How to acheive a certain style photography?

[tina___cliff_t]

<p>I'm not sure if its ok to link to another photographers work.<br>

But I was wondering if some of you can explain how to get this type of look/style. <br>

I know there's many styles out there, but I love the way this looks. I've seen a few other wedding photographers with this feel in there work, and I really like it.<br>

But any tips on what direction I need to look into to achieve this in my own photographs would be great. <br>

Thanks!</p>

<p>Link: http://s612.photobucket.com/albums/tt207/auroraphotoinfo/?start=20</p>

[betty_lowrey2]

<p>This photographer really like the Totally Rad Action "pool party".</p>

 

[maximphotostudio]

<p>Christina, I agree with Betty. Looks like a mix of Pool Party and Grandma's Tap Shoes and a fix of contrast. Check out: http://gettotallyrad.com/recipes/ for more.</p>

[david_schilling___chicago_]

<p>There's a number of different action sets (Kubota, Yervant, etc...) and commercially available filters (such as nik Color Efex Pro) that will give you those looks. If you know what you're doing in PS, you can apply all the effects yourself without using someone else's action or a plugin. You might want to look into joining: <a href="http://www.photoshopuser.com/">http://www.photoshopuser.com/</a> They do frequent traveling workshops and offer learning DVDs and tutorials for reasonable money.</p>

[tina___cliff_t]

<p>OMG TRA is great! I was hoping you could do something outside of photoshop for the effect, but thats ok. I will be looking through the receipes all day!<br>

And thank you for the photoshop link, I hope they come around here for a workshop that would be fantastic. It seems easier to learn that way, but you just can't quite get what I'm looking for from a photoshop class at a community college. ( I know...I took one...was such a bummer). </p>

<p> </p>

[colleendonovan]

<p>OMG TRA is WAY overused (IMO)! Ugh. I hate it when photographers think that they have to use six different actions on every photo to make them look 'good'. What happened to awesome lighting, true emotion, and great compostition?? Why in the world would you want to use the same actions that 8 million other photographers use?? So that your work will 'fit in'? So that you will have 'the look'?? Personally I want the opposite - I'd rather have my images stand out and be different than blend in with the sea of pictures already floating around the internet that have been overprocessed with TRA or whatever actions.<br>

[colleendonovan]

<p>Oh and just to add to my already snippy sounding post - processing your pictures a certain way isn't really a 'style'. It's a fad.</p>

[art_tatum]

<p>What Colleen said x2.</p>

[fotografz]

<p>I had to chuckle while skimming through the TRA site. Almost every before/after image I looked at ... the "before" was either poorly taken, or more frequently poorly processed, and the "after" looked worse. LOL!</p>

<p>But as usual, different strokes for different folks.</p>

<p>I'm not against actions (or pre-sets in Light Room) ... some are very good for specific characteristics of digital capture. The best ones do their thing, but are almost undetectable. Jeff Ascough's set is the best I've used to date. Really a great help in shortening the processing drudgery.</p>

<p>Fooling around with effects is fun and some can look great, but only if you have first mastered making the image work without applying a homogenized action ... or ten actions on one poor image.</p>

<p> Content cannot be replaced with dazzle. </p>

[joseph_federer]

<p>While over-doing actions isn't 'good' - trying to get the most out of every image sometimes invloves some edits - be them PS by hand, a preset, an action, etc. For me, 'actions' are only "overdone" when they are not appropriate to the image.</p>

[betty_lowrey2]

<p>You know, I have to wonder if anyone would call what the Pictoralists did a "fad"...since that was, in a sense, just "actions" before computers.</p>

 

[david_schilling___chicago_]

<p>Betty, Colleen and Marc are both well respected pros that have been doing this for quite awhile. If someone wishes to copy the "look" of another photographer, you can indeed find out if they rely heavily on actions, and if so you can get the same actions and will achieve very similar results. Often, without gaining any advances in improving the exposures at time of capture.</p>

<p>In the end, an action is nothing more than a few, or several, pre-recorded PS manipulations that can be saved and applied at the touch of a button. As such they are just a time saver for PS manipulations. Commercial action sets allow anyone to have access to someone else's taste for PS manipulation.</p>

[tina___cliff_t]

<p>I've been messing with some actions, and I don't think I can pull it off. Maybe its because it doesn't match what we normally put out. Something in my head just says...that looks unnaturally wrong.</p>

<p>*Sigh* lol I'll stick with the basics.</p>