Reverse Engineering this look.

[Akhil Arora]

Hello guys,

 

I was just browsing through flickr and found this amazing picture posted by a user.

 

I was wondering what is it which makes this picture so good.

 

Please guys if u have any idea about how to create a scene like this, please share it.

 

Anything on this would be appreciated.

 

 

Thanks. :-)

Edited September 17, 2013 by Akhil Arora

[David Mullen ASC]

It's a nice photo in overcast weather but I don't see anything unusual about it. They added a soft vignette all around the edges in Photoshop or some similar color-correction software, I don't think it is normal corner fall-off of the wide-angle lens used.

[Chris Millar]

Agree, I think the vignette especially is what is drawing you in.

 

A true vignette from a spherical lens having with low coverage than the format would give you a circular fall off, the vignette here follows the aspect of the image though, very likely done by software, in camera or post.

 

Image search 'Holga'

[Alan Rencher]

It looks like they did some split toning to the image: sepia in the highs, and blue in the lows. I like to do that kind of split toning myself (example). You can do it in Lightroom or Photoshop. It looks like they desaturated, then pushed the reds/oranges & blues. a bit. The vignette is post, and they probably did it to cover the blown-out sky. You can tell by the shadows that it was overcast.

Edited September 17, 2013 by Alan Rencher

[Phil Rhodes]

The location makes it. All that busyness in the buildings, the expressions on the faces. And the actual colours of the scene are reinforced, not opposed, by the grading. Everyone's wearing dark blue and black, so when you push blue into the shadows, it has something to work with. Likewise the buildings are to some extent naturally tan.

 

Production design feeds camerawork, etc.

[Phillip Mosness]

If that's Osaka, I think I took a shot of that crab back there on that building back in '99, haha. It's legs move if I remember corectly.

Since the business are closed, it's safe to guess the photo is early morning on the way to school of that's an indication on where the sun is, along with some soft highlights hitting the walls above the kids and bouncing off the walls on the right which are out of the picture.