Dave Hill Effect

2008-11-03T15:39:00.000-08:00

I've been surfing the net and reading opinions and tutorials on what is called the "Dave Hill Effect". It is a technique or style created by Dave Hill that gives his photos the hyper-realism effect, something like an HDR photo but somewhat more of a plastic look. It is a great technique that Dave Hill is keeping to himself, and rightfully so. His work is immensely popular.

Everywhere you look someone has a tutorial on how it's done. Most of which create mediocre to disastrous results. The problem is that everyone thinks it can simply be reproduced by some Photoshop action or plugin. Most of Dave Hills pictures involve intricate lighting setups that enhance the highlights and create rich shadows. He has a great eye for composition and design and that is something you cannot create after you press the shutter button.

Having said that, i think that if you employ some of the how to's into your own work you could create a style of your own, which is what it's all about.Copying the masters is a great way to learn. So by all means, try it:

Step 1:
Open your image in Photoshop and create a duplicate the layer.
Go to "Filter" - "Other" - "High Pass" set the Radius to 4 Pixels.
On the Layers palette select the "Vivid Light" blending mode.
Flatten the image.

Step 2:
Create a duplicate the layer (again).
Go to "Filter" - "Other" - "High Pass" set the Radius to 7 Pixels.
On the Layers palette select the "Color" blending mode with an opacity of 40%.
Flatten the image.

Step 3:
Create a duplicate the layer (one last time).
Go to "Filter" - "Blur" - "Gaussian" set the Radius to 9.5 Pixels.
Go to "Filter" - "Noise" - "Add Noise" set Amount to 3%.
Got to "Layer" - "Layer Mask" - "Hide All"
Now use the lasso tool and select only the eyes (assuming the image has eyes, formultiple selections hold the shift key).
Go to "Select" - "Refine Edges" - set "Feather" to 5-6 pixels, then "Select" - "Inverse"
Select the brush on your tool palette, set the brush opacity to 30% and brush over the entire image once.
Flatten the image.

Step 4:
Go to "Filter" - "Sharpen" - "Unsharp Mask" and use the following settings:
Amount 100%
Radius 30.0 pixels
Threshold 0 Levels

...and if you want, check out my attempts at integrating some of these techniques into my own work. Be sure to leave a comment:

http://artistabstractions.tk/

Artist Abstractions

Dave Hill Effect