Traditional Chinese painting has a strong classical beauty. If these elements can be used in photography, a unique artistic conception can be formed. The set of works we are sharing today combines portrait creation with ink elements through post-production methods. Let’s share how this set of works was produced!
1. Comparison pictures and Analysis of ideas
Creative source:
Ink is a treasure of Chinese culture that has accumulated for thousands of years. It is everywhere from paintings to calligraphy. The beauty of ink is an everlasting theme in Chinese art works. A drop of thick ink spreads in the clear water and spreads on the rice paper, like clouds, like dust smoke, like running water, like the clothes of a fairy, like a state of emptiness, infinite reveries are unfolding in the shades. I was fascinated by the drop of ink dripping into the water, which gave me the urge to combine portrait photography with the charm of ink. I used the makeup of Chinese opera, the style of ancient ladies, plus modern black dresses and light skirts. Black gauze, combined with the characteristics of ink, creates a set of works that have the artistic conception of traditional Chinese ink and wash with new ideas.
Design points:
1. The model’s makeup should have the characteristics of Chinese opera, but the style should not be too traditional, so I used some wavy hair pieces for the hairstyle and for the top. It is a modern hollow lace bodysuit. In order to have room for display on the lower body, only a 3-meter-long piece of black chiffon was used to form a long skirt, and a 3-meter-long piece of black glass yarn was used to create the effect of floating ink.
2. The fan cannot control the flying direction of the crape, so the flying part of the crape must be thrown up by hand. It is necessary to reserve more space for the flying crape to have more use in post-production. room.
3. The characteristic of Chinese ink painting is that it only pays attention to shades and does not care about the three-dimensional sense of space. Therefore, we should try our best to reflect the transparency and layering of black gauze in lighting, and the three-dimensional effect of the face can be slightly ignored.
4. In post-production, it is necessary to focus on expressing the characteristics of the five colors of ink, handle the care of shades, and more importantly, reflect the charm of the ink as it spreads and dances like clouds and mist.
2. Modify defects in the original image
Remove the background and use an eraser and imitation stamp to repair some defective areas. The camera is not high-end, and the entire process was completed with a Canon 60D 50/1.8 lens, so the quality of the photo itself is not very high, and the photo must be adjusted before adding creativity.
Liquify the waist and adjust body curves.
3. Adjust the brightness and level of the picture
After the body shape is modified, remove gray and adjust the brightness and level of the picture.
A. First copy a layer and use filter mode to brighten the image.
B. Duplicate another layer and use soft light mode to increase texture.
Use the curve of the mask to adjust the contrast to make the skin whiter and make the black parts look more textured.
4. Adjust makeup and skin
To better reflect the richness and charm of the ink, create a new layer, set it to soft light, transparency 68, and use a black soft-edged pen Brush, set the transparency to 35, and render the black part of the body darker.
After stamping, duplicate the layer. Select a part of the skin to blur the surface, and erase the edges of the facial features to make the makeup look evenly colored and the skin smooth. Use the painting method to carefully adjust the details of the facial features with a soft-edged brush to make the facial makeup delicate.
5. Expand the screen and liquefy
After completing the basic modification, in order to have a wider space for expression, the canvas was expanded to a 1:1 screen. Arrange the characters in a lower position, leaving space for the black veil to fly.
Use liquefaction to make the skirt tails that are mopping the floor fly up.
6. Add ink skirt corner brush
Create a new layer to add the special effect of ink. Download a variety of smoke brushes online, choose a suitable thick ink brush and gradually add it to create ink balls and ink dots that gradually spread upward from the bottom. Pay attention to the direction and movement of diffusion, as well as the matching of shades, to create the effect of ink spreading from the bottom up in the water.
7. Add ink sleeve brush
After completing the effect of the skirt corner, start to create upward flowing ink marks on the fluttering black gauze.
Use Liquify to dynamically adjust the black gauze, and use the eraser to lightly rub the tail of the black gauze to fade the edges. Choose a suitable brush to connect the end of the black yarn to create a light rising and gradually fading effect.
8. Overall rendering
After completing the overall shape, the tone and artistic conception of the picture still need further modification. Use the selected hue mask to make the skin a little warmer, so that the characters stand out in contrast. Make the body and the ink color part more blue and purple, so that it looks deep and varied, and adds the charm of ink.
Render a layer of light gradient gray-blue on the entire base to prevent the picture from being too pale.
Add inscriptions and seals, add white borders, and make final detail adjustments to complete the work.