from photoshop drop dead lighting
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Retro Effect
Retro Effect
The period of hollywood studio portraits of the 1930's and 1940's has always been a favourite photographic style for me. It was all about the lighting and the subtlety of the tints that made them look particularly polished. I think it is a credit to the photographers of the time who made their subjects look so perfect despite the lifestyles of some of the stars whose habits might not have been conducive to looking good in print.
In this chapter, I attempted to recreate that classic era, simulating the lighting and tints of the time. 
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Creating Low Key
Creating Low Key
It is interesting how the most mundane of photographs can be made to look professional and noteworthy when you play with the exposure a little and turn it into a high or low key image. Suddenly the subject matter takes second place and the distribution of light assumes priority. High key images in particular seem to have a story to tell, or rather, in many cases seem to have a story to hide. There is a certain evocative quality about the heavy shadows and almost abstract periods of light in a low key image. This chapter was written to try to convey that concept and to show the reader how this can be achieved on very ordinary looking photographs.
drop dead lighting techniques
Published by Ilex Press - 224 pagesPrinted in English and Spanish
Adobe Photoshop Elements Drop Dead Lighting Techniques is the perfect book for more adventurous digital artists who’ve gone beyond simple image correction and enhancement and want to add a touch of pizzazz to their photographs. Following on from the international success of Barry Huggins' "creative Lighting Techniques" this book delivers the same kind of expertise know-how to users of Adobe Photoshop Elements. It explains clearly how to create spectacular lighting and shadow effects, quickly and easily – everything from digitally recreating the classic film noir style to changing the weather conditions in holiday photos. Important differences between Elements and Photoshop are examined, and workarounds and short cuts help the reader to create the kind of effects once achieved only by image-manipulation professionals.
This is the finished image from the chapter on creating the effect of sunlight being filtered through dust.
I wanted to create the hot, dry, dusty atmosphere of a desert road in a long forgotten outpost of a barren wasteland. It took several attempts to create the look that I wanted. but eventually I could feel it coming. Maybe it was psycosomatic, but while I was working with ideas I had a very dry feeling in my throat and felt uncomfortably warm even though it was a cool spring afternoon in London. Whatever it was, if the anyone looking at the image feels even the merest suggestion of dust in the air and the incessant buzz of flies, I think the image has worked.