High-key tutorial
March 14th, 2006
I received an e-mail asking me how I did the white, bleached-out looking images. I’m certainly not the first to produce images like this, but the technique is something I just evolved myself while trying to find the style I liked.
So, how did I make this image?
It starts with this image… relatively even and soft lighting are important.
Next convert it to greyscale using your favourite method. I use a channel mixer with emphasis on the red and green channels to keep the skin tones light.
If the lighting is a bit uneven then use your favourite dodge/burning method to even out the tones.
Now, the bright white effect, done with a curve adjustment layer. The exact shape of the curve will depend on your image, and it will take some fine-tuning to get the effect you want, but start with something like this:
Again, you may have to do some more subtle dodge/burning in order to even out the tones. If you have any areas that are brighter than the rest of the image, they will bleach-out first, and you’ll need to darken them a bit so you can lighten the whole image up. You should get something looking like this:
Ta-da!
Tangle
Available prints: 8×12, 12×18, or 24×36
Posted in: Photography
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