I guess we have to work for a "Photography Review brightness and contrast standard" in order to part from the same bases LOL.

[BlueRob]

I see the background stuff as well. Your dad doesn't look like a smoker (be thankful - mine has emphysema). His skin in this photo is too clean and smooth (he'll like that!) as compared to Old Smoker, IMHO. It's a good photo but I don't get the same feel from this one as I do the other.

Thanks for the comments, and I agree Dragan parts mostly on portraits of people with a lott of facial expression which I guess my attempt was a bit short on that matter...I´ll try to increase this sort of details in my next attempt.

[BlueRob]

I agree with Frog on the right eye. Also crop a little off of the left, sharpen it slightly and give it a touch of contrast.

All written down and will be taken into consideration. Regarding the "black" eye,I´ll try to correct this in order to have both eyes on the game. Thanks for you comments Greg.

[OldClicker]

LOL! I said the same thing...on one monitor the background is plain black, and in my office monitor I see what Caleb is mentioning.....I guess we have to work for a "Photography Review brightness and contrast standard" in order to part from the same bases LOL.

I tried an experiment with several photos some time ago and discovered that those viewing this site are seeing very different images - even with 'calibrated' monitors.

It is not always brightness, though. For instance to see the background that they are talking about, I have to completely blow out his forehead and nose using the 'brightness' adjustment. The only way I can see it and keep the photo intact is to set my gamma at about 3.

TF

[MarcusK]

Well there's not much left to add, so I'll just remind you of a couple things about Dragan-y processing...

You might want to Burn in the lines, anything that gives a black line really.... and yes there needed to be a bit more texture....

One of the biggest problems I faced with the color images, was saturation... always desaturating....

But this is a nice photo nonetheless...

[BlueRob]

You could try to use the dodge tool to lighten the upper cheek and eye on the far side, but if your father is game to shoot it again, try using a peice of white posterboard to reflect light back up on that side of the face - cheap solution that works great!

Thanks Jetrim for the comments. The original file has a good shadow on the left side, but I intentionally increased it to a point of almost hiding it in the search of more drama.
Great tip about the posterboard:thumbsup:

[BlueRob]

If you want that side of his face dark for effect, I think it would work better if only his eye was brighter.....might be rather dramatic. I have no idea how to achieve that but can see it in my mind.

:thumbsup: I´ll try to make that dark eye pop. Thanks Señor Frog.

[MarcusK]

Hey... I actually tried to add this sense of drama, and these couple of steps might help:

1- with the Unsharp Mask, sharpen the image... as in 125%
2- Create an new adjustments layer, Curves, darken the whole image, bring down the white point to 2/3 down... and add a point near the black point...
3- Add a mask to it, and paint out the face and where the light hits....
4- Flatten the image
5- Duplicate background layer
6- Open the Saturation window, check Colorize, and get the brownish color of choice.
7- Change blending mode of the layer to Overlay, and decrease opacity, to liking.
8- Flatten
9- Dodge highlights on the face only... those bright spots... then Burn in the dark lines...

This should get you closer to it... the one i tried, actually completely darkened half the face... hope you're having fun with them

[BlueRob]

I tried an experiment with several photos some time ago and discovered that those viewing this site are seeing very different images - even with 'calibrated' monitors.

It is not always brightness, though. For instance to see the background that they are talking about, I have to completely blow out his forehead and nose using the 'brightness' adjustment. The only way I can see it and keep the photo intact is to set my gamma at about 3.

TF

Interesting OC...very interesting. Finding some how a standard to display and view everybodys images will make C&C more accurate. I mean I knew first hand that images will look different in each monitor, but not to the extent that you mention. It makes me doubt on half the comments I have done:aureola:
For example yesterday I commented on the "Water & Rocks" thread saying that for me the green was a bit hard...now I realize that the culprit could be my monitor.

[BlueRob]

Well there's not much left to add, so I'll just remind you of a couple things about Dragan-y processing...

You might want to Burn in the lines, anything that gives a black line really.... and yes there needed to be a bit more texture....

One of the biggest problems I faced with the color images, was saturation... always desaturating....

But this is a nice photo nonetheless...

Thanks Marcus. I did burned the lines and shadows, what I think I did wrong was the amount of blur and now that you mention it I just notice that at some point of the process I did kill all the texture

[BlueRob]

Hey... I actually tried to add this sense of drama, and these couple of steps might help:

1- with the Unsharp Mask, sharpen the image... as in 125%
2- Create an new adjustments layer, Curves, darken the whole image, bring down the white point to 2/3 down... and add a point near the black point...
3- Add a mask to it, and paint out the face and where the light hits....
4- Flatten the image
5- Duplicate background layer
6- Open the Saturation window, check Colorize, and get the brownish color of choice.
7- Change blending mode of the layer to Overlay, and decrease opacity, to liking.
8- Flatten
9- Dodge highlights on the face only... those bright spots... then Burn in the dark lines...

This should get you closer to it... the one i tried, actually completely darkened half the face... hope you're having fun with them

:thumbsup: Sweet thanks for the tips MK....and hell yeah! this is fun!
I´ll give it another try tonight.

[Shebang]

Bump. How's it going?

[BlueRob]

Well in the search for the Dragan... again... this time I ended a bit closer I think. this time I pick a a different pic to start with, its a little more frontal and the shadows aren't so harsh on the left, I ended up with a color pic this time and I think it lands more accurately on this style.

I must say that is hard to work on this style using my dad as a subject, the thing gets kind of surreal and completely reshapes what my father looks like. This style alters perception, makes things more crude and gives IMO a...harsh look difficult to digest at first glance.

Did I over did it?