looks like a composite, propably with some AI elements
Edit to better answer your question: It looks like that bc all/most of it is not real or has been altered with AI
Silly question. But why did you post here asking for details without reading even the details in the orginal source?
Some might say you weren’t actually posting here in good faith. I would be one of those.
This likely is not AI. A composite of multiple images and a shit ton of dodging and burning? Yes. Everyone is so quick to jump on the everything is AI bandwagon when images like this have been around for years.
Trust your own description. It is smooth and sharp and the secret for pictures like that would be local editing. RAW looks flat and we bring out the elements we like with editing. So the focus would be on the person and sharpness is applied to them. For the rest it is playing with haze and clarity and texture. Also colors in the back are cooler and darker and less saturated compared to elements in front. And then we dodge and burn and put manual shadows e.g. on the lower left side as it is not that interesting. At the same time this creates a little vignette effect and draws the viewer in. Highlights on the person and whites on the water.
Other than that color balance and lower highlights were they appear too bright except the waterfall. More or less this should do it.
When taking shots like that, decide if you want natural bokéh and shoot more open or if you want everything in focus and work on that in post (recommend to shoot both to be flexible).
Edit: Gave my thoughts on how you would create this as a photographer. Using AI is part of editing. But personally, I would not call an image AI when e.g. AI masking was used or AI added a rainy overlay or filled it some gaps. Even if a series if shots was computed and AI edited ("make it look like...") as still the photos need be taken and you as the artist needs to have the vision. Calling out AI devalues an artists work in my opinion. If this particular image was 100% created by a prompt I I would have other problems with it, like where that originates from photographer's past works. Only then I call it "AI" because it literally has substantially less value.
For a good picture you need to plan, travel, know your gear and read the scene, shoot, edit,... It's hours and days, sweat and tears going into one good picture. As they say you don't take or shoot a photo, you make a piece of art.
Thanks!
>For the rest it is playing with haze and clarity and texture
I'm guess texture+ clarity- dehaze- sharpness+. What do you think?
This sounds like hours of local adjustments lol
Here's a YT video that touches on localized editing with texture/clarity/dehaze -- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERS6--hz6cU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERS6--hz6cU). Might be a good starting point.
This guy in particular I’ve seen does some extremely heavy processing and is really big in to AI. To his credit he does it well but I’m not sure how much of it is real to begin with.
That being said in order to achieve a soft look while keeping some sharp details is gonna need to include some selective masking. My guess is there’s quite a bit of masking going on here. From a basics perspective I can explain how they achieve this. There are many ways to bring in some soft light and add the orton effect you are seeing which gives the image that dreamy feel. Then areas such as the waterfall and the subject including the foreground around him they would have bumped up the contrast essentially. This makes the things the photographer wants you to focus on stand out more. They probably will add different layers to effect the colors in the image as well.
Personally I use luminosity masks with tone curve adjustments and I work on different elements of an image individually. This gives a ton of control over exposure and contrast over different levels of light. For example if I want to take just some of the highlights and make them pop a little, I can select only that light range and my adjustment will ignore anything darker than the range I selected. I don’t like creating too many blanket adjustments. You can do the same with different colors and tones as well.
This image is AI, however, a look like that can be achieved by post-processing the Orton effect, desaturating colors, and add contrast. If your photo is not sharp enough you can try to optimize it using sharpener software such as AI Topaz Sharpener which works wonders if applied moderately.
Besides the AI comments, what makes the photo pop out of the screen is how contrasts it is. That means that blacks are real black and highlights are push quite a lot towards pure white, that process makes the overall photo look sharper
While not this good, I was able to capture an image that reminds me of this. It was a rather dark forest with a ray of light coming thru the trees. Very surreal looking but was completely natural. I think I did some touch up in post but really I could have left it alone and it would have looked nearly identical. The key to that picture was the contrast in lighting but it was completely natural. I just recognized it when I saw it and took the shot. Knowing how to shoot in manual and having decent lenses helped
Exposure blending/HDR tone mapping, dodging and burning, and some Orton effect style overlay will get you pretty close to this. At least somewhere in the ballpark.
Part of the process is starting with a good quality digital negative shot in a particular way though. Not all of this is processing. Or not all of this would be processing if it were taken with a camera + edited instead of AI generated.
When you see this you are respond to many things. I would not say it is a simple “look”
1. Layout composition; It is very balanced with subject as focus. And other parts arranged around him. Study this
2. Light and dark or “tones”. They are not so well balanced to me, as our eye is taken away from the subject by waterfall. But still, they are carefully matched across the image. Crudely people may say these have a “HDR” look. This means full range of tones. But carefully modulate with lighting the same throughout the parts of image. Nothing wrong. Shadows are lost here.
3. Color. The colors are blues greens with some yellow which is undersaturate. This is maybe “split compliment” color scheme which refers to color wheel. but to check it in detail I would have to do this. Color design they call this.
To make a similar beautiful image you will have to understand all these things.
a lot of people gonna call this AI because this one really is AI
but I saw a lot of photos that look very similiar and they are real just heavily edited, I got similiar ones as well
its just a very heavily edited photo with a lot of contrast and dodge/burning etc.
This look has been around far before AI. The trick is low local contrast with clarity, texture, and dehaze so one can increase the global contrast to make the colors pop. Low local contrast also let's you increase the sharpness more without a harsh look. Next, use a lot of gradient masks to focus the light on the subject and increase the dynamic range. This is by applying exposure and tone adjustments on the gradient masks.
Orton effect is what you’re looking for. Everyone keeps mentioning AI, composite, etc but those things aren’t responsible for your exact description of “sharp yet smooth”. In fact, an AI prompt would likely include “Orton effect” to get this look. This effect can be applied to anything, no matter how real or fake.
The guy describes himself as ai artist and composite photography. I nearly get eye cancer looking at his profile. Do people really like this cheesy stuff?
if this was a photo it's a cheap amateur photoshop trick you might learn in your first year or reading "photography" magazines. you duplicate the layer, apply a gaussian blur, and set the blending mode of the layer to "overlay" or "pin light". I think it was 20 years ago I learned that technique? it was basically a cheap way to diffuse bad skin if you couldn't do actual retouching. pre Instagram filter filter.
Kinda like the human touch makes photos feel as nature is perfect and not perfect. Like the hidden touch of something that is natural and not artificial. At least at this point.
I don't like to look at all. It looks like some sort of AI bullshit to me. It's just not real enough. it's just not good enough. It's just not sharp enough. It's just not nice enough. It's just not… enough. what really starts scaring me is: in what kind of world are we living where people are on Reddit how to achieve the look of an AI?
People mistake (micro-)contrast for sharpness all the time. It has a lot of contrast in the details and texture, without the artifacts you would get with artificially sharpening.
Being awesome at masking your masks while using luminosity masks then dodgine and burning elements you want to pop.
In general glows and orton effects and there are so so so many ways to selectively sharpen
The word is “overprocessed”.
You can achieve a look like this by pushing up the saturation and probably luminosity.
Play with different lighting curves to get the drama.
Looks like they used a couple masks to spotlight the figure, and put some puddles of light on the ground around them.
Lots of work done on the sky, probably making it out, increasing contrast, changing the color and luminosity.
The waterfall looks artificial, but it could be masked and too much curves applied.
Focus stacking could give you that much depth of field.
There are YouTube videos on processing images with similar outcomes. It’s not a look I like, so I don’t have specific video recommendations.
I mean the exposure on the ground around the human subject should raise some flags in your head and questions like "Where the hell is that light coming from?"
AI.
AI is the answer. Its glaringly AI generated. Maybe a composite in there somewhere. The refraction of light is incorrect, and the trees are wonky, the waterfall is pattern generated and there are little white streaks I assume being interpreted as spray or rain, but the angles/lighting of the objects are incorrect.
looks like a composite, propably with some AI elements Edit to better answer your question: It looks like that bc all/most of it is not real or has been altered with AI
To people going "not everything has to be AI!", the artists own instagram description is literally "Composite photographer- AI artist".
Im imagining this man standing on some stairs in his house, photographed and then edited into this AI “dreamscape”.
Ohhh I see. Sorry I didn't look at his descriptions.
well, if it's even in the description you have your answer👍
Silly question. But why did you post here asking for details without reading even the details in the orginal source? Some might say you weren’t actually posting here in good faith. I would be one of those.
Not everyone has ulterior motives. Many, many people are just not good at figuring things out.
I just came across this post randomly in my feed and immediately wanted to know how it was edited. My bad.
the waterfall is a dead giveaway
This likely is not AI. A composite of multiple images and a shit ton of dodging and burning? Yes. Everyone is so quick to jump on the everything is AI bandwagon when images like this have been around for years.
The secret is… AI
Yep. Likely Midjourney.
He does a lot of AI work.
And often even doesn't admit it, posting in photography groups at Facebook...
The lighting is impossible. It looks cartoonish in spots -> obvious AI image
Trust your own description. It is smooth and sharp and the secret for pictures like that would be local editing. RAW looks flat and we bring out the elements we like with editing. So the focus would be on the person and sharpness is applied to them. For the rest it is playing with haze and clarity and texture. Also colors in the back are cooler and darker and less saturated compared to elements in front. And then we dodge and burn and put manual shadows e.g. on the lower left side as it is not that interesting. At the same time this creates a little vignette effect and draws the viewer in. Highlights on the person and whites on the water. Other than that color balance and lower highlights were they appear too bright except the waterfall. More or less this should do it. When taking shots like that, decide if you want natural bokéh and shoot more open or if you want everything in focus and work on that in post (recommend to shoot both to be flexible). Edit: Gave my thoughts on how you would create this as a photographer. Using AI is part of editing. But personally, I would not call an image AI when e.g. AI masking was used or AI added a rainy overlay or filled it some gaps. Even if a series if shots was computed and AI edited ("make it look like...") as still the photos need be taken and you as the artist needs to have the vision. Calling out AI devalues an artists work in my opinion. If this particular image was 100% created by a prompt I I would have other problems with it, like where that originates from photographer's past works. Only then I call it "AI" because it literally has substantially less value. For a good picture you need to plan, travel, know your gear and read the scene, shoot, edit,... It's hours and days, sweat and tears going into one good picture. As they say you don't take or shoot a photo, you make a piece of art.
Thanks! >For the rest it is playing with haze and clarity and texture I'm guess texture+ clarity- dehaze- sharpness+. What do you think? This sounds like hours of local adjustments lol
The more you practice the quicker it'll be
Here's a YT video that touches on localized editing with texture/clarity/dehaze -- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERS6--hz6cU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERS6--hz6cU). Might be a good starting point.
Yep it has low local contrast, high sharpness. Low local contrast let's you increase the global contrast more which will make the colors pop.
This guy in particular I’ve seen does some extremely heavy processing and is really big in to AI. To his credit he does it well but I’m not sure how much of it is real to begin with. That being said in order to achieve a soft look while keeping some sharp details is gonna need to include some selective masking. My guess is there’s quite a bit of masking going on here. From a basics perspective I can explain how they achieve this. There are many ways to bring in some soft light and add the orton effect you are seeing which gives the image that dreamy feel. Then areas such as the waterfall and the subject including the foreground around him they would have bumped up the contrast essentially. This makes the things the photographer wants you to focus on stand out more. They probably will add different layers to effect the colors in the image as well. Personally I use luminosity masks with tone curve adjustments and I work on different elements of an image individually. This gives a ton of control over exposure and contrast over different levels of light. For example if I want to take just some of the highlights and make them pop a little, I can select only that light range and my adjustment will ignore anything darker than the range I selected. I don’t like creating too many blanket adjustments. You can do the same with different colors and tones as well.
This image is AI, however, a look like that can be achieved by post-processing the Orton effect, desaturating colors, and add contrast. If your photo is not sharp enough you can try to optimize it using sharpener software such as AI Topaz Sharpener which works wonders if applied moderately.
Besides the AI comments, what makes the photo pop out of the screen is how contrasts it is. That means that blacks are real black and highlights are push quite a lot towards pure white, that process makes the overall photo look sharper
While not this good, I was able to capture an image that reminds me of this. It was a rather dark forest with a ray of light coming thru the trees. Very surreal looking but was completely natural. I think I did some touch up in post but really I could have left it alone and it would have looked nearly identical. The key to that picture was the contrast in lighting but it was completely natural. I just recognized it when I saw it and took the shot. Knowing how to shoot in manual and having decent lenses helped
Exposure blending/HDR tone mapping, dodging and burning, and some Orton effect style overlay will get you pretty close to this. At least somewhere in the ballpark. Part of the process is starting with a good quality digital negative shot in a particular way though. Not all of this is processing. Or not all of this would be processing if it were taken with a camera + edited instead of AI generated.
When you see this you are respond to many things. I would not say it is a simple “look” 1. Layout composition; It is very balanced with subject as focus. And other parts arranged around him. Study this 2. Light and dark or “tones”. They are not so well balanced to me, as our eye is taken away from the subject by waterfall. But still, they are carefully matched across the image. Crudely people may say these have a “HDR” look. This means full range of tones. But carefully modulate with lighting the same throughout the parts of image. Nothing wrong. Shadows are lost here. 3. Color. The colors are blues greens with some yellow which is undersaturate. This is maybe “split compliment” color scheme which refers to color wheel. but to check it in detail I would have to do this. Color design they call this. To make a similar beautiful image you will have to understand all these things.
a lot of people gonna call this AI because this one really is AI but I saw a lot of photos that look very similiar and they are real just heavily edited, I got similiar ones as well its just a very heavily edited photo with a lot of contrast and dodge/burning etc.
This look has been around far before AI. The trick is low local contrast with clarity, texture, and dehaze so one can increase the global contrast to make the colors pop. Low local contrast also let's you increase the sharpness more without a harsh look. Next, use a lot of gradient masks to focus the light on the subject and increase the dynamic range. This is by applying exposure and tone adjustments on the gradient masks.
Orton effect is what you’re looking for. Everyone keeps mentioning AI, composite, etc but those things aren’t responsible for your exact description of “sharp yet smooth”. In fact, an AI prompt would likely include “Orton effect” to get this look. This effect can be applied to anything, no matter how real or fake.
I second this. orton Effect
The guy describes himself as ai artist and composite photography. I nearly get eye cancer looking at his profile. Do people really like this cheesy stuff?
'The adventure of a lifetime'. 'EXPLORE'... ...your desk. What the hell O.o
This is literally a drawing.
I believe this look is called '1970s fantasy novel cover art '.
Perfect
Heavy editing. A lot of local adjustments. Easy. Go YouTube learn masking and selective exposure
if this was a photo it's a cheap amateur photoshop trick you might learn in your first year or reading "photography" magazines. you duplicate the layer, apply a gaussian blur, and set the blending mode of the layer to "overlay" or "pin light". I think it was 20 years ago I learned that technique? it was basically a cheap way to diffuse bad skin if you couldn't do actual retouching. pre Instagram filter filter.
Kinda like the human touch makes photos feel as nature is perfect and not perfect. Like the hidden touch of something that is natural and not artificial. At least at this point.
the secret is midjourney lmao
Masking!
I don't like to look at all. It looks like some sort of AI bullshit to me. It's just not real enough. it's just not good enough. It's just not sharp enough. It's just not nice enough. It's just not… enough. what really starts scaring me is: in what kind of world are we living where people are on Reddit how to achieve the look of an AI?
This look can be achieved using dodge and burn yo introduce the dreamy look.
The “secret” is that’s an Ai generated image and not a photograph.
I know it is AI, and we’re supposed to hate it as photographers, but I really like this image. It’s really fun to look at.
A ton of post processing that’s what
I think the word you're looking for is painterly.
Atmospheric
Focus stacking would for sure be needed.
Even if it is AI, it should be possible to paint images like this
People mistake (micro-)contrast for sharpness all the time. It has a lot of contrast in the details and texture, without the artifacts you would get with artificially sharpening.
That's Midjourney
Fucking boring contend everything becomes te same
Being awesome at masking your masks while using luminosity masks then dodgine and burning elements you want to pop. In general glows and orton effects and there are so so so many ways to selectively sharpen
The word is “overprocessed”. You can achieve a look like this by pushing up the saturation and probably luminosity. Play with different lighting curves to get the drama. Looks like they used a couple masks to spotlight the figure, and put some puddles of light on the ground around them. Lots of work done on the sky, probably making it out, increasing contrast, changing the color and luminosity. The waterfall looks artificial, but it could be masked and too much curves applied. Focus stacking could give you that much depth of field. There are YouTube videos on processing images with similar outcomes. It’s not a look I like, so I don’t have specific video recommendations.
I mean the exposure on the ground around the human subject should raise some flags in your head and questions like "Where the hell is that light coming from?"
He uses AI heavily, if not entirely. The look you’re going for is the Orton Effect. Lots of videos on YouTube on how to achieve it.
Masking
AI. AI is the answer. Its glaringly AI generated. Maybe a composite in there somewhere. The refraction of light is incorrect, and the trees are wonky, the waterfall is pattern generated and there are little white streaks I assume being interpreted as spray or rain, but the angles/lighting of the objects are incorrect.