I cropped a lot tighter to get rid of some background that was bothering me then used the burn tool at 10% on highlights and just painted over the areas that kept distracting my eye from what I thought was the intention. I selected the drop ceiling area, feathered the selection and then used Levels to bring it darker and lowered contrast at the same time.
Time in PS about 5 min. Time spent figuring out how to post this - much more. Ya, I'm like John McCain - still not figured out this internet stuff.
I'd love to put a 'grunge' effect on it but I don't have these filters installed on the laptop yet.
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
I duplicated the image, copied the blue channel into the duplicated image with luminosity mode. Blended the red channel into the luminosity layer at 25% lighten. Went to LAB mode where I sharpened the L channel twice, once with a small radius and again with a larger radius.
This was just a quick guess. I am sure that there are lots of ways of approaching this conversion.
Here is my take on the Hair Salon Guy. I separated 4 elements with the quick select tool and saved each as a separate layer. 1. Guy 2. Post 3. Doorway/Office 4. Background.
Each layer was color correct separately and the layers were flattened. The image was then filtered with Lucis Pro 6.0 (separating each color channel) to bring out more detail.
The reason it's a little flat isn't in the processing, but in the way you lit it. The shoot through umbrella is way too diffuse, especially when used with a regular camera flash. Put the cover back on the umbrella and turn it around, and you'll have way more directional lighting. If you're worried about the light being too hard, bring it right in close. I often have to clone out the shaft from the umbrella from my photos.
The other thing is that the light seems to be coming from almost directly behind the camera. Move it to the side so that the light washes across the subject. Here it's hitting head on and really flattening him out.
I like the red background with the blue shirt, that's a nice touch.
Thanks Guys, great tips! David, The umbrella was camera left, about 45 deg. I got it as close to my friend as I could without it entering the frame. For Noel, with regards to the floor, that's primarily cause I was shooting roughly 35 deg. to the building front. The post he's leaning on is almost directly in front of the door. To get the banner/logo inside framed in the door I had to shoot the angle.
I'm not sure how I'd frame it from there so both the post and the botton edge of the wall showed square. I'd hesitate to use the perspective tool, cause it would make it look unnatural, yes?
Thanks again for all the great tips Guys!!!
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
Are you sure it's not to the subject's left? You can see that the light is hitting the post and lighting up the front of it, but leaving a big shadow under the left side of it.
Linear Mode
