How did he do this?

[Honey-Dukes]

Hi! I know it might be quite simple, but I like the colours in this guy's picture. It's a very subtle effect but I like it. He used a Nikon d40 camera and I know it has some effect filters -I wonder if maybe he used them to take the pics? And if that's the case, how can they be done in Photoshop CS or Lightroom?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/boyghost/3242214943/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/boyghost/3239258883/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/boyghost/3230967283/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/boyghost/3222265139/

(apparently I can't obtain the code to post the pics here)

Thank you very much in advanced!!

[OsmosisStudios]

Just looks like some selective editing with whtie balance, saturation and colour levels.

[Silverz]

You sould be able to get similar effects with the colours by using photoshop.

Add a hue/saturation adjustment layer and reduce the saturation to 0 then experiment with overlay or soft light blend modes on the adjustment layer with different opacitys and it should come out looking the same with a bit of playing around. You should find lower opacitys work better (around 10 - 20%)

[KathrynWilson]

I would say a master desaturation a little bit, then a specific desaturation of blues, then add in red to the shadows and midtones.

[boyghost]

Hey Honey

Everyone's been pretty much spot-on in how I do it. A lot of it is done in-camera, too -- I'd venture to say about 75% of it happens before I export the JPGs to the computer. On the D40, I use the "Optimize Image" menu and set up my custom color settings as follows:

Sharpening +1
Tone Compensation +1
Color Mode 1a
Saturation - (Moderate)
Leave Hue Adjustment alone

These settings will give you semi-sharp images with very even tones and more realistic, if not slightly drab colors. This will also keep your histogram from being blown out on the highlight end or too dark on the shadow end.

I use a pre-AI manual focus lens for most of my shots, and that requires the camera to be in Manual exposure mode. When I shoot, I try to keep my levels on the histogram kind of balanced 3/4 of the way to the right so that it errs on the bright side, but with enough shadows that the left end of the histogram is still pretty full -- this is going to depend a lot on your lighting, but with a little fuddling around you can get it close enough if the light is too harsh. What this does is gives you a little leeway in playing with your curves. In my experience, you can make an image darker with little to no negative impact on your photo (i.e., artifacts, noise, over-sharpness). Most of what I do takes place on the shadows end of the histogram; playing in the highlights area can give you blow-outs, noise, and all that other nastiness.

After a fun-filled afternoon of wandering the streets, head back home and plug-in. I use iPhoto to take care of any straightening and proofing, then export the photos straight into GIMP for editing. The method to my madness varies greatly depending on the images at hand and what I'm going for, but the number one thing I do to nearly every shot is a quick levels adjustment and then a curves boost. Using the levels tool, I just drag the left end slightly to the right, the right end slightly to the left, and then the middle triangle slightly to the left. This will give you darker shadows, brighter highlights, and less contrasty midtones. Then, using the curves, apply a slight -- VERY slight -- "S" curve by dragging the lower 1/4 of the histogram down, and the upper 1/4 towards the top. This will give you a slight increase in overall contrast and saturation. From there, you can mess around with the different color channels in the curves tool to get your colors the way you want. I like playing with blues and reds to get a nice orange "Polaroid" tone, but this is totally up to you.

If you REALLY want to get your hands messy, you can use circular black and white circular gradients on separate layers to get a nice vignette going. Different unsharp mask settings will give your images a nice pop, but I'd use this sparingly. Overdoing your sharpening will give you nasty artifacts all over the place.

So that's the basics of how I've done it in the past... but the method changes daily, because I'm never content with doing anything for too long. Good luck, and my sincerest thanks for checking out my photos. I hope this was in the slightest bit helpful. I'd love to see your results if you try it out!

-bg