Check these portraits out!

[Anders Östberg]

Very distinct style here:

http://andrzejdragan.com/foto/nowawyrobniaeng.html

A little warning on the user interface, clicking a thumbnail takes over the screen and opens a full-screen page. Just click the large image to close it and get back to the index.

[gparr]

Wow! Thanks for pointing us to that collection. I really like his style and the photo processing technique. Some of the most intriguing portraits I've seen in a long time.
Gary

[NikNikon]

These are all amazing. They all look as if they have been through some processing but I'm not sure what exactly this guy did to get this look. Theres more of a art rendering feel than actual photographs to me. What ever it is I like it.

[Freddy]

great Pics and brilliant Technique

[dbevis]

There's been a lot of discussion of these, and techniques for getting similar results, in the DPR retouching forum. Even Andrzej popped in to say hello.

They are quite stunning. He's gotten so much attention, that he's offered to disclose his secrets to anyone who wants to buy them. But as he says, first you start with a great image.

[FredG]

wow ... this does not happen without a great deal of patience, vision, and skill. I hoe he makes a lot of money selling the technique he created.

[rjgleason]

Wow! This gallery is superb! I see shades of our friend Pressman in this guy's style.

[nhfirefighter13]

wow ... this does not happen without a great deal of patience, vision, and skill. I hoe he makes a lot of money selling the technique he created.
He'll tell you for 200EUR a pop. Good for him, that is some excellent work that truely takes portraiture into the real of fine art.

[NikNikon]

I just tried to do something similar just to see if I could discover something new. Like usual I try to imitate a style and come up with something else, which isn't a bad thing but I usually like what I'm trying to emulate better. This would be no exception.


http://www.dphoto.us/forumphotos/data/751/931dad-thumb.jpg (http://www.dphoto.us/forumphotos/data/751/931dad.jpg)
This photo is on it's third revision

[pressman]

Nick - the gallery is really superb - I only wish I knew his secret. I like your attempt and I have a similar philosophy.Here is a self portrait with a lot of manipulation in Photoshop. Pete

[angelic]

I had to play. Sorry Pete if I make you look bad. It's not my intent :)

[NikNikon]

Nice Pete. The one thing I would change would be the "black scratches", they look to be a bit overbearing. Maybe drop the opacity a bit if it is on a separate layer. Are you doing something like duplicate layer/desaturate/find edges/delete white portion? If so I has been working with a similar approach. Mainly I make several duplicates of the original and do various tweaks to each and use tools such as "overlay" and others in the layer box. This does nicely as far as blending the images together.

Don mentioned others giving this a try over on the DPR forums, I took a look and there were some pretty good attempts. This one was my favorite:



http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=9657811


Nick - the gallery is really superb - I only wish I knew his secret. I like your attempt and I have a similar philosophy.Here is a self portrait with a lot of manipulation in Photoshop. Pete

[pressman]

Thanks Nick - I work on similar lines. angelic - you made me look like stone age man! LOL. Pete

[Queen Josephine]

These are really dramatic. I took a quick look, and I think I came to an approximation which is fairly straightforward and quick. I hope you don't mind Pete, but since I don't have any good people photos, I looked through your gallery and found one of your self portraits that I felt would lend itself well to manipulation. I used quick masking in combination with adjusting selective colors, hue & saturation. Nothing else.

Oh, yes I did. Your eyes. Ahhh... did I guess correctly? Had to use PSP for the effect since I have yet to find anything in PS that is as quick and easy as PSP red eye reduction feature.

[Queen Josephine]

A slight variation. After returning to the website and looking at the pics again.

[NikNikon]

Nice job Queen! Your second one looks much better.

[Queen Josephine]

Pete makes a great subject.... :D

[pressman]

Queen. I agree with Nick's choice - I feel as though I have been under the surgeon's knife. Pete

[mikeez]

Hey guys,

I paid Andrezej to learn the technique he is using. But he sent me an email with few lines of instructions.... very poor explanation, mainly desaturation techniques I guess the guy doesn't want others to know his technique even if they pay him :(

mk

[dbevis]

That's all you got for 200 euros? I keep hoping that freelancer54 reposts his/her technique (the first one was yanked because the owner/subject of the example image had not agreed to being published so widely).

What I find baffling is getting the "warming" effect without winding up with a muddy, low-contrast image that has lost all the details of the original. I have not even gotten to the point of doing the vignetting and burned/darkened background - but that should be easy to do.


Hey guys,

I paid Andrezej to learn the technique he is using. But he sent me an email with few lines of instructions.... very poor explanation, mainly desaturation techniques I guess the guy doesn't want others to know his technique even if they pay him :(

mk

[Rune]

When money exchange hands, I think it is reasonable that a sample picture is included, as well as a recorded action that will demonstrate the effect on the sample. (or send him a picture and let him work his magic on it while recording the action...)

[ScottR]

Would you mind sharing a few of your details about what you did???

Very nice work!!


A slight variation. After returning to the website and looking at the pics again.

[Queen Josephine]

Well Rob, I'll share what I remember of it! I don't remember the exact details (often it is a matter of just experimenting with different features in combination with one another.) But looking at it again it seems that I duplicated the layer, played with adjustments in "Image, Adjustments, Selective Color", partially masked the center of the face in quick mask, using maybe an opacity of 80%, then adjusted the hue, saturation, lightness to obtain the dark perimeter around the face. Or I could have burned it using the burn tool. They eyes I'm sure I did in Paint Shop Pro instead of PS because it as a really quick and easy RED EYE REDUCTION feature that is very handy. But generally speaking, I primarily start using the following 2 Adjustments on a duplicate layer -(hue, saturation lightness, Selective Color) just to get an idea of the direction I want to go in. Then Quick masking to define where the effects take place, changing the opacity and brush hardness, then sometimes curves.

[efontana]

It's cool; but it is so dark, eerie, not my taste; however I do appreciate the work, just not my cup of tea.

[lecter]

you blokes (and blokettes) are too good for me....
Time to sharpen the skills.....
where's my photoshop tutorial??
:P
so much to learn.....