The Hyena's Den

Song of the Day

2009-07-30T22:50:00.000+02:00

LMFAO - Get Crazy

Retouch Detouch

2008-05-31T22:53:00.007+02:00

just a few sites i wanted to share with you

i think a lot of knowledge about retouching does not come from photoshop-skills, but by observation. starting with your local nude drawing classes to spectating the pros.
well here are some websites, that do not just pose their work, but show the whole process:

Detouch

this site is just awesome. those guys collected before-and-after material from several sites (the links on the right are sets through which you can flip with the buttons at the bottom) and let processing spit out some super interesting behind the scenes material, where you can see each altered pixel and such (information behind the process)
btw - don't miss out the first picture of the fluideffect.com-Set - this one's just hilarious :)

Taylor James

Super inspiring team. and the step-by-step making-ofs are just huge and impressive

Glenn Feron

actually - i never heard of him, but the before-after function is always a nice bonus

Christophe Huet

definitely one of my favourite artists ever. he's not so much into portrait-retouch, but his photoshop-skills are just killer!

Brian Dilg

Greg Apodaca

only a few...but still...

i'll add some more in time, but this is alreadyenough to look at :)
(for all you thirsty eyes: Link)

(truth be told, the spoiling of our view on human perfection scares me. lots! dove made a huge video concerning this topic, i hope you all know (even tho dove are no so moral company as this video shall show...but well...it's still advertising...enlighten yourselves)

Joey's - Making Of

2008-05-04T15:39:00.009+02:00

Das Ergebnis (09.05.2008)

(auch anzuschauen bei "Ads Of The World")

Fast fertig (03.05.2008)

Quellbild I - Die Übergabe

Quellbild II - Die Pizzaria
Ideen-Scribble (Anfang 2008) jaja super gemalt und so :p
Der erste Test (09.04.2008)

Test mit der finalen Source-Auswahl (01.05.2008)

Vielen Dank an Detlef, Christian und Judith für die grandios unkomplizierte Unterstützung und Aufopferung eines kompletten super sonnigen Tages

Library - Edittests

2008-04-05T16:11:00.005+02:00

did a shoot for a student friend and quickly tried a few different approaches on the shot for myself decide for yourself, which one's best...if is any :)
(I'd go for the first one ;))

the unseen one(s)

2008-02-28T02:42:00.003+01:00

For the process of the image check the post below. all i did the last 3 hours was merging hyenas and trying to make them fit. at the end, when i wanted to make the image ready for my blogger, i hid the pack and the couple and well...it just looked way better. expect a proper series on this
(yeah finally an image with my beloved hyenas!)

the final image

the one with the whole pack
credits for the hyena(s) go to http://www.hyaenidae.org :)

Buxy

2008-02-26T18:57:00.003+01:00

just happened to come across this photo (weak jpg, but beautiful shot taken by a friend of mine) and as the original photo was already quite nice, i wanted to see, what i can do in a few minutes with it

After
Before

<3 Buxy

Skywalk

2008-02-10T16:07:00.000+01:00

Ralph saw my first shot, that i basically did just for fun and recommended making a series with at least two more motifs(sp?) and this is the first one after this suggestion.
first was a railway bridge, this one's a skywalk so my third idea of shooting a car bridge (and all of them in the same district of frankfurt) suits this work pretty good.

The Final Result
this time i was quite quicker (3-4 hours!?). mainly because i knew where i was heading, and also because i did not have to do so much cleaning up the image (last time i exchanged the posters, what took quite long)

The Base
this is what photomatix made out of my shots. i was about an hour at the location and did only two different spots, so i'm quite happy for a result like this with this minimum of effort.
(as usual with a fake backdrop....background...right... see it here)

Pure Power and the Power of Change

2008-02-09T13:20:00.000+01:00

...and the struggle of never getting it done.
i know this is pretty old stuff, but it's been the first ad, where i just sweated my whole body out, back in and out again and so this (most of the times worthless) effort finally gets its honor.
(before i forget to mention it: everything is stock. except for the trail - i started out with "building" it in 3dsmax, then trying out photos and finally programming some photoshop brushes.)

Version 1: 14.07.2007
this is the first ever made version, i did after the idea got ralph's blessings

Remarks: 15.07.2007
i did an alternate version with a little boy-girl-couple to add some depth to the image. this is what ralph thought of it

Version 2: 02.08.2007
new trail (3dsmax again :)), new look, new clouds, new arrangement

Version 3: 21.08.2007
trying diffetent background (no trail, no "real" plane, cause it was just a test)

Version 4: 29.08.2007
back to the old scenery. still not working properly

Version 5: 06.12.2007
well that's what i sent to the ADC Sushi. i did not win. dammit. who would have guessed :p
(but the trip to munich was fun tho)

CMYK - Making Of

2008-01-31T15:58:00.001+01:00

Welcome to a new session of post-production. After a long time i once again had a HDR at my hands - can be the first time i made one on purpose and not just for training.

Final Image
I knew, that the over-burnt lights looked kinda crappy and i just did not think of the one and onyl possibility to get rid of this flaw. But not only that, the last step (yes it truely was jsut one) improved the whole image (if you ignore the increased pixel noise ;)). Cheers, i now stop working on this image :)

Nearlly Final Image
(Second) Last step has been what i call the "manual micro contrast". it's nothing more than taking care of details and the weight of every part of the image. i do this with simple d&b, but as simple as this sounds it is the most time-taking process. I reckon it being not less than 5 hours just painting, playing with levels and selective color and trying to get every sick detail :)

Composition of Content
At this stage i cleaned the image, deleted blemishes, trash and other irritating garbage, put in blank posters (sick task, considering that Photoshop crashed the first time and i had to re-do most of it. but it had the benefit, that i changed the process and it even looked better the 2nd time) and added a proper sky. Took me some 3 hours, too. Source: Dawn Clouds by George

HDR, Perspective & Clipping
I never used the "Perspective Correction" Command before but this is one hell of a new friend to me. The original image was pretty distorted and this tool just saved me a lot of work. The HDR has been done with Photomatix.

The Basic Shot(s)
Januarey 20, 2008: We went to this spot i always wanted to do soemthing with, to shoot a HDR for Danilo's new try on another barfin-Ad. So after we shot a few HDRs for him (we actually did lots, but most were screwed), i took the time for my very own one. Long time exposure has been some heck of a annoyance, as everytime the low and mid were shot, lotsa cars passed by and killed the shot. I still left some trails (bottom right) in my image, but they are just irrelevant.

Thats from me. Hope you liked it :)

Ringelreih

2008-01-24T00:36:00.000+01:00

The Making-Of

04 // the final image
That's how the final composition looked like. Most fine art-direction has been managed by Ralph, whilst we were under high pressure...we could not even make our own generously set dead-line.
Post added roughly five hours to the creation time.

03 // pre-version
The whole process of post-production took me about 11 hours. Ralph called me lots to help me out with some hints on things like changing some minor, but important details, i never would have looked at, though i only concentrated on a clean and nice look of the image.
This included the toughest part of making clay look like porcelain/shiny plastic. Went out pretty good, rite? :)

02 // face-changes
All i basically did was getting rid of the blemishes the guys received in the build-up process, changed the weird freaky eyes, aligned their looks to the camera and made them look more real (Ralph's superb idea to add mustaches and blushing cheeks).

01 // the base-shot
Here you see the light set-up which was made off constructionyard spotlight. I blocked their direct light with some Dextro-boxes and created the indirect light with a silver reflecting mat, that Carine had to hold up over the dwarfs in each shot (too bad we don't have a photo of this ;))
(As described in the main-blog, the idea with the dwarfs came from Laura and then the decision was made to have our sculptors Andi and Matthias made 5 dwarfs from our sketches out of clay, because the idea of taking proper dwarfs and manipulating them failed in our pre-tests.)

Behind The Scenes
the set-up
the production-team
the exact adjustment and a final homage to a stressy day

Guitar Hero // Guitar Heroine

2007-11-28T23:08:00.004+01:00

Making-Of Video

Step-by-Step

Stage II - finalStage I - composing
ya i know...no guitar...but i still don't have a proper title.
BUT...the work is finished i guess. nice double feature, especially as the base photography of the model was such a crappy shot...anywho...i'm only going to adjust the cheeks on my next session...this has been 7 hours straight right now.
-> only improvement from stage 1 to 2 is a more realistic approach on the facial anatomy
>> images printed, served as presents and totally satisfied. project: done.

Source: *click*

Stage IV - Final
Stage III - Nearlly-Final Version
Stage II - Not approved by the biter
Source Composit - just a show-off
(Source: Sky , Desert, me, Danilo's compositional look-assistance)

Stage I - First try
(perspective: wrong. size of person: wrong. color merge: slightly wrong. flipping a person: MAJOR MISTAKE...:)...but the background will be used in some other composing...i guess)

Hun Hun

2007-11-18T20:37:00.000+01:00

P.I.Z.Z.A.

2007-11-17T22:46:00.000+01:00

hopefully the last time i'm going to retouch something that comes without an idea or concept.
i will probably post the person into some weird background to give it some sense, but right now i d&b'd 3 hours and i'm really looking forward to my books and my bed ;)

detailshot
source

Set up

2007-10-30T16:56:00.000+01:00

i'm so goddamn proud of myself. yes. i have to say this.
this' been my first light set up ever and look what popped out of it.

(sorry that it's me again, but i have to learn this first before i molest other people with my undirected directions. GODSPEED!)

Improving on Portraits

2007-10-25T20:44:00.000+02:00

Once again my own face (sorry) had to be polished to try some new tweaks Danilo considered discovered my looking closely at David Hill's shots. He assumes that hes desaturating his shit and re-colors it manually.
Regarding this option, i took a shot of myself with a one-colored T-Shirt as the main-sample to pay attention to.

(I) The original Shot
(II) De-mushed and tweaked Exposure (Fake-HDR)

(III) Manual Coloring (yes , the shirt actually has this color!)
(IV) Final Tweaks (Quick curves and de-saturating)

(V) All Versions in one Shot
As my final conclusion i have to admit that manual coloring adds a lot of work, but it's definitly worth all the effort. You take out the "normal" color noise that comes with the usual reflection of light that every surface in the room emits. To take care of unwanted coloring, this way is just the one to go.

My first ever HDR-Shots

2007-09-27T13:10:00.000+02:00

Here are my first trys on HDR (some with Photoshop CS3's HDR merge, some with Photomatix) - all shot within a few hours after i discovered the automatic HDR-Sequence option of my 400D.
I'm all in the learning process and i have to remark, that i didn't even use a tripod...ya i know...;)

At the lake (Photomatix)
On the Bridge (Photoshop)
In my kitchen (Photoshop)
In my corridor (Photoshop)
(click on the images to enlarge.)

Professional Skin Retouching Samples

2007-09-27T11:41:00.000+02:00

Here are my first trys, where i got an insight on the mechanics in photoshop regarding retouching the skin and getting rid of the mush with the help of High Pass.
(this is just a small collection of my 3 favourites. for more click here)

Portraitshot of myself (Canon EOS 400D) / 26-09-2007
Portraitshot of myself in detail
(yes i just held up the cam - and it's even HDR! just click on the images to enlarge.)
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Retouching on Canon eos5d Sample /19-09-2007
Retouching in Detail
(you can even view the original eos5d sample here. just click on the images to enlarge.)
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Danilo the Biter (Canon EOS 5D) / 18-09-2007
The Biter in Detail
(my pal kinda battled me on his own portrait, and i think it got pretty nice. click to enlarge.)

1st

2007-09-27T11:35:00.000+02:00

Hey there.

I just want to open up this blog by saying hello to who ever sticks around and shows interest in my progress.
My goal is to constantly evolve on photographing techniques and especially the procedures that come with photoshop.

The first lessons i'm trying to master since last week is the magic behind the filter highpass (making portraits so crisp and the skin look so silk) and the looks of HDR-composed images.

See you'round.

- stef