Glynis

First of all, thanks for reading and appreciating my blog. I’m really happy people are learning from the things I’m putting out there.

I’ll be happy to tell you how I achieved the look of the image in question.

I started in Lightroom. I almost always adjust ‘clarity’ and ‘vibrance’. In this case, it was +25 and + 50, respectively. I also almost always use the vignette function in Lightroom (Lens Correction), in this case Amount -100, Midpoint left at 50. I also usually sharpen the image a bit, as most images could do with some sharpening.

After I exported to Adobe Photoshop CS3, I decided I wanted the image to have a gritty, grainy ‘urban’ feel to it. I’ve make no bones about the fact I LOVE using Photoshop actions. For this particular image, I worked with Doug Boutwell’s Totally Rad Actions. The first thing I selected was his Pross Crossessed #2, dialed back to 75% opacity. I really liked the color shift and increased contrast, but still didn’t feel it was quite there yet. Here’s what Doug has to say about this action: “Creates green-yellow highlights and warm-reddish shadows. Much more ‘acidy’ looking.”

Next I decided to layer it with Boutwell’s Prettyizer action, dialed back to 25% opacity. This added a bit more richness and depth. However, it still didn’t have a gritty, grainy feeling. That’s when I went digging around through my own catalog of backgrounds I keep on file for layer and overlays. I found one of the side of a rusty old tractor shot in the golden glow of a late afternoon. I used that as a overlay, dialed back to 50%, then created a layer mask for it, so I could erase it from his face. I wanted his face to be ‘clear’.

So, that’s how I did it.

If you decide you want to get some of those actions or gear that I talk about and you click through the links or the banners in my sidebars, I get a bit of monetary motivation to keep providing this info. Just sayin’.

I ve read all your articles and find them very helpful, ive certainly learnt from you! Im really intrigued by the photo of a boy sitting at the bottom of a slide? Ide love to know how this effect was achieved, I have both lightroom 2 and PS cs3, is it a complicated edit? It has a real urban/cross processed look.

Thanks

Matt