[These are comments made by comments and replies by Andrzej Dragan on photo.net – culled and collected by Kent Christiansen and Pam Recek for help in deciphering hints on his light retouche technique.]

Or maybe I have not-that-ugly models, then I "make them" look ugly to make an impression that maybe they are not as ugly as I show them?

Sonia: Yeah, PS offers a full freedom of style. That's why you can paint whatever you like. And that's what I like.

It is a kind of painting, or rather sophisticated retouche. But not with the use of real dyes or brushes, only with their digital substitutes.

There are no filters involved (except for the tone adjustments). The mysterious painting mood is achieved with an exhausting handwork "light retouche" with a set of fancy brushes. Just like the painters did, actually.

You are right that I pay a lot of attention to the eyes. Actually in most cases it is very relevant to treat each element of the photograph in a completely different way, however eyes seem to be one of the most important ingredients. Cheers!

large size

http://deryk.photopoints.com/main/photos/showauthor.aspx?txtHiddenAuthorID=5286

On self portrait

I love it! But did you dirty your nails just for the pic? welcome to PP :-) cheers, darryl

RPLY Photographer 2/7/2004 8:23:41 AM Nope, I wouldn't sacriface myself that much ;-) They're postprocessed :)

On woman in silken scarf

I thought of this issue and asked some people to pick their favorite of these two photos. They are very different indeed, however usually people prefer this one (because of a more natural lighting perhaps). Anyway, the yellow color is put here deliberately to enhance the "painting mood" of the photo. Cheers!

On man with silver mug

The painting effect is a result of "hand-made", digital post-processing (as some of my other photos). Cheers!

On portrait of an artist

Would be difficult to explain the technique, even if I tried to, as it contains mostly a hand-made light retouche with several brushes and a lot of color filtering different for each photograph. Actually, there is no universal recipy, no set of automatic filters involved but rather exhausting manufacturing and constant experimenting. Anyway I believe everyone can develop his own, unique technique and style based on his own sensitivity. Cheers! :)

On confession of a blue-eyed woman

:) Well, then question back: How did you achieve the background? It definitely looks like PS "plastic wrap" filter.

No offence taken - I'm just curious! :)

RPLY Photographer 3/29/2004 7:01:13 AM If you can make it with your filter, what is the use of the details of my technique? ;-) If I were you, I would first try to do use the filter to achieve such an effect before being certain ;-) Cheers!

The postproduction concerning the woman was successful - she really gains some dark, weird expression.

I think the background falls a bit off your concept - the plastic like PS filter is too obvious. Don't get me wrong - I'm not "anti filter" - just use it in a more subtle way :)

RPLY Photographer 3/28/2004 8:04:33 AM Actually, I am "anti-filter" and never use them ;-) All that is shown here is 100% hand-work manufactured :)

On piano tuner

Absolutely brilliant... I'm having a very tough time trying to decide whether I prefer this one or your POW on photo.net... I personally love the colors here, but they might not be everyone's taste, I guess. Besides that, I like that I see in this one a bit more of the "piano" and a bit more of this face in the background. In terms of expression, they are both great, with perhaps a minor preference for your PN POW... All in all, both are award-winning portraits imo. GREAT job !

RPLY Photographer 5/18/2004 5:49:56 AM I kept the second version in color, as it brings some fairyland mood, not just nostalgy like in the previous version. However, when you discard the colors here, you should easily find out that this one is technicaly much better (at least in my opinion). Anyway, there are many more details worked out.

RPLY Not Available 5/19/2004 4:13:05 AM Thanks for this very interesting reply. I suppose that you believe this one is technically better in terms of shadow details, right ? Or is there something else that I am missing ? If it's just about the shadow details, I think it remains quite a subjective thing - meaning that in BW and with less details, an image often becomes more dramatic, more to the point. I personally like that - at least sometimes, and here as well. Therefore my hesitation between the 2. Regards.

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=2336985

This version is taken one month after the first one. I've decided to leave the color, as it essentialy changes the mood: form nostalgic to a kind of fairyland :) Concerning the techniqe, there is a lot to tell. I've written a little on my website in you are interested. It is hard to give any insstructions. All I can do now is to share one of cool tricks I sometimes use. If you like to make a B&W version of this photo, first try to filter it with a blue or violet filter. For the portraits it works much better than a simple desaturation (as the skin is red-coloured it enhances many interesting details, in contrast if you like to smooth the skin you may use a red filter). If you like to keep the colors anyway, you may anyway put it half-transparently to a colored version and see how it works. Cheers & bye! :)

On man on tram

Is it rude to ask what that means. Is it a selective application of effects painted/masked?

I did a lot. Mainly color filtering.

On Jacek Lulak

The composition is scheming.

It reminds me of some compositions of the sovietic constructivists, like the collages of Rodchenko. And, if I'm right, this pic was taken in the World Press Photo 2004 exhibition, therefore the face at the back is from someone else, not the same of your friend in front...incredible their similarities...

There is only a thing I personally don't like: the tonality of the skin. I'm not sure, but it seems to me it is too "yellowish", or it can be just an impression on my screen.

RPLY Photographer 7/1/2004 2:33:40 PM Katia, I never intend to keep natural tones. My only direction is aestetics and I don't care about how realistic effects I get.

I made this photo using a quite new technique I've just discovered. Let me know how do you like it. All your comments are welcome :) In the background there is one of the winning photographs of World Press Photo 2004

On we will make it

Tobiah: as a matter of fact I met them just 10 minutes before the photo was taken. I had a portrait session in a Social institution for old and disabled people. This is just the first one, I should post more of them soon. Cheers :)

On Daniela

Thanks :) Btw, the lighting on the cheek is not natural, but painted. It turned out however, that it looks quite natural ;-) Cheers and regards!

On accordion master

Biliana: Seriously, I don't think that it has anythingo to do with the type of camera... Yes, I use PS, for example shine the lights.

Well... originally the suit was blue ;-) The rest is more or less the same.

On Together we cry

Thanks for the nice words :) Btw... "Czarny Kwadrat" is not my real name. In polish it means "Black Square" :) Btw... I was wandering wheter it would be better to make the background high-key. What do you think? Cheers!

On polish poet

The PS techniques I've used here are perfectly reproducible in a dark-room. One can do it all using proper color filtering and masking.

Light retouch

Some of my photographs presented here undergo a specific treatment: a digital manipulation I call 'a light retouch'. Apart from some straightforward color manipulations and tone filtering, the original technique doesn't make use of any automatic filters. Instead of that, it involves a unique for each photograph combination of special illumination of the photographed model and a hand-made smudging of the resulting photograph with a set of several fancy brushes to artificially interfere with the original lighting. Such manipulation is a modern substitute for the combination of an old-fashioned classical dye-and-brush painting, as well as dark room photographic techniques. Hence the oil-painting mood and a characteristic, artificial contrast present at some of works exhibited here. Creating new illumination with the light retouch is, by the way, also another example of classical ‘painting with light’ techniques used by some photographers.

With the use of light retouch one can achieve a rich collection of final effects: from a fairyland and unreal atmosphere, through an enhancement or modifying various moods present on portraited faces, to a simple imitation of a realistic painting. Art of use of the light retouch simply broadens photographer’s means of expression and opens up a new field for his creativity.

I receive a lot of questions concerning the details of the original technique, which is not very straightforward and involves several different actions and tricks. Moreover the evolution is unique and different for each photograph. Unluckily I run out of time answering in details to everyone, therefore I have decided to sell the results of my work. I have kept a recording of the "creation history" of many photos, which is simply a set of consecutive intermediate steps: from a raw photo to its final version. All I can offer you is a set of high resolution files with these intermediate stages from my archive with a full explanation of the technique's details and all the applied tricks. All for a reasonable fee. For the further details please visit the "Sale from the exhibition" tab, or just send me an email. I hope you will understand that, as it is beyond my force to help everyone and I believe that the profits should be common. Frankly, it is not very easy to give away all the secrets of the work and that's another reason for my decision. Maybe one day I will gather myself to write some compact tutorial on the techniqes of digital manipulation, anyway at present I have completely no time to think about that.

I also wanted to thank everyone for the nice words. I will try my best to discover more in photography and hope you will be there to see the results :) Cheers!

Painting with light

http://www.creativepro.com/img/story/011604_caponigro.pdf

http://www.twistedtreephoto.com/Photoshop%20tutorial/painting%20with%20light%20page%201.html

http://www.adobe.com/print/tips/phslight/main.html

http://www.adobeevangelists.com/pdfs/photoshop/tipsandtricks/PaintingWithSnapshots.pdf

Tim Grey

Yes, the dodge & burn method I recommend calls for creating a new image layer with the blending mode set to Overlay (or Soft Light for a more subtle effect without as much contrast) and the layer filled with 50% gray. You then paint with a soft-edged brush at a reduced Opacity setting (about 10% to 20%) with black to darken or white to lighten.

The difference between this method and Shadow/Highlight is that the dodge & burn method allows you to "paint with light" over specific areas of the image, using the Opacity setting for the brush (and the number of times you paint over specific areas) to adjust the results you achieve.

http://www.photo.net/photodb/member-photos?user_id=774124&include=all

Andrzej Dragan, May 13, 2004; 04:48 A.M.

Sorry, I did not have the time yesterday to answer. Frankly, selling all the

tricks is a much better business than giving, anyway I can tell a little :)

I've written a little about the technique at my website, however a lot in

this photo was done with a blue filter mixed with the other layers in many

fancy ways (including soft light effect or just normal sandwich). Blue

filtering is by the way one of the best and easiest tricks I've discovered

for portraiture, and it adds a lot of dramatism. The reason is simple: human

skin has a lot of imperfections, which are mainly red-colored. So after

processing through such a filter they get enhanced. Similarily a red filter

is smoothing the skin, which is probably an obvious fact for professional

fashion photographers (it is amazing, why this is not taught in any photo

manuals). The effect of this photo is this a combination of carefull color

filtering (using several layer effects) combined my "usual" retouching

technique. I hope this helps. Cheers!

"....a lot in this photo was done with a blue filter mixed with the other

layers in many fancy ways"

Andrzej’s email to me on ‘blue filtering’

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=11151923

Hi Kent,

describe as how the blue 'filter' shows the skins imperfections, is exactly what isolating the blue channel does in photoshop, whereas applying a blue filter (PSCS's 'photo filter' for example) only imparts the color on to the image.

It is actually the same. Or it should be if PS "photo filter" was not a fake. If you put a blue-colored PSCS "photo filter" and then desaturate the photo, you get more or less the same than when you extract the B channel, don't you (at least you should with a real blue filter, probably you'd need to iterate applying the blue filter)? I believe that many analog photographers aware of that use traditional blue filters on their lenses and shoot on BW films. At least I would if there was no PS ;-) Anyway, what I meant was using a blue channel.

BTW, please send my greetings to dpreview retouchers :)

Cheers,

Andrzej

“Light retouching” in polish

Kultura & sztuka, czyli Kulturystuka.

Pozwoliłem sobie wybrać perwersyjny i bezpłciowy styl narracji, by poinformować Cię, iż nieoczekiwanie postanowiłaś penetrować niezbyt nieoficjalną stronę byłego antyartysty o pseudonimie nieartystycznym Czarny Kwadrat. Miałem wprawdzie zamiar zmienić formę poniższych treści, jednak ostatecznie zmieniłem tylko zamiar.

Przejdźmy jednak do tak zwanej rzeczy, czyli do konkretu. W życiu każdego antyartysty bywają chwile słabo&#