Participant

Answered

How do you create this beautiful soft effect?

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
May 25, 2017
5 replies
4848 views

Hi All,

I have a problem that I have been pulling my hair out for weeks now and I hope someone can help to point me in the right direction.

I've started to do fine art portraiture in my studio but can't get the look that I'm after.

There is a brilliant photographer here in the UK called Lisa Visser who, among others, has a lovely soft and slightly desaturated look to her images.

I can look at an image and, to a fair degree of accuracy, reverse engineer how it was taken, aperture, focal length and what light modifyers have been used.

So I'm just hoping that there is someone with a better understanding of PS who could do the same with the post production.

Here's a link to some examples and many thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

Kind regards

JJ

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=lisa+visser+lighting&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiw9YmF7cHTAhWqD8AKHcXj…

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Correct answer Benjamin Root

It looks like the photographer added a warming filter along with some Curves to increase contrast and lift the output black point/lower white point, and the Green channel's black point. Perhaps a black to white Gradient Map with soft light blend mode at low opacity.

With that in mind, If we were to reverse engineer the grading a bit, you'd likely have something like this:

Not quite right, but close enough to confirm some of what has been done in the processing.

As jdanek said, very likely this is a plugin the photographer is using. However, the effect shouldn't be too hard to replicate, or at least come close. Once you've succeeded in that, simply record an Action with all the steps needed to achieve the effect. Then you can apply with the press of a button, or in a batch. Be sure to use actual adjustment layers, in case you need to fine tune the effect from image to image.

Eternal Warrior

Inspiring

It's worth pointing out... but it looks to me... in addition to the lens focus creating some background blur... I suspect there is a very gentle Iris Blur being used in post-production - positioned around the face and or neck...

Something about the photos look like more than I would expect to get from good manual lens adjustment alone.

Best,

EW

D Fosse

Community Expert

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Eternal+Warrior wrote
Something about the photos look like more than I would expect to get from good manual lens adjustment alone.

If this is a photographer specializing in portraits, it's not unlikely she has the DC-Nikkor 105mm f/2. It has a defocusing control ring (actually a semi-transparent secondary diaphragm) to produce special soft-focus effects.

Eternal Warrior

Inspiring

D Fosse Useful information as always

J

jdanek

Inspiring

Years ago there was a software company called "Auto FX Software" which sold "Dreamsuite", a series of plug-ins for photography. They also had something called "Mystical Tone and Color" and "Mystical Lighting". The entire shooting match ( no pun intended ) sold for $1100.00; but individual apps are only around $200.00 ( U.S. ). There are others that do nice conversions enhancing sharpening and desaturating color. Photoshop has many filters that can help, too. Third party extensions and plug-ins just save time and offer different effects.

J

jj@jjphoto.co.ukAuthor

Participant

Many thanks for that. I'll have a look.

I appreciate your help.

Cheers

D Fosse

Community Expert

Yes, it should be clear that this is beautiful work from a good photographer. So in addition to the softboxes you need talent, hard work and long experience.

If it was easy everybody would be doing it.

Eternal Warrior

Inspiring

Can you please post a screenshot of a specific image so that people can easily refer and examine how that specific photo was made...

Obviously a lot of it looks to be just good photography but there may be a tinsy bit of post production going on as well.

Many thanks,

EW

D Fosse

Community Expert

This is all about lighting, not Photoshop. You can see the setup of various softboxes in your link, so there's your answer.

To reproduce this, you need a set of studio flash units and a selection of large softboxes. Photoshop is way down on the list.

J

jj@jjphoto.co.ukAuthor

Participant

I own a photography studio and have done for many years. I know it's great photography but it's the post production I'm interested in.

Benjamin RootCorrect answer

Legend

It looks like the photographer added a warming filter along with some Curves to increase contrast and lift the output black point/lower white point, and the Green channel's black point. Perhaps a black to white Gradient Map with soft light blend mode at low opacity.

With that in mind, If we were to reverse engineer the grading a bit, you'd likely have something like this:

Not quite right, but close enough to confirm some of what has been done in the processing.

As jdanek said, very likely this is a plugin the photographer is using. However, the effect shouldn't be too hard to replicate, or at least come close. Once you've succeeded in that, simply record an Action with all the steps needed to achieve the effect. Then you can apply with the press of a button, or in a batch. Be sure to use actual adjustment layers, in case you need to fine tune the effect from image to image.

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