Request Oliwia Major - Workshop Fine Art

Discussion in 'Photo Requests' started by zezynhu, 5 Jan 2021.

  1. cassini

    cassini Legend

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    my jaw just dropped all of the sudden, :eek: 1st time to see her masterpiece, Oliwia Major +10,000

    upload_2021-1-13_7-12-7.png

    I say, it's too pricey but it's worthy to have it on our arsenal for photo retoucher / photography, definitely an added skill sets to our knowledge.
     
    Last edited: 12 Jan 2021
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  2. alechalegre

    alechalegre New Member

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  3. Foxman2k

    Foxman2k Expert

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    upload_2021-1-15_10-1-17.png

    I would really add myself also (if it could be true)....

    Btw, it is of course due to author what to allow and what do not but honestly what are their expectations if they don't allow record at least editing part of the workshop?! It makes it totally useless and turns from a workshop just to no reproducible demo :(.

    And just a warning (based on my previous bad experience), such artists often show an incredible work in portfolio and their courses description, however, during real workshop just take your money and show really nothing... even not close to portfolio look and feel.

    My 2¢....
     
  4. Foxman2k

    Foxman2k Expert

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    Just few more my personal opinions about the author and the course...

    I've found this artist before since she was few times awarded by 35awards. What makes me concerned so there is no any video (on YouTube, for example) showcasing her work in studio or post as well as there is no image showing EXIF data....

    I met such situation few times before (with an impact to my wallet) and what I discovered after that the person used for promotion pictures taken by other hired photographer as well as outsourced his post to third party studio :)

    From other side, might be I'm totally wrong in my conclusions.

    Anyway, this topic intersects with discussion https://p-v.club/threads/who-could-help-me-edit-like-this.28627/ related to the same artist and style, trying to decipher it.

    To my eyes, first of all, most of the pictures were taken with Medium / Large format cameras with very High-End optics. Also, retoucher used kind of painterly effects (close to what sells "Million dollar photographer" Bradford Rowley but at least the last honestly said that all post work was done by others) and made heavy face / body re-construction with help of Liquefy tools (to make it much mode ideal in proportions). And yes there is an additional post-processing on background similar to Sean Archer techniques to make it more blurry and distant (but it is much less important).

    Also regarding lighting most of the images on the site taken with same light setup using big octagon light from left (looking from the subject position) like 45-60 degree left and 45-60 degree up. Light is very strong, even and consistent (Wescott?) without additional reflectors plus very shallow depth of the field with a lot of details and micro-contrast in focused area so this is again tells about Medium / Large format (as primary prerequisite for this look and feel) :)

    Can it be reproduced without course? Yes it is. What is required? I told all ingredients in this post free of charge ;)
    More information? Unfortunately, I don't have a great (realistic) oil painting / painterly effect guide apart from mentioned Apalkin https://p-v.club/threads/paul-apalkin-tutorial-bundle.4275/(still searching), however, about Liquefy there is great resource already on this forum -> Surreal Retouching with Kelly Robitaille https://p-v.club/threads/surreal-portrait-beauty-photoshop-retouching-with-kelly-robitaille.1734/. She makes unreal pictures but the same technique can be used to convert an average person to beauty idol ;)

    I hope this helps, best regards to everyone!
     
    Last edited: 15 Jan 2021
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  5. alechalegre

    alechalegre New Member

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  6. cassini

    cassini Legend

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    Thanks, @Foxman2k. :) You save us some money.
     
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  7. Tortola2009

    Tortola2009 New Member

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  8. moggiecat

    moggiecat Veteran

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  9. Foxman2k

    Foxman2k Expert

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    You're very welcome, btw if you can find really good painterly effect guidelines I would be grateful.

    Actually there are plenty such tutorials but all create very non-natural kinda digital look.

    Some ideas can be also taken from Ben Willmore "Zero to oil painting" https://megbittonlive.com/course/zero-oil-painting/. This course was created since he often uses painterly look and he was asked multiply questions how it is done. So he tried to explain some basic ideas which literally can be summarized that such look can be achieved, for example, using Photoshop Oil Paint filter by splitting and masking image to zones / layers like hair, cheeks, eyes, shoulders, closes, etc and applying filter selectively with different settings (smoothing / brush size / sharpening). It can give (was tested by me and few my photography friends) better than average results (some times acceptable by clients :)) but not even close to quality and gentle "natural" look (like in real painting) what you can see, for example, in works of Bradford Rowley (sorry I don't have access to big size images but you should get an idea).

    resizedcrop-d32323bfcc83dfe65c922937c4038f46-800x800.jpg
    original.jpg
    5Aa_sJW9yNHl8Zc9Rj4eDt2yqn2wNKqtgmqgePtXhTyMvOi82ZWmBNQaMSwtCdqT-k7XbJxK-T5N0ayGq1R5DuCX-MaGz-K8.jpg



    PS. I afraid that there is no one filter or one specific predefined workflow to reach such effect and probably there are few "secret" ;) ingredients that never disclosed on any workshop since they really make difference and literally "sell" corresponding images.

    Cheers!
     
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  10. zezynhu

    zezynhu New Member

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    [QUOTE = "Foxman2k, post: 118087, member: 3565"] Apenas mais algumas opiniões pessoais sobre o autor e o curso ...

    Já encontrei essa artista antes, já que ela foi poucas vezes premiada por 35 prêmios. O que me preocupa é que não há nenhum vídeo (no YouTube, por exemplo) apresentando seu trabalho em estúdio ou postagem, assim como não há imagem mostrando dados EXIF ....

    Já conheci essa situação poucas vezes (com impacto na carteira) e o que descobri depois que a pessoa usou para promoção de fotos tiradas por outro fotógrafo contratado, bem como terceirizou sua postagem para um estúdio terceirizado :)

    Por outro lado, posso estar totalmente errado em minhas conclusões.

    De qualquer forma, este tópico se cruza com a discussão https://pv.club/threads/who-could-help-me-edit-like-this.28627/ relacionada ao mesmo artista e estilo, tentando decifrá-la.

    Aos meus olhos, em primeiro lugar, a maioria das fotos foi tirada com câmeras de formato Médio / Grande com ótica muito High-End. Além disso, o retocador usou uma espécie de efeitos de pintura (perto do que vende "fotógrafo de um milhão de dólares" Bradford Rowley, mas pelo menos o último disse honestamente que todo o pós-trabalho foi feito por outros) e fez uma reconstrução pesada de rosto / corpo com a ajuda de ferramentas Liquefy (para torná-lo muito modo ideal em proporções). E sim, há um pós-processamento adicional no fundo semelhante às técnicas de Sean Archer para torná-lo mais embaçado e distante (mas é muito menos importante).

    Também com relação à iluminação, a maioria das imagens no site tiradas com a mesma configuração de luz usando uma grande luz octagonal da esquerda (olhando da posição do assunto) como 45-60 graus para a esquerda e 45-60 graus para cima. A luz é muito forte, uniforme e consistente (Wescott?) Sem refletores adicionais mais profundidade de campo muito rasa com muitos detalhes e microcontraste na área focada, então isso é novamente sobre o formato Médio / Grande (como pré-requisito primário para isso aparência e sensação):)

    Pode ser reproduzido sem rumo? Sim, ele é. O que é necessario? Eu disse todos os ingredientes neste post de graça;)
    Mais Informações? Infelizmente, não tenho um grande guia (realista) de pintura a óleo / efeito de pintura além do Apalkin mencionado https://pv.club/threads/paul-apalkin-tutorial-bundle.4275/ (ainda pesquisando), no entanto, sobre Liquefy já existe um ótimo recurso neste fórum -> Retoque surreal com Kelly Robitaille https://pv.club/threads/surreal-portrait-beauty-photoshop-retouching-with-kelly-robitaille.1734/ . Ela faz fotos irreais, mas a mesma técnica pode ser usada para converter uma pessoa comum em ídolo de beleza;)

    Espero que isso ajude, cumprimentos a todos! [/ QUOTE]

    Thank you For the tips!!
     
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  11. Foxman2k

    Foxman2k Expert

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    Thank YOU! You made me proud by translating my ideas to Spanish :) (which unfortunately not yet between the languages that I speak ;)).

    Might be I need to write a full article concerning the topic and especially "painterly look" that I've researched for pretty long time.

    On short note (sorry moderators, I don't want to sound off-topic and will try to be brief and to the point as possible), I would like to make an additional comment about similar topic in comparison with this request: Dmitry Baev - Retouching Finer Art Portraits https://p-v.club/threads/dmitry-baev-–-retouching-fine-art-portraits-–-private-lesson.20235/.

    In this mastercass author (Dmitry Baev) claims that the course is dedicated to creation of painterly look. Despite all works of this master are exceptional (especially common eastetics, composition, costumes and other attributes that I wish I could put my hands on :() the final result is definitely beautiful but they are not much painterly even in comparison with discussed here Oliwia Major.

    Actually there are few definitions of "painterly look" and to myself the most appropriate is when the final picture resembles a hand painting in style of old masters like Rembrant, Rafael, old Dutch masters, etc. There are pretty much a lot of differences between "digital look" and "paint look" but one of the most important is in details and tonal micro-contrast (not sharpness) since painting contains much more subtle transition of colors/semi-tones together with their luminosity which often lost just in initial RAW development. This is why Large format outperforms Full format in the first place, because there is much more tonal information in the initial image. Later in the post-process even this information is going out what can be seen in the very simple and very known test - when we just open the RAW file and take a look at the Histogram, it is "whole" and it could be outlined by some curve or spline. Next we can apply Levels or Curves (which are to certain extent in the engine of almost any existing filter or effect). After this application the Histogram became "broken" with some empty areas in colors. This is where tonal information is already gone. Of course I bit oversimplify the situation but it could explain why it is important to go back and "re-build" missed semi-tonal information to get painterly look.

    Last but not least, some web authors claim that painterly (and particularly) 3-dimensional look can be achieved with Dodge and Burn. It is only partially true since as any other method D&B has its own limitations and definitely cannot re-build absent semi-tonal information but at best could improve luminosity gradients by correcting Highlights and Shadows.

    And to conclude, images of discussed in this request Oliwia Major absolutely display some kind of painterly look, the big question remains if she discloses it in any type of training and/or communication so kinda yes +1 (still ;)) ... or might be it is another money loss...

    Best regards!
     
  12. moggiecat

    moggiecat Veteran

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  13. zezynhu

    zezynhu New Member

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    I started training and I think I'm already getting the result I want. Take a look
    RetroME (1).jpg RetroME (2).jpg
     
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  14. Foxman2k

    Foxman2k Expert

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    Looks pretty good :)

    PS So you are using this course or you base your results on something else?
     
    Last edited: 17 Jan 2021
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  15. w@rs@w

    w@rs@w Master

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    [QUOTE = "zezynhu, post: 118214, member: 10742"] I started training and I think I'm already getting the result I want. Take a look
    [ATTACH = full] 36769 [/ ATTACH] [ATTACH = full] 36770 [/ ATTACH] [/ QUOTE]
    Would be interested to know what your using...these took great.
     
  16. moggiecat

    moggiecat Veteran

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    so...what was the training you say? Most inspiring from those others recommended you??
     
  17. zezynhu

    zezynhu New Member

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    [QUOTE = "Foxman2k, post: 118226, membro: 3565"] Parece muito bom :)

    PS: Então você está usando este curso ou baseia seus resultados em outra coisa? [/ QUOTE]
    I followed several tutorials (Paul Apalkin, Paulina Duczman, and Paul Apalkin) Some adjustments are missing, with more practice I will get the result I want
     
  18. zezynhu

    zezynhu New Member

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    My inspirations were Paul Apalkin, Paulina Duczman, and Paul Apalkin.
     
  19. Nero

    Nero New Member

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    wow, that's amazing! What camera and lenses did you use?
     
  20. zezynhu

    zezynhu New Member

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    Hi!! I use a Nikon D750 and 50mm f1.8 / 85mm f1.8 lenses
     
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