Bah, this is as close as I could get. Well I could have gotten rid of more texture, but it would seem strange on a man. Maybe I'll smooth him more later, not sure. I made some interesting observations about her work while I was failing at copying her but I'm too sleepy to type them out now.
On second look I definitely need to remove more texture.
Btw anyone's free to download and tweak this jpeg if they think they can help get it closer.
MP Retouch wrote: Bah, this is as close as I could get. Well I could have gotten rid of more texture, but it would seem strange on a man. Maybe I'll smooth him more later, not sure. I made some interesting observations about her work while I was failing at copying her but I'm too sleepy to type them out now.
On second look I definitely need to remove more texture.
Btw anyone's free to download and tweak this jpeg if they think they can help get it closer.
I'm out of my depth, I know, but I thought I would give it a whirl. Obviously this is very rough. I can not justify devoting the time needed to better contour his face and I'm still fairly new to stylized retouching. Speed is not my strength.
One of things I noticed about her photos is the surreal quality to the eyes. There's tons of highlighting around the eyelids. The sclera and iris are super glassy. MP retouch did a beautiful job on the pupils and iris. I added an additional highlight to the left iris. The eyebrows are next to non-existent. Obviously a lot of this smoothing looks odd on a man but..... you know, trying to stay as true as I could. I did add a five o'clock shadow to try and maintain some masculinity.
I did lots of airbrushing to smooth and remove texture. Airbrushed some shadows in. Also lots of dodging and burning. If I continued to work on this image I would do a lot more contouring.
I also moved some of his facial features around to mimic the look of a composite. I also changed the shape of the eyes and nose to add more surrealism.
The background is a big fail and I didn't touch his shirt.
I didn't round off the hairline like she does in her images because that would have made him WAY too feminine.
Natalia_Taffarel wrote: I think that is close but doesn't quite have it.
Would you like feedback on why?
Of course!! I'm dying to hear what you have to say about it. In addition, I officially give anyone on this forum the permission to critique the retouching in any of my images at any time, doesn't even have to be constructive.
Okay, here's what I learned about Dolron's imagery while I was attempting to emulate it.
- She's a master of implying detail, which is a skill developed by painters. As long as the overall silhouette is there, all the brain needs is a hint of detail and our minds fill in the rest of the information. This allows her imagery to create larger, more simple compositional shapes without looking busy.
- It seems like she keeps the skin tones rather desaturated, keeping the saturation to areas which would show subsurface scattering. This is why her skin tones look so cool yet so lifelike - our brain takes the subsurface scattering as blood flow underneath the surface.
- She contrasts cool and warm tones together, like in her painterly background. There are both warm and cool tones that blend together in our minds to create a more vibrant, realistic color scheme. For example, in her backgrounds she uses both desaturated red and green tones right next to each other. These slightly mix together in our minds. Even though overall the imagery is desaturated, this brings more life to her colors.
- There is a very slight loss of contrast at edges that aren't important to the composition. This helps lead the eye.
- She saves her pure blacks and whites for the part of the image that she wants you to look. This is especially apparent in the full body shots of her's I posted.
- She seems to include only the most essential of details. It looks to me like she's gone in and painted extra detail areas to make them read easier. Seems like her work is all about the mood and the quick read.
- She appears to use the same lighting that the classical master's used: north facing window light.
This is a thread which contains some art theory regarding portraiture that I feel is relevant to Dolron's look.
This post goes into more detail about painterly lighting.
Brightonian
Posts: 778
Brighton, England, United Kingdom
This has become such an interesting thread - I wonder if anyone will get there? - I certainly don't have the skills but I'm fascinated to watch those who do
ok dont be too hard i didnt spend 8 weeks on this like she did, and i just used an image that i had so the lighting is off. and i admit i am a hack at photoshop.
this looks terrible small, so please click on the image to see it larger. i wont leave this up long because i really dont like this enough to leave it on my portfolio.
Okay, take 2. This time I extremely loosely planned a shoot around Dolron's brilliant style, although I didn't do any compositing. If anyone can figure out how to get it closer, don't keep it to yourself! Yes, I'm aware that my hair is ridiculous and this image is fairly comical without the serious period styling/wardrobe.
**EDIT: Updated trying to implement Natalia's suggestions**
nebulaoperator
Posts: 318
London, England, United Kingdom
Hi Natalia,
I don't intend to challenge or make a laugh out of you. I am very curious.
I don't doubt in your potential and experience. A million worth question: Do you think you could accomplish that look if you were provided with dissent photographer , lighting and etc. Would you pull that out? How close could come to that look.
I also know it is impossible to be Desire Dolron as she is the only one Desire in the world. You know what I mean.
Thanks Neb
There was actually a thread about achieving the look of this exact picture a few months back, if i get time (I'm at work lol) Ill go search and link it =]
Cause I'm pretty sure they figured out how to do it.
nebulaoperator
Posts: 318
London, England, United Kingdom
Rabbit Heart Retouch wrote: There was actually a thread about achieving the look of this exact picture a few months back, if i get time (I'm at work lol) Ill go search and link it =]
Cause I'm pretty sure they figured out how to do it.
Can't wait to see it. There where some nice attempts though. Thanks
Robert LC
Posts: 944
Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
Natalia_Taffarel wrote: Again... I don think it's easy at all
Maybe you and Ashish can joint forces to probe me wrong?
If it's not that hard, just do it, post it here and probe me wrong
Xx
I think (or hope) that those who said it's "simple" and "nothing extraordinary", were talking about the possible techniques used to achieve this painted/pastel 'look'.
This doesnt mean that achieving these results and, having this creative mind and eye for detail and composition are 'easy' or "nothing extraordinary". A pencil and paper are very simple not so extraordinary tools, but the results in some people's hands are..
Instead of daring eachother and betting on them failing to achieve this, we'd better give eachother some helpful tips/give it a try ourselves (as some already did), or just leave this thread alone..
P.S. In my experience, spanish/portuguese speaking people mix up the "b" and "v" sometimes (because of pronouncation difference in spanish)
Robert LC
Posts: 944
Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
Apart from the obvious parts (lighting, model[s], bg changes, raising blacks etc), I'm sure most of it is manual painting (DnB + 'normal' conventional painting)
nebulaoperator
Posts: 318
London, England, United Kingdom
Hi RobertO van der Laan ,
I followed that link with the tiger workflow.
If you look at the Dolron's one the photo has some invisible line it's neither photo nor painting. Your one seems to me a bit more illustrated.
Robert LC
Posts: 944
Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
nebulaoperator wrote: ..it's neither photo nor painting.
It's photo AND painting (among other things), just like the other examples.
nebulaoperator wrote: Your one seems to me a bit more illustrated.
People have different results using dodge and burn for basic retouching as well, while using the same method. Doesnt neccesarily mean they use different methods.
Here's another example, even more extreme towards the painting side:
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