How to Achieve This Look

[lhmaloney]

I am currently doing promotions for a couple of rap artists. They also needed help in graphic design for cd covers for their mixtapes. I'm decent in photoshop (plugins), but this look achieving this look has stumped me. I don't really know how to describe it because it's almost desaturated, yet it's glossy. Check a couple samples out and let me know.

Thanks whatever you can do

 

[NOMADIC]

look for bleach by-pass filters/plugins... that what the first one looks like...

some of the others look like they are colorized in the Sat/Hue tool, and then the levels are adjusted, black pressed down a little, mids up and highs up too.

 

[lhmaloney]

thanks man, I know about the bleach by pass because I have it for premiere, do you know of any good programs for photoshop

 

[Drew Ott]

I don't know of a plug-in that perfectly matches any of that. The white looks very diffused and there is a lot of contrast. Some of it looks soft but others look sharp.

Just play around with it.

 

[lhmaloney]

thanks man

 

[Claw]

Get your image layer, and duplicate it. Hide the top one for now, and then do a levels on the bottom layer. Make it contrasty... Then turn on the top layer and change its blending mode to Color.

Here's how to do it in After Effects
http://forums.creativecow.net/articles/kramer_andrew/bleach/bleach.htm

 

[lhmaloney]

Thanks guys all of you have helped tremodously, I wondered if their were a simplier way to do the same method as far as blending 2 layers, in premiere pro 2 (I know you can do it in after effects). I know the hardest way would be to batch process each frame in photoshop, blah blah, but is their a way just to do it in p pro 2

 

[pmgmedia]

download the demo of this photoshop plug-in, it kind of looks like some of their examples:

http://www.autofx.com/mystical_lighting/mystical_lighting_gallery.html

looks like the 'light brush' effect on some of them..it blows out the highlights and gives a sheen to skin tones

 

[lhmaloney]

Thanks, I recently found a plug in for photoshop, that already has the bleach bypasses and everything, as a matter of fact I think it may be from these people. So Thank you ahead of time. I have achieved the majority of those looks except the more cartoonish ones. Should I use one of the filter features, then do the same thing as I did for the byass. Changing the blending option to color.

 

[InfinitySquared]

No plugin is needed.

Duplicate Background Layer

Go to levels slide the white top slider to the left to about the halfway point

Go to the channels palette and duplicate the channel with the most drama.

Then on the duplicated channels layer, Go to levels and maybe try to make the darks darker by sliding the top black slider to the right a little to increase the drama.

This is optional but on that duplicated channel layer, you can go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise to add a little noise to that channel.

Clich the RGB channel to go back to the RGB image and go back to the layers palette.

Then with your duplicated layer selected, go to Image > Apply Image

In the Apply image dialog, make sure Layer is set to Merged and Channel is set to your copied channels layer.

Then in the same dialog box, play around with the Blending Modes (usually Multiply works best)

Once you're satisfied, click ok and then you're done.



If you have any questions feel free to ask.
Once again, if you know what you're doing, no plugin is needed.

Austin Condiff

 

[gonzoish79]

InfinitySquared is correct but most of the were done with AutoFX plugins

 

[lhmaloney]

thank you

 

[Matt Grunau]

This is the one that is the most curious:

The main guy in front almost looks like it was done in Illustrator with a crap ton of gradient meshes.

If you look at his hands, the money back, his pants, jacket and even his head look like gradient mesh work. That must have been a cast iron ***** to do though.

Those parts of the pic don't look like a photo, they look like a drawing, based on a photo.



InfinitySquared, I tried your method but couldn't get anything that looked like the results in the other pics. Maybe I applied the wrong channel at the Apply Image part.

What do you mean by "most drama" in the channels pallet? Most contrast? the one that looks the coolest?

Mine came out with the highlights blown out and very dark.

I applied a surface blur, and that got some cool results, but nothing as much as the pic above.

 

[InfinitySquared]

by most drama, i meant most contrast. you will just have to play around with it. sometimes it just depends on the particular photo you are working with but if you would like, just send me a link to the full resolution photo and i can give it a shot and send you a .psd.

anyways, good luck!