martinwahlberg.com

My favorite baby demon

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 01:17 +0100

This is my best buddy! I´m so sorry for adding my digital paint on you but deep inside I hope you like it!

This is what the original looked like:

Post processing
Here are the steps involved in creating this image.
1. Masking "the little demon" ;-) with the pen tool and making a selection using a 2 pixel feathering.
2. Placing him on a black background. (Way to black and flat in hindsight)
3. Finding an image of the mighty Gene Simmons makeup and placing it over the masked image. Streching it to fit the little guy.
4. Using the pen tool, creating paths/selecitons to use for the black parts of the makeup.
5. Creating a desaturated layer for parts with white makeup.
6. Crating a layer with white color in a blending mode I can´t remember, probably soft light.
7. Adding selective dodging and burning over certain parts of the face.
8. Adding texture with different brushes to make the fake makeup look somewhat real.
9. Toning down some lit parts of the boy's body to make him "fit" in the new setting.
10. Adding subtle makeup smears on the boy's t-shirt.
11. Brightening his eyes and removing/adding pupils and catchlights.
12. Softening parts of the boy's arms/hands.
13. Adding strands of hair to make the boy not completely look like a cut out agains the background.
14. Changing the color of the t-shirt with a Hue/saturation adjustment layer.
15. Using Liquify, slightly distorting the makeup to make it fit the lines in his face.
16. Recreating lines under his eyes, new eyelashes and eyebrows.
17. Adjusting the saturation of his tounge.
18. Creating black lipstick.
19. Adding small red lines under his eyes.
20. Converting to sRGB 8-bit.
21. Adjusting color balance with proofing monitoring.
22. Flattening layers.
23. Creating a duplicate layer, running some USM (100, 0,4, 4) on it with a layermask.
24. Revealing selected parts like eyes, mouth and hair by adjusting the layermask.
25. Saving a .jpg file.
26. Posting it on the blog.
27. Going to bed at 02.00 a.m.

That´s it!

The cool kid Tilda

Sun, 08 Mar 2009 23:33 +0100

My sister and her family invited us over today. I snapped a few shots of all the kids and somewhere along I got this idea of creating a montage. I placed beautiful Tilda against a white wall knowing that I would mask her out in post processing. I have a few grungy textures and I decided on one of them for this image.

This is what the original looked like:

Post processing
I basically created a mask using the pen tool. Inserted the texture for a background. Used a lot of burning and desaturated the girl to match the background. I had to manually tone down selected parts on the girl to make her look "believable" in this setting. Obviously I created a drop shadow and skewed it a little. She´s cool and she deserved a cool image!

The geisha

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 20:31 +0100

This is another image from our studio session the other day. I figured I´d have a go at giving the model a geisha-look in post-processing. I never tried it before and it was a challenge. It ended up with a theatrical feel to it which I hadn´t planned from the start.
This is what the original looked like:

Post processing
I´m not really sure where to begin to describe all the steps in my post processing this image. I guess there were about 25 different layers that during the process was flattened 3 or 4 times. I can remember retouching, adding a desaturated layer blended in soft light mode, adding pink/red makeup on the eye lids, dodging and burning layers, "cutting" out the jewelery, rebuilding the neck and ear, and so on...
I finally used selective sharpening by using the smart sharpen filter which I rarely use. I´m really pleased with how it worked wonders on this image.
There were some curves used to balance the shadows and highlights and for darkening the lower part of the image.

I think I could have worked a little more on the shadows on her face. I think the low res version that is shown here on the blog hides some of it. Here´s a closer look on the face. I had to reintroduce some noise on certain parts of her face to get rid of some blurry parts that looked too fake.

EDIT. I re-edited the shadows in her face. You can see it if you compare the close-up with the main blog image on top.
Why do geishas look so sad?

The eye

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 22:32 +0100

We had a studio session trying out different lighting setups. This one is with a Ezybox over head to the models right side. The Ezybox is wicked. Magical light.
Post processing
This image was processed with these layers. With the number one layer lowest in the stack.
1. Retouch
2. Facial enhancements like eye whites, eye blacks, eye color, teeth and lips.
3. Desaturated layer in soft light blending mode with high-pass filter.
4. A dodge n burn layer in sharp light blending mode.
5. A gradient map layer (custom colors) in color blending mode.

The stack was merged and then duplicated. To the duplicated layer sharpening (USM) was added. The sharpened layer was selectively hidden with a layer mask.

This is what the original looked like:

Finally I flatten the image and convert to sRGB 8-bit. The last step, and I do this always for blog images, I apply a custom selective color layer that compensates for the color space. When I apply this I make sure I use proofing settings for Screen RGB, that usually gets me pretty close for most browsers and monitors/screens out there. You can never be sure how it´ll look though.

German stained glass

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 23:46 +0100

We went for a short walk in the old town this saturday. We somehow stopped by the German church in which there were some beautiful stained glass.When taking this picture I made sure I tilted the camera some to make it a little more interesting. I could´ve put a person in the frame, like a silhouette or profile, but there was no one around. So to avoid making a flat uninteresting image I tilted the camera. If I hadn´t the image would show the stained glass exactly as it is and the photograph would make no sense. At least in my opinion.
Post processing
I think post processing this type of image is mostly about bringing out the colors and controlling the saturation. I only added the slightest sharpening and I was not particularly concerned with texture. I kinda like it a little blurry. It helps in this "fairytale-ish" landscape.
This is what came out of the camera.

So you can see I payed some extra attention to saturation and I used some shadow/highlight to bring out some detail in the darker parts of the image.
After that I took a final look and decided to boost the reds even more and I add some cyan to the yellows.
I wonder how long it took to complete this big stunning piece of art back in the day.

Snowman

Sat, 03 Jan 2009 01:05 +0100

Christmas decoration in Carnaby Street.
Post processing
I didn´t do much with this picture. Adjusted levels and white balance is all I can remember.This is what came out of the camera.

Silhouette

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 18:40 +0100

I spotted a bloke walking towards me tonight.
Post processing
As you can see this image was desaturated and toned with a few simple curves. The intention was to add a little drama to the image. I´m not too sure I got the intended effect. I kinda like the tones in the original. Well you be the judge...
This is what came out of the camera.

This is probably the last image for this year. Happy new year!

Indian sky

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 18:08 +0100

I went out for take out. I grabbed my camera and on my way to the restaurant I shot a few images. This is one in which I really liked the sky.

Post processing
I only used a few tiny steps on this image. I used some basic shadow/highligh to bring some ligth into the foreground. A few more curves and a little noise reduction. That's all.
This is what came out of the camera.

I think I went a little overboard with the sharpening on this image but over all I'm pleased with the result. What a beautiful sky we have during winter.

Lone man walking

Sun, 07 Dec 2008 20:10 +0100

I took this picture a few weeks ago, thought I´d have a go at it today.
Post processing
I started by taking away some things that cluttered the image. This, hopefully, makes the image a little more striking. I always try to go for simplicity. I´m very well aware of that I did a sloppy job, just look at the rail where the group of people was. It´s funny assymetrical but I bet you didn´t spot it before I told you.This is what came out of the camera.

I left the image untouched in ACR and chose to do it all in PS. Before I had anything done I used my favourite tool, Noiseware. I used the Landscape preset.
After I had a few things removed I added a curve for the sky and another for darkening the foreground. I desaturated the reds and yellows to make the safety isle (or what ever you call it in english) a little less appearent.
I added a curve for toning the image a little to the green and blue.
I then added some selective sharpening and a some blur for the background. You need to be careful when you add the sharpening, you have to make sure that no halos appear.
Finished it off with a rather strong vignette to make the guy a little more in the spotlight.

A white miracle

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:03 +0100

Converted. Transformed. Regenerated. Revitalized. Reformed and reborn.
Well I can´t say that I´ve been all of the above just yet. But something thereof.
I took my first chew of the apple. It tasted sweeeet. I must say.
My beautiful, charming wife bought me this little white gadget and it completely blew me away. I was unprepared and I got swept off my feet. All I can say is TRY IT YOURSELF.
I think of myself as being somewhat "in the business" and that I´ve seen quite a few cool things in the IT-market. This is something else though. I can actually say that this technical tool changed my life from the moment I got in in my hand. It´s a thin slice future. I´m amazed that it works in such a perfect way today.
Ok, enough of the iPhone hallelujahs.

Post processing
I put the magic piece of work in the kitchen and I hit it with my little 580EX-hotshoe-canon. I bumped it up a few notches. This is what came out of the camera. (Only converted from RAW to sRGB)

I masked it using the pen tool, made it into a selection with 1 px of feathering.
I then basically followed these instructions. Make a product shot from nothing
I added some selective sharpening and color correction.
It´s a pretty neat way of creating something that looks like a picture in a magazine.
Oh, and I desaturated it some and aligned it.