Some times the best shots aren’t the ones you are trying to get. I was doing a shoot this weekend and in between shots while our model was changing I had my friend Jason sit down so I could test the light and snapped a pretty good shot of him. I looked at it an thought “wow, that would be a good shot to mess around with and try and get that Dave Hill look” so after I got home that’s exactly what I did.
I really like Dave’s pictures – they have that almost cartoony/painting feel to them, which I love (I also like the overdone HDR images for the same reason) – it’s like taking something and turning it into so much more just by tweaking it some. So, I’m working on my own way of post-processing to achieve similar results. My first attempt was just based on a post by Scott Kelby using some settings in Lightroom.
Not bad for a quick first try. I know there is a lot more involved in this post-processing technique, but it’s a good starting point. A lot of Dave’s magic comes from his lighting, as Kelby mentions in the post above. So, along with improving my post-processing techniques, I also have to work on my lighting, which is something I strive to do at every shoot.
Stay tuned for a post about the actual images from this shoot!