Getting the Spartacus effect

OK. The next in my photographic obsession is how to achieve the photographic effect used in Spartacus.



The image is high contrast, highly textured and slightly desaturated.

There are two elements to this that I can think of, the lighting and the processing.

My first thoughts on the lighting is that there is a bright, focused light on either side, to give those slashes of light that outline the figure. There is also a dimmer, diffused central light, to illuminate the body. I am thinking that shadows shouldn't be too dense, as they will be deepend in the process. Same with highlights. Not too glaring. That seems relatively straightforward (but at least three lights needed. Eeek).

My thoughts on the processing are either

Bleach bypass: This is an effect used in the processing of film by the "partial or complete skipping of the bleaching function during the processing of a color film. By doing this, the silver is retained in the emulsion along with the color dyes. The result is a black and white image over a color image" (thanks Wiki). This can be simulated in Photoshop with halfway decent results.

Example (a copyright free image from Wiki Commons)



or, perhaps,

High Dynamic Range (HDR): This is a process involving taking a three or more photos of the same thing, with a range of different exposures. When they are combined, they retain a greater range of detail than could be kept in a single exposure shot. For example, the details lost in the shadows of a properly-exposed image will be retained in the over-exposed version. The same in reverse for details in areas of highlight. This can be done in basically the same way in film and digital photography, by combining the multipe images into one. There are also a number of HDR simulation methods in Photoshop, but I want to have a go with multiple exposures, in the hope it will lead to a better result.

Example (another copyright free image from Wiki Commons, not ideal for this purpose, but it gives you the idea).



Whichever method is used, it will need to start with a hig res image, to protect the details that will be exaggerated in the texture. The image will also need to have a large depth of field, to keep as much of it sharp and crispy. Shooting at a low ISO will also reduce the unwanted noise that these detail-exaggerating methods would amplify.

My concern with using this with dolls is that it is very dependent on exaggerating skin texture. Now, dolls have no skin texture, so we might be starting at a disadvantage. An option would be to add texture with a layer mask and I will try that too.

Has anyone either tried either of these two methods, or can suggest other ways to achieve this effect? I shall be taking an experimental base photo shortly and try both out, to see which does the job best.

More examples of very sophisticated work with a similar feel.

http://viesturslinks.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2ywhc3

http://www.azrainman.com/2009/05/bleach-bypass-textured-skin-effect.html

 

Bleach Bypass:

I have tried a number of bleach bypass methods and this one is the most straightforward.

Here is a link to the untouched, high res base photo, in case anyone wanted to play along. http://www.flickr.com/photos/madammaumau/7478221130/sizes/o/in/photostream/


1. Base photo

I had three lights; One either side and slightly behind, focused with homemade barndoors (cardboard and gaffer tape. I am such a ghetto photographer) and one less bright light, diffused, as close to the centre as I could get whilst still being able to fit in with the camera and slightly above eye level. I shot at ISO 100 and at f/8.

This is not processed at all, except to resize, to give you an idea of what we are starting with.



2. Increase the contrast: There are various ways of doing this (a levels, curves or contrast adjustment layer, for example), but I found that a duplicate layer set to Overlay blend mode was the most spectacular.

The image might look oversaturated at this point. Don’t worry. This will be sorted later. The disappearing trousers suggest that the starting image had better be relatively low contrast to start or things vanish into the shadows.



3. Exaggerate the sharpness: Again, various ways to do this, but I opted for the High Pass filter option on a duplicate layer set to Overlay (under “Other” in the Filter drop down menu). Set the radius according to the size of your image. You want it large enough to pick out the outlines, but not so large that you start getting haloes next to your dark areas. I might have gone a bit overboard on this one as the dreads are starting to glow.



Flatten image.

4. Desaturate: Use a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and set to 50-70%, according to taste.

You could safely stop here and have something that looked like a bleach bypass. However, if you are a tinkerer, there are some other things you could do.



Flatten image (I'm sure you don't have to keep flattening. Can someone who knows better than I do tell me?).

5. Final overall contrast tweak: If you want more punch, open a levels adjustment layer and bring up your shadows and highlights a little bit more by sliding the left and right sliders in a little.

I didn't actually do very much to this, just raise the highlights very slightly.



6. Final burning and dodging of selected areas: If some areas need a bit of brightening or subduing, I used a method that I only found out about today, not because it is necessarily better (although I do think it is as it doesn't have that saturating effect that burning seems to have) but because of the novelty value.

Add a new layer and fill it with 50% grey with the fill bucket. Set it to soft light blend mode and then use a paint brush on a low opacity (I used 5%) with black paint to burn, and again with white paint to dodge.

Again, I didn't do much here, just took the glare off his t-shirt and shoulder a little.



And the starter photo vs the final result. Was it worth all the effort? Who knows.

 

High Dynamic Range:

1. Taking the photo. Sames rules as above; high res, low ISO, set to aperture priority with a small aperture, to minimise noise and maximise sharp details. You will need a tripod for this. I used the same base photo as for the bleach bypass.

2. Taking multiple exposures. My camera (a venerable Canon EOS 350D) has a built in HDR feature. For mine (and it might be the same for other EOSs) set up your shot with whatever aperture and any compensation you need to get a well exposed image. Then go into menu 2 and select AEB. Use the right button on the directional pad to push the little sliders up to +-1 stop. And press set. You can use continuous firing mode and just hold the shutter down and off it goes. Or you can just press the shutter three times, one for each exposure.

If you don't have this feature, take your properly-exposed photo, then use the manual compensation thingy and go down one, full stop to -1. Take another picture. Then go to the manual compensation thingy and go back to zero, then up one full stop, to +1. Take another photo.

Here are links to the three base images, if you wanted to try this for yourself.

Normal exposure, under exposure, over exposure.

3. Combining the images. In Photoshop, go to File -> Automate -> Merge to HDR. It will open up a box asking you which files you want to combine. Browse your files to select the three photos you took and press "OK".

Give it a minute to cook.

4. Tweak it. You will be given a window with a preview. Mine looked pretty washed out. You get a slider with "Set white point preview". I have no idea what it does, so I just fiddled around with it until I had as much balanced contrast as I could. Press "OK" to create your combined HDR file.

5. Coverting to 8-bit file. You will now have a 32 bit bitmap, which you can't do very much with in the way of editing. It needs to be converted to 8 or 16 bits. Go to Image -> Mode -> 8 Bits/Channel and you will get a dialogue box pop up that allows you to decide how you want the final image to look. The most versatile option is probably using the toning curve and histogram (select "Local Adaptions" from the drop down menu), particularly if you are used to using Levels. I took the coward's route and used the exposure and gamma sliders to adjust brightess and contrast.

5. Save as a JPEG.

Single exposure version vs three exposure HDR version.



It's nothing like the effect I wanted, and perhaps there was something I could have done in the tonal mapping to raise the contrast, but I really like it. Look at how much more detail there is in it.

Example, with the disappearing trousers. Look how much detail has been regained from the texture of the fabric.

Single explosure vs HDR



So, seeing as this produced a photo with a lot more detail, I tried doing the bleach bypass method on that, to see if it would give more texture than from the single exposure photo.

Single exposure bleach bypass photo vs HDR bleach bypass photo.



Not a pile of difference and probably not worth going down the HDR route if you are just going to bleach bypass it afterwards.

So, so far, the bleach bypass method seems closest. But it isn't there yet. Any more ideas, anyone?

 

You are welcome. Getting the camera and lights out tonight to try it all out. Wish me luck.

And I would love to see anyone else's takes on it. I need IDEAS!

 

OK. Bleach bypass experiment photos are up. HDR will be there next.

 

Yup, I tried HDR (in Post 3). Not enough punch. Not sure if there is some other tinkering I can do with teh HDR image to bring it closer.

 

Nope, no filters. Would any help here?

The automate option is a pretty optimal way to combine the photos, as I understand it. I can try just layering the three exposures with reduced opacity, I guess. I will see if it makes any difference.

I am also now trying upping the contrast of the HDR shot in Levels and then sharpening with the high pass filter. That might bring in some oompf.

 

I'm still working with CS2! It's steam-driven, you know. And I also don't shoot any differently, as I also learned with film. But I am an utter convert to digital.

Yup, that has certainly upped the contrast. Trouble is, some of the textures are being lost. This is what I was finding with using an Overlay blend mode. It blew out the highlights and made the shadows very thick. Also, you are working from a small image there, and I have found that it makes an immense difference to start with a high res image, as the detail is everything.

My last attempt for the night. I used the HDR image, upped contrast with levels and then used a relativelt mild high pass to sharpen it. Hm. Still not crispy enough.



I also had a go at that fake HDR effect you posted. I used the actual HDR photo as a base, largely because it is now my gold standard. It has certainly crisped it up quite a lot. Closer? Could be.



The method, from KolNedra.

1 ] We'll call the original layer "ORIGINAL", now duplicate ORIGINAL and place it above that layer. (We'll call this "BLACKWHITE")

[ 2 ] Change the Blending option of BLACKWHITE to "Overlay"

[ 3 ] Go to Image > Adjustements > Desaturate (SHIFT + CTRL + U)

[ 4 ] Now invert BLACKWHITE: Image > Adjustements > Invert (CTRL + I)

[ 5 ] And add a gaussian Blur to it (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur) around 40 pixels (This causes the so called 'bleeding' of the edges, tweak the amount to personal likings)

[ 6 ] Now duplicate ORIGINAL and place it above BLACKWHITE, name this layer "LINEAR_LAYER"

[ 7 ] Change the blending type of LINEAR_LAYER to "Linear Light"

[ 8 ] Give LINEAR_LAYER an opacity around 62%. And you're done (I went right down to 25% as this prevented a lot of the contrast edge glowing that is really starting to annoy me).

 

Oh, you know me. Tenacious. And I find that these experiments are so useful for teaching myself something new. For example, I had never tried HDR before. I had heard of it, but imagined that it would be some complicated, long drawn out and highly technical procedure. Nope. Dead easy. And I really like the result. So much so that I will be HDRing all over the place from now on.

I am not so sure that it is the scale that is scuppering this as I am shooting on pretty high resolution with my bestest lens, but perhaps the instrinsic qualities of the doll. The Spartacus effect works particularly well with emphasising skin texture. Dolls have none. So, the next thought that springs to mind is whether to add texture with a layer mask. I will think on it and be back.

And I will add links to the high res, unprocessed photos, if anyone wants a tinker.

ETA: Tried doing the HDR using three layers of different opacity and the result just wan't the same, no matter which order the layers or the level of opacity. Whatever the auto combine is doing, it is doing it well. Granted, the three layers option does allow you to knock out any areas that you don't want over or under explosed, but that wasn't the problem here. It was the lack of contrast in the final image. Ah well. Worth a try.

ETA2: I am also going to try another HDR shot, but with a two stop difference between the images. Perhaps that will perk it up a bit. I am also downloading a trial version of Photomatix, which is the "proper" programme for HDR. Yes, I am becoming obsessed with HDR. This is what happens when I am left alone in the house for a weekend.

 

OK. Last attempt for a while.

I did another HDR image, but going up and down by two stops instead of one, in the hopes that it would put some additional ping into it. It made not a ha'pporth of difference. Still a nice HDR picture, but no better then going up and down one stop.

Then I used a milder bleach bypass on it by lowering the opacity of the Overlay layer, as it seemed to be increasing the contrast and killing the details. So, I did some adjusting with Levels to get a good starting degree of contrast, then set an Overlay layer at 30%. I then did a high pass sharpening layer, and I like this one. The white balance has gone all over the place as I now have ambient light seeping in, but I think this one might be getting closer. It is relatively high contrast, has retained the details and is pretty crispy. Opinions?

 

Gold? Do you mean a warmng filter? I have stopped desaturating now that I have moved on the HDR photos, as they seem to become fairly dull anyway. So that part of the process has been abandoned. But, looking at my image and looking at the target images, mine is lacking in the midtones that give the skin colour, so perhaps that is why the skin looks so bland.

So, I did another one and used Levels to bump up the midtones on the HDR image. It then took a lot of dodging to retrieve some of the areas that had lapsed into shadow, so quite time-consuming. But at least he now has more skin tone.



Next, a texture layer mask, to bring some grit into it.

 

keepithushhush, I am very, very embarrassed to say that I had not encountered Andrzej Dragan before. But, wow, that is my kind of portraitist. Yes. Stunning. Thank you very much for the inadvertent introduction.

Yup, looking at a couple of tutorials, it looks as though they are versions of a (fake) HDR effect. There might well be some useful stuff there. Thank you for that suggestion. I shall get onto it.

Z, I will try a layer mask with some texture, even though it is now going rather beyond my comfort zone for Photoshop fiddlage. This isn't because I think photos shouldn't be Photoshoppped. I think they should. But because I wanted to shoot a set of photos and I don't relish the thought of how much post-processing is going to be involved . The upping of the midtones darkened the background. I can include that in my dodging next time to bring it back up.

I might have a go at the actual proper base photos this evening, if I have the stamina, as I think the lighting is as it should be (leafing through a discussion of the Dragan effect, someone was mentioning that he uses two, focused lights, one to either side and slightly behind, then another at 45 degrees to the nose, just as I have been using) However, I can leave the processing until any more ideas have filtered in.

 

The next installment, adding texture. I added a texture using this process.

- Open your image.

- Open an image of a texture that is roughly the same size as your original image. There are lots of stock textures on the internet. I chose one that is a gritty-looking wall.

- Copy your texture image (Select -> All, then Edit -> Copy) and paste it onto your original image (Edit -> Paste).

- If it is too small, adjust the size to cover your image (Edit -> Transform -> Scale and move the node things to get it to the right size).

- Set the blend mode of the layer to Overlay. This will make it effectively tranluscent, with darker texture in the darker areas of your original image.

- You will want to bring the intensity of the texture down in places, or eliminate it entirely (don't want gritty eyes. Ouch). So, firstly, turn it into a layer mask (Layer -> Layer Mask -> Reveal All).

- To remove/reduce areas, take a paint brush with black paint and paint over the areas you don't want. Adjust the opacity to increase or decrease the erasing effect. If you have overdone it, you can bring the texture back again by swapping to a white brush and going over that area.

- Flatten yer layers and admire.

Dirty, dirty boy.