How were these achieved?

[fsendel]

Hi everyone! It has been a while since I stopped by. Unfortunately I've had too much work :(...

Anyway. I stumbled upon these photos from Tiime magazine :

Time Magazine's Great Performances of the Year - richardjohnson's blog

I really like the black and white effect. Especially the high contrast in the pics of George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Christopher Plummer. How do you guys think this was achieved? A friend of mine suggested it might be with a bleach bypass effect. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

[AcadieLibre]

It looks like that got the light right, right lens, right background, right poses, etc., and took some stunning portraits and maybe some post processing but to me they just appear beautiful portraits done portraits.

[Iguanasan]

I think A.L. is mostly right but the look of the Clooney shots makes me think Silver Efex by Nik Software.... maybe they built their software to mimic what people could do in camera but considering how contemporary the images are they have been most likely processed with Photoshop and the Silver Efex software. At least that's my

[Marko]

These are indeed beautiful portraits, but "the look" that is attracting your eye is achieved by software and quite a bit of processing. Without the software, they would still be good, but unlikely to be this striking. The brad pitt one in particular is seriously processed. You cannot get a look like this in camera as far as I know. That said, it's very obvious to me that this photographer has great lighting skills but without the computer, these image would look far more "regular".

[fsendel]

Thanks to all for your comments. I did think it was tough to get the effect without PP.

Have a good weekend!

[Barefoot]

Simliar to Andrzej Dragans work in my view.

Andrzej Dragan PHOTOGRAPHY
Dragan Effect Photoshop Tutorial - Video

[AcadieLibre]

Simliar to Andrzej Dragans work in my view.

Andrzej Dragan PHOTOGRAPHY
Dragan Effect Photoshop Tutorial - Video

No not the same, way overworked. I think there was some minor post production work but not the much, I may be in the minority but I stand my ground. If the photo comes close to where you want it off camera then a few adjustments.

[bucket]

I think it's just a little adjustment on contrast, brightness and some other effects on Photoshop and maybe another software. But the photos really look nicely done.