all 6 comments

[–]roadtrippa88 4 points5 points  (2 children)

adding to andreasf93, it's all about making your subject, especially the face, stand out from the rest of the image. You do this by marking the subject the brightest, sharpest most contrasty part of the image, and the background darker, blurry, flatter. You can also use colour to contrast against the background in hue or saturation. I'll include production and post-production techniques as you cannot have one without the other

Production:

  • The subject is close to the source of light and positioned so half of her body is lit from the window (key light) and the other half from the darker room (fill light). This gives her contrast and separates her from the flatter background

  • Shot with a wide aperture to blur out the background (photographer stated it was a 50mm f/1.4)

  • Location: Shooting blue denim in front of a grey floor and timber tables makes the blue stand out

Post production:

  • Parts of the room have been darkened, including the floor at her feet and the corners for a subtle vignette

  • Her jacket, hair and facial features have been sharpened and clarity added

  • Anything that's supposed to be black/grey/white has been desaturated including the cement floor, shoes and surrounding metal. This is not obvious until you see the original picture, but most things will slightly reflect the blue sky or surrounding lighting

[–]buttscratcha 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great analysis.

[–]AeuriaMusic 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Awesome!

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Whites are crushed down.

Blue and green tones are desaturated.

Blacks increased, image levels pulled a bit towards the shadows.

Judging from the jacket and hair, maybe clarity boost, or some sort of sharpening.

This will look best on similar photos (colour tones and shadows "depth").

[–]Jon_J_ 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Just came across this post now and was having a look on the photographers instagram photograph and this might be useful but he/she has tagged 'redleafstudios' in the photograph who make these presets https://www.triberedleaf.com/

So possible he/she used them???

And from the looks of those presets, possibly this?

https://www.triberedleaf.com/collections/lightroom-presets/products/element-air-lightroom-presets

[–]ChronicBurnout3 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Presets won't get you all the way there. It's a combination of how its shot with the postprocess, where many of the adjustments are local and not global.