Old Smoker

[MarcusK]

The shot was taken by a friend of mine, Rudy Francis, while he was in Egypt. I then took it for some post work... which is what i would like the critique on... as a final image... does it work, or not... and most important... Why?

Thank you for taking the time to elaborate and comment!!

Cheers

[Frog]

It works for me.
The face is isolated from all background and setting which in this case works so well because it is such an interesting face.
His eyes grabbed me as soon as I scrolled down to the pic and the enigmatic smile and character added by his wrinkles and creases make the shot.

[MarcusK]

Thanks for taking the time... his face kind of dictated the direction I ended up taking in post!

[Shebang]

What Frog said. Very captivating photo.

[draymorton]

Works for me, too. I love it. What did you do in post?

[BlueRob]

I think it is a good shot, the light on the subjects face I think it does the trick. BTW how do you manage to get that perfect lighting and leave the background dark...was this taken with the pop up flash?

[armando_m]

very nice, excellent clarity around the eyes

nothing distracting from the face

why did you called it old smoker ?

[aurajane]

I think it works. You have managed to get the right amount of light in his eyes, where it should be. It draws you right into his smile. It's great that you were able to do that without lighting the background. I would love details on how you did it.

[icicle]

Also like it.

[MarcusK]

Thank you all for the comments, glad to know I did something right

BlueRob - The initial photo was a regular outdoor, diffused light... the work in post was an attempt at mimicking the work of Andrzej Dragan. And it's in post that the background got darkened.

armando_m - I called it old smoker, because the man spends the whole day in a coffee shop, smoking the shisha or hubbly bubbly if you will... asked my friend who shot it, and he said the man had a very "grainy" voice...

For those interested in the process, it was mixture of many things. I will need some time, to put it all together, and will post it back... for those who can't wait, try googling "Dragan style" it should get you a tutorial that gets close....

Edit: the tutorial gets you close to the Dragan style, which I was trying to get to... just wanted to give proper credit and appreciation to Mr.Dragan, who happens to be a PhD in quantum physics..

Thanks again for everyone!

[draymorton]

Thanks for the info. Would love to know exactly what you did. Most of the Dragan tutorials I've come across have really sucked - the ones in languages I can understand, anyway. Know of any particularly good ones?

[BlueRob]

Thanks Marcus! Really looking forward on your own Dragan work flow.
Cheers!

[MarcusK]

I ended up taking many elements of various tutorials that had nothing to do with this style... short of talking to Dragan himself, I don't think there is any single tutorial out there that give the full technique.

[w.slayman]

Marcus,

I keep coming back to look again, and again, and again,... I can not tell you what it is about the shot, but I really like it. The more I look at it the better it gets. good work.

[MarcusK]

Bill, thanks for the kind works, and am glad you like it...

Also, I would like to say how happy I am to finally be able to give something back to the community that has given me much over the years... so here goes the workflow, without numbers... because I don't have them... I'll try to elaborate as much as I can:

1- Apply a strong unsharp mask... as in really strong...
2- Depending on the image you might want to decrease saturation
3- Now to darken the image, and let it all flow properly, create a new adjustments layer, for curves, and darken the image.. bring down the highlights point (top right corner) and then add another somewhere near the blacks to create a curve downwards... setting will depend on your image.. what I did, was to get barely visible details in the background.
4- Apply a mask to the curves layer, and with a soft brush, low opacity, paint in black over the areas you don't want to be too dark.. in my case it was the face, and bits of hair. When you're done make sure to flatten the image.
5- Again Adjustments Layer, brightness and contrast, to a setting you like overall... for this one, i kept brightness 10 and contrast at about 30 i think!!
I create new adjustment layers, to allow for masking if i need it
When you are done, flatten the image again... I realized the adjustment layers begin interfering with one another... hence the constant flattening...
6- Now I added a bit of saturation, that is not a necessary step, but when i did add it, I masked the eyes out...
7- With a large soft brush, black, low opacity, darken the edges of the image.... so basically paint around the subject...
8- If you still have layers, make sure to flatten
9- Now is a choice.. either skip ahead or stay here if you want the extra black details... Duplicate layer, desaturate, with curves fix it.... then duplicate this new layer, and invert it... apply a gaussian blur that is high enough so the preview is detailed sketch... Merge these new 2 layers (B&W ones)... if the image is a bit light, and you wanna darken it, then just add a black layer with overlay blending... then add a small amount of gaussian blur, no more than 2 px, and set the mode to multiply.... you can now do some "Brightness/Contrast" to that layer... alternatively flatten, and fix the image's Saturation or color balance to your taste....
10- We're getting near the end... duplicate the layer again, and open the saturation dialogue box, check the box near colorize... and play around the hue and saturation to get a proper sepia or brownish tone... set the blending mode to Multiply, and adjust opacity so you get back the highlights... mostly worry about the face... and then Flatten.
11- Create a new layer, fill it with black or white, then filter>noise>Add Noise, gaussian or uniform, and to an interesting setting, there is not a single way to do this here... your call. Then Filter>Render>Difference Clouds.... once done, deselect, and adjust blending mode to overlay or soft light, and opacity if needs be... then flatten. It added a little something.. not sure what though
12- At this point, you might want to play around with levels and curves, saturation or color balance... fix the colors and tone to your liking...
13- Depending on the face, you want to dodge the highlights on the face, and specially the eyes if one of them is in the dark, and then you want to Burn the wrinkles and shadow lines... this is also a matter of personal preference...
14- Make sure to clone out any distractions from the background, if you get it pretty dark...

I hope this helps.... and for what it's worth, here's a side by side comparison attached.

[draymorton]

Thanks for the info!

I ended up taking many elements of various tutorials that had nothing to do with this style... short of talking to Dragan himself, I don't think there is any single tutorial out there that give the full technique.

Somehow I'm not certain that talking to AD himself would get one anywhere.

He was always very mysterious when confronted about the technical aspects of his work on Photo.net. And he used to make a habit of shooting down other people's attempts with monosybillic, terminator-like comments which were devoid of any helpful hints or constructive criticism whatsoever. Funny to read, as long as they weren't directed at you...

[MarcusK]

...And he used to make a habit of shooting down other people's attempts with monosybillic, terminator-like comments which were devoid of any helpful hints or constructive criticism whatsoever. Funny to read, as long as they weren't directed at you...

Haha... yes... well... I heard he would teach it, if you were to pay him about $400 or so... not sure about the truth of the comment...

Anyways... I hope the info turns out into something useful for you!!

[Frog]

Great Jumpin' Jehosaphat! I never would imagine that it took so many steps in pp.
That's what I need a class in more than anything I guess.
Thank you so much for sharing a detail of the work you did, Marc.
Opened my eyes to what goes into creating such good shots.

[MarcusK]

You are very welcome my friend... you guys have taught me a lot through the years as I have already mentioned, and it was a great opportunity for me to pay you guys back

In terms of pp, Curves, Levels, Saturation and Blending modes are the main key to playing around with photos... this one particular style does take so much, others can be less work, and more fun.. though not as rewarding.... if ever there is any style of pp you are interested in, or a particular effect you would like... do not hesitate to send the question my way, and I will do what I can!

[w.slayman]

Marcus

WOW - I do not understand anything abou the 14 steps you used, it sounds like a lot of work. Another thing you can do with digital that you cannot do with film after processing it. However one could stage a simular poto on film in a studio and again it would be a lot of work, black back drop, ND filters, and subtle lighting. Very good outcome and super image.

[armando_m]

wow! very nice of you sharing the steps to obtain such an impressive effect

the original photo while good it has little of the impressiveness of the final result.

[MarcusK]

armando, you're very welcome... my friend showed me many other images, relatively close to this one, but I ended up choosing this, because I saw it had the most potential...

Bill, if you start in a studio, even in digital, the end result is 100 times more impressive. Because then you retain some background, but make sure it is interesting... for the facial touch up, the work in basic terms is, sharpen, darken, dodge and burn, contrast, and saturate... except, there are some fancy stuff in there too...

[gahspidy]

Looking good, Marcus. I have always liked the effect in some portraits and you have achieved it very effectively in this one. Thanks for sharing your process.

[MarcusK]

Hey Gary, thanks... and it was a very important experience sharing... cause now I can repeat it

[pdxf]

Thanks for sharing the before and after. The original photograph, while a descent shot, seems as though it is an ordinary photo, but the updated image is quite spectacular. It's very inspiring! I am going to have to pull out some of my old photographs and see if I can make any equally spectacular adjustments!