That amazing glow, or glossy appearance.....

[J.A.F. Doorhof]

Sometimes you see shots that have a quality that's truely amazing.
The pictures have a glow or glossy look that's really breathtaking.

Is this just the light, and the good glass or is there something we can do in PS.

Sometimes I shoot very nice pictures but that real glow/glossy look only happens once every time.

My lenses can't be the problem, the 10D should do it.......

So I thought let's ask the real experts ;D.

Greetings,
Frank

[ruby]

Try doing a search on google for a soft focus action. This might be what your looking for. Where the highlights glow and the skin is super smooth?? I forgot where I got mine but it works really well and creates a mask in photoshop that you can then edit to your liking.

ruby

[J.A.F. Doorhof]

Hi,

I don't mean that, I can fix that in PS with filters for example.

It looks more like the whole photo is printed on glossy paper, the colors are vibrant, the contrast is amazing etc.

A friend of mine made some pictures of our Home theater with a Hasselblad and this is the look I mean:

http://www.hometheater.nl/images/HTJF.jpg

Greetings,
Frank[/img]

[defordphoto]

Quite the little TV room you have there! :shock:

Yes, you can perk shots with contrast and color saturation. There are many ways to do it. Fred Miranda has a Velvia action that does it with one click you might be interested in. Alot of that too is just the subject and lighting. I was messing around with your goose pic and got it perked up quite a bit playing with levels. Check out this thread: http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=23590 Ultimately, it's post processing that produces those results.

[J.A.F. Doorhof]

Look at www.hometheater.nl and you see what my business is.
We own a IT company (www.itccomp.nl) and my speciality is Home theater calibrations and custom installments.

Working with levels and curves is standard issue for me, I do that most in C1, but this is so amazing, it looks on the screen as if it's printed on glossy paper.

Greetings,
Frank

[defordphoto]

That's the highly (not over) saturated color. Very nice. Looks like an ad in a shiny magazine.

[J.A.F. Doorhof]

I think that's what I mean.
On some of your shot's you also see it, and on some of mine it also appears, I made one today with EXACTLY that glow, but the wrong focus point (my own fault).

So I guess it's one of those lucky few shots with perfect light... I was just wondering that some guys you see posting are having that "glow, supersaturated look" all the time.

OR they just post only those shots offcourse ;D.

I will look into that action.

Greetings,
Frank

[iwatkins]

Another vote for the Velvia action. I'm so impressed by it I think I'm going to cough up for the "Pro" version.

Velvia gives the vibrancy of Velvia slide film but on a digital image. Remind me of my days hunched over a lightbox sorting my slides. :shock:

Can be over used, but sometime that works as well.

Another way to get that nice glow is to slightly underdo your sharpening. I.e. do your sharpening to how you would normally do it and then roll it back a bit before applying.

EDIT - Poor example but I've posted an example below. Left side is as it came out of the camera. The right size is very slightly blurred and the Velvia action applied (level 4). I did say it wasn't a great example....

Cheers

Ian


http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~iwatkins/Other/combo.jpg

[ilya]

Frank,

What's the Exif for that home theatre photo?

The "glow" you refer to may also be because the pic was taken at a relatively long exposure. Depending on the aperture, it makes the lights take on that look. I would imagine that the image on the big-screen was paused if that were true.

Ilya

[J.A.F. Doorhof]

Exposure was long indeed, but I don't have EXIF data of that shot (shows up empty).

But here's an example with that glow from my camera and the Sigma 70-210F2.8 APO, so it's possible :D.
http://www.webphotoforum.com/user_images//L/39790.jpg

I think it has to do with the light, because this picture is straight from the lens, no working afterwards except the usual setting of white and blackpoint.

Greetings,
Frank

[Derek Smith]

Frank,

Your taste seems to favour the strongly saturated end of the range, and as Adams held, the final image should inspire its audience with not only its physical look, but also with the feelings it inspired in the photographer. Much of Adams work utilised his extensive expertise in the darkroom to add to the image the 'mood' of the moment Adams felt when capturing that image.

Some members of this forum hold that photography is what comes out of the camera. Personally, I favour the view that the image is what I create over the whole process including the darkroom (in my case PS).

I find that very few of the images from RAW reflect the image as my minds eye saw it. Consequently, most of my work gets attention in the darkroom to 'finish' it. Its then that you see the full potential of this camera/darkroom combination.

As for your birdie, in Lincolnshire, when the sun catches their feathers, they look more like this:-
http://www.ragwort-uk.com/39790%20copy.jpg

Thats just a few touches in PS on a little 110K, 8bit JPG file, image what the RAW could produce - definately worth a print!!

Derek[/img]