Love the processing that Bobbi and Mike do on their shots. I have toyed and played in LR and PS, but just cannot seem to nail it. Any suggestions? Maybe a litte input from Bobbi

Ohhh, I'm interested in seeing this post. I have my ideas but I'll wait and see what some others say (or maybe even the great Bobbi herself). Shoot her a message, let her know you're talking about her

Jon

Me too! I love the vivid colors. When I try to get vivid colors, the skin goes orange!

I bet it's highly classified, and if she told you, you'd end up in a deep dark hole in the Balkans somewhere.

I don't know how they post processes. But I do know how they get the awesome images in the first place... I got to meet Bobbi at a onelight workshop and she has the most amazing personality ever. You can't help but to smile if you are in the room with her. She had everyone cracking up the entire time.

Sorry the title of this thread cracks me up!

yah..i mean really! such a personal question!

I didn't get it at first the reference to the title...but oh, now I do and yeah that's funny!!!!

Nice to start the day with a good laugh.

I think the original poster is asking how Bobbi & Mike PP

standing? sitting?

Yeah, how do they PP without getting Orange Skin ?

I think it has something to do with the actions and tools they use.

blot, or swipe?

ha ha.
I heard they just use lots of layers to clean it up. Sometimes, masks are involved too.

Boy... Sure didn't take this post long to go south did it? haha!

I saw this a few weeks ago, works really well for sharper images and more saturated colors. I turned it into an action and all my images go through it now.

http://www.thedigitalphotographyconnection...layer.php?ID=52

Yeah I don't think you're gonna get an answer..

I think a lot of their look is obviously their lens and IN CAMERA shot. They pretty much constantly have a low app which is going to create a lot of depth. Their darks are pretty rich, I've seen a lot of Lightroom people pull the SHADOWS down in the tone curve, then adjust from there.. I've played around a lot and would like to think I can get close but probably not

Come on people, what's going through your head when adjusting in Lightroom? How do you start? What's your sequence?

Jon

My LR workflow:
- boost exposure by about .3 (for a properly exposed image, more if its under)
- recovery at about 50
- contrast to about 60
- slight vignette

that's all.

HMMm I thought it was "editing"

oh I have such a naughty mind...and I am glad I am not alone! The title made me giggle!
bobbi+mike shot a session for me and my husband and honestly she showed me a few in camera with no PP and they rocked already without all of the fancy stuff. They have some awesome mojo and whatever they do with the images later is just icing on the cake.

No word from Bobbi?
She must be busy doin' it!

**Waits patiently by the sink...

Less B12 in their diet.

I think it's time for Tami to create a poll on this topic!

i can barely figure out how to post links, let alone polls.... or should i say poles.... hahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahaha

HIYA!

Wow... had no idea any of this was here. Sarah Q sent me an email yesterday and filled me in.

I use a 5D and personally use only prime L series lenses....

The key to fab color is fab light. You can't just take a suckage photo and fix it in post process. I feel like people think that actions are what makes an image... and it's not. Some of you have heard me say that if, when I see an image... and the VERY first thing I notice is the post processing... then it's not a successful image. I really just want the post processing work to be icing in the cake.

I was talking with my good friend Robbie of openField photography when we started talking about this topic. He made SUCH a good point…. It was something along the lines of…. Many photographers think they can take an image in front of a funky wall and add a funky action and call it art. As you’ll see… those two things, in our opinion, are the very LEAST of what makes up in image.

Here's the recipe for a bobbi+mike image

personality: 40%
good light: 30%
amazing lenses: 20%
post processing: 5%
location: 5%

I pride myself on starting out with a good file. Just because I shoot RAW doesn't mean that I can get lazy... it's OH SO much faster to post process if you've done it all right in camera. And let's be real... a RAW image that's underexposed... and then tweaked to fix the exposure is not as good as a RAW image that's properly exposed.

I run every photo through Lightroom... I increase the contrast, vibrancy and brightness (and sometimes add a vignette). In Photoshop, I'll add sharpness, maybe do some dodging and burning, a little bit of retouch, some adjustments to the curves, in some cases add a slight X process, etc. And in all honesty... it doesn't look THAT much different than my Lightroom edit... I like all of our images to both pop... and look natural.

Now, I'm not saying I've ALWAYS been like that. I think that in my past I've been VERY guilty of TOO MUCH processing. I go through the archives and get a little sick to my stomach to see howwwwww icky and contrasty some of our past work is.

Let me also say that I’m FAR from perfect…. I screw things up all of the time.

I found a perfect example of how LITTLE post work I do... and this was for my good friend, fellow photographer Heather Cole... so of course I'd want her photos to be perfect. In this one, I applied my Lightroom preset (the increased contrast, etc. that I mentioned earlier), had no real LR editing to do because the exposure, in my opinion, was good. Exported JPG... took it into Photoshop... retouched... (I did more retouching than usual because again... it was my friend who had just turned 30), added just a LITTTTTLE bit more contrast... very slightly dodged and burned a few spots... and VOILA... DONEZO!



Not much of a difference, huh? So... I'm not just full of it when I say it's about the light and the lenses.
I recently had a photoshoot where the couple was more interested in shooting in front of VERY specific locations… regardless of the light. It was as though she was the art director and I was just the person to click the shutter. Now, I have NO problem with people who want photos in front of VERY specific things… but this was the ENTIRE photoshoot. The photos were turning out AWFULLY! Finally I had to say to her that her session was not about how many cool spots we can take these… it’s about YOU and ensuring that YOU look beautiful. It was a strange position to be in… but to give her what we show in our portfolio… we had to. Her favorite photos were the ones that I took when I was the art director.

About that topic…. I remember once reading something that becker wrote…. “I’ll take good light ANY day over a good location” OH HOW TRUE THAT IS!!!!! With a wide enough aperture… locations simply add color. Now, if you can get both… FAB

MANY people devalue the BASIC building blocks that make up a great image. Some people think they can take a crappy image and fix it in Photoshop... I see it all of the time. Photoshop and Lightroom are tools to help us enhance our images... not create them.

Wow… where’s that beating the dead horse smiley… EEEEKS!!!!!! I’m repeating myself over and over and over again! Clearly this is something that I feel quite strongly about

I know this was probably not the response you were looking for... but it's honest.

Thank you all SO much for your kind words... I really do hope that I answered your question

~bobbi

PS. we do it a lot.

Well Bobbi freakin rocks!! Holy Crap...

I still want to come over and hang out with you guys sometime. I'll hold your gear and stand outta the way in the corner I promise No really, I'll do that!! (And not while doing it)

Jon

Ewwy! Haha. Wouldn't expect anything less personal from you though without feeling disappointed.

I think you should change your name to BM photography.

(Seriously awesome of you to share. Rock on)

GREAT response, Bobbs! And I know just the shoot you're talking about. Thanks for giving me the courage to demand good light! I get that "specific location" request all the time and it drives me nuts.

This thread has waaaaay too much silliness in it for you to offer to hold her gear

Hey Jamie- just a question on your In Camera techniques...do you expose perfectly based on your light meter or do you bump it up a little in camera before bumping it up in LR? I only ask because if I take a picture 'perfectly' according to the light meter, its always a little dark for my liking so I overexpose it in camera a little so I have to do less in PP...but just thought I'd ask how you do it because I wasn't sure if there was a big difference.

AND BOBBI, your post is freakin awesome. LOVE it. thanks for sharing

Hey Jon... Staying in a corner "during a session", out of the way is fine... But to offer to hold her gear...

It might be trouble!!

Thanks for the explanation Bobbi!

Great response Bobbi!!

Um, well, no, I use my in-camera meter, but I know how to read it to get the right exposure. Let me explain. If it's heavily backlit, I know that my in-camera meter will say it's exposed when it's WAY under, so I will shoot the image with my meter saying it's overexposed...same thing if it's a dark scene. So I use my meter, but I don't use it in the sense that I shoot when the little bar is exactly at "0" or whatever... make sense?

j.

My in camera meter always turns out slightly dark for my liking as well. Bastard camera meter! So I do a lot of eyeballing, LOL. What meter?

Bobbi + Mike = My hero. I love their blog and I always get so excited because Bobbi is so out there and I am so out there and I love to be silly and gush and if I ever go to Indiana again I am sooo stalking them. Cause they rock.

I start to talk to my clients about light when we're even setting up the sessions. I say, we need to shoot at THIS time because of the light or we can come back to this spot later because of the light and they all seem to understand or at least they trust me.. which is always good. Thou I don't have a bunch of sweet ass equipment and L-lenses.. I will someday (More like the bare minimum and I rent the nice lenses thus far.. )

Primes are sexy! Rawr.

and Bobbi + Mike are too

Bobbi, +1,000,000 for the response. Sent you a message, too

Yup makes all kinds of sense Thanks for replying.

Y'all know about the "vibrance" control in LR, right? It adjusts the saturation of colors that aren't skin-tones. That's one way to give an image some pop without tweaking faces. You can also get more detailed in the "develop" module, where you isolate certain colors and change their hue/intensity/saturation, etc.

Just an $.02

Bobbi,

You guys Rock! It's so true about getting it right in camera. Thanks for your detailed response.

Jonathon

JONATHON CAMPBELL PHOTOGRAPHY
jonathoncampbell.com