Ehancing the Mood with Color

Anyone who's a fan of the movies knows that Color sets the tone and the mood of the movie. The same is true with photographs. The right color treatment can turn a good shot into a "Wow!" shot, adding just the right sense of drama that brings it to that higher level that commands the viewer's attention.

So when photographer Stephanie Diani contacted me with this project I was immediately interested. Color grading is fast becoming one of my favorite parts of digital imaging. The opportunities for creative input and collaboration are really emphasized in this process, and when you arrive at that magical look there is a sense of great creative satisfaction with the transformation you were able to make happen.

Since this process can be very subjective we usually begin by looking at a variety of images the photographer feels have the right mood they're looking for. Then the exploration begins. Since this was a series of images it was important to also create a streamlined workflow for getting that special look that was both easy to apply as well as allowed for just the right flexibility so the look could be tweaked easily on an image by image basis.

In the end Stephanie's final look was accomplished with just 3 Adjustment Layers. And applying the look to all the other shots in the series was as easy as a few copy/past moves.

Here's a side by side before/after shot followed by some of the rest of Stephanie's series:

Before After

Bringing Out the Drama

When most people think of CGI images they think magical renders of perfect products where every detail pops out in just the right way. And while they're right, a great image can be magical, getting that magical image can be just as much work with a CGI image as it is with an image that starts with a photo.

Earlier this year Coca Cola called Bo Opfer, of 9k9, when they needed some high quality shots of their new bottle design for their NOS Energy Drink. Knowing this would need a touch of Photoshop Magic as well as CGI Magic Bo called on Dennis to be part of the team working on the project.

As you can see above these drinks come in 3 flavors, Fruit Punch (Red), Acai-Blueberry-Pomegranate (Blue), and Raspberry Lemonade (Pink). The overall job called for various views of each bottle with different lighting schemes. The shot you see above used the more dramatic lighting inspired by a Grolsch ad while the other shots used a more conventional product lighting scheme.

While we started out with a high quality 3D model as the project moved along it quickly became pretty clear we needed to modify some aspects of the model to get the clean look the client wanted. For instance the ribs that were on the back of the grip area of the bottle needed to be deleted, (they kept showing through).

And speaking of the ribs, as with conventional photos, often times the lighting that works great on one area may not bring out all the details you're looking for. Because the ribs were an important part of the redesign of the bottle we needed to make sure they popped in just the right way. But how to make this work without doing lots of illustrative work?

Enter the magical VRayNormals render! This is one of those really cool renders today's 3D programs can produce. Basically this pass (shown below) contains different lighting information. The rainbow look of the image comes from the differences in each of the Red, Green and Blue channels. And it was in those channels that Dennis found the perfect source for a mask that would let him make those ribs stand out.

As you can see the bottom of the bottles changed pretty dramatically over the life of the project. Seems the client decided to redesign the bottle of the bottles along the way (at least twice)! Combining this with various label changes, and the fact that each bottle needed to be rendered in both wet and dry versions (with the drops editable), you can see this was a pretty lengthy project.

Below are a Before/After look at the Blue bottle as well as one of the group shots with the more conventional lighting.

Beach Fashion

Philippe McClelland called on me to help out with an editorial fashion shoot he was about to shoot on one of the beaches near Los Angeles. Given the predictable June Gloom that sets in over LA's beaches throughout the month these images needed a little work to really help them sparkle in the way Philippe and his editor had visualized.

The series involved 8 different images, some utilizing compositing of various images of doves as well as adding a floating rope. Below are a few more samples from this campaign.