Neil Krug editing techniques - looking to learn and get inspired

[Jeaurt 20]

Hi all,

 

I’m Jort and I’m a creative living in the Netherlands. I mostly create collage art, posters and illustrations, but I’m looking to experiment a bit more with photography.

 

I’ve been fascinated by the work that Neil Krug has done with different artists, like with Lana. His psychedelic, dreamy visual style really resonates with me and I would like to get some insights into the techniques and methods he uses, particularly in the editing department.

 

To be clear: I’m definitely not looking to copycat Neil’s work or style one-on-one. As an artist I know how shitty it is when people jack your stuff and I respect the hard work creatives put into their own thing. I’m primarily looking to learn from his approaches and the way he utilizes textures, post-processing and other things that are done in a digital environment.

 

And where better to ask this question than here! Do you guys have had any success in getting a grasp of the editing techniques that are used, or have you found other ways of getting similar results? I found a few mentions of tutorials scattered around the internet, but most links are dead or the posts have since been deleted.

 

Something like a Photoshop (the program I’m most experienced with) tutorial would be great, but I realize that’s maybe a little too much to ask. In any case, don’t be afraid to get really specific in sharing your insights :-)

 

Thanks in advance!

 

- Jort 

[Cherry Blossom 16,595]

i’ll reply to this when i get home because i love doing these

[annedauphine 31,989]

Hi Jort  Happy to see you here, welcome!!! Glad you followed my suggestion haha  

 

From what I remember, which is not much, it was a lot of textures, a lot of coloured overlays as well. I did some pretty accurate edits in the past, and I could try to find back an old edit and show a screencap of the layers?

[Jeaurt 20]

Just now, annedauphine said:

Hi Jort  Happy to see you here, welcome!!! Glad you followed my suggestion haha  

 

From what I remember, which is not much, it was a lot of textures, a lot of coloured overlays as well. I did some pretty accurate edits in the past, and I could try to find back an old edit and show a screencap of the layers?

Heya! That would be great, if it’s not too much hassle :-)

[annedauphine 31,989]

Ok I've put together a little WeTransfer with my original files. It's really not that accurate but whatever. Feel free to use them as you wish  Link available one week!

 

https://we.tl/t-RKnyAvwgYi

[annedauphine 31,989]

Yeah I'm def not the best at this but I had forgotten how fun it was:

 

[BartenderDeco 14,194]

5 minutes ago, annedauphine said:

Ok I've put together a little WeTransfer with my original files. It's really not that accurate but whatever. Feel free to use them as you wish  Link available one week!

 

https://we.tl/t-RKnyAvwgYi

they're so good

[annedauphine 31,989]

Ah screw it, here's a link to them all (available one week as well):

https://we.tl/t-jZywQmOTN9

 

2 minutes ago, BartenderDeco said:

they're so good

Lol thank you, honestly I think they suck my skill really improved ever since but I'm glad you like them  All credits to Neil anyway he's the genius

[Jeaurt 20]

3 minutes ago, annedauphine said:

Ah screw it, here's a link to them all (available one week as well):

https://we.tl/t-jZywQmOTN9

 

Lol thank you, honestly I think they suck my skill really improved ever since but I'm glad you like them  All credits to Neil anyway he's the genius

I think they're really good! I think the goal should not be to produce an outcome that could pass as Krug original, but to try your hands at different techniques and learn a thing or two from the way other artists work. For example, I haven't really tried my hands at these manual colouring techniques I see in your edits yet. Definitely somethign to explore.

[kallumlavigne 4,932]

I have a polaroid-ish texture someone made to look like his photos I can't remember who it was but they were kind enough to share it with me

[godsmonster 13,229]

i can’t speak for his edits but i know from seeing other people (professional and not) trying to recreate the look a Polaroid (i mean Polaroid, not Instax) camera gives you is very hard to achieve 

[the ocean 67,367]

3 minutes ago, godsmonster said:

i can’t speak for his edits but i know from seeing other people (professional and not) trying to recreate the look a Polaroid (i mean Polaroid, not Instax) camera gives you is very hard to achieve 

 

if i wanna get a polaroid look i literally have a polaroid to do that because editing it is practically impossible lmao

[godsmonster 13,229]

Just now, the ocean said:

 

if i wanna get a polaroid look i literally have a polaroid to do that because editing it is practically impossible lmao

yeah i was gonna say get the Polaroid Lab because recreating that authentic Polaroid look is impossible 

i am a firm believer Neil Krug captures the essence of Lana Del Rey like no other can

[godsmonster 13,229]

anyway i’m excited to see what people share cause i’d love to learn too

[Jeaurt 20]

2 hours ago, the ocean said:

 

if i wanna get a polaroid look i literally have a polaroid to do that because editing it is practically impossible lmao

I definitely agree. Some things just cannot be emulated properly in a digital way. It really sucks that polaroid film has become so expensive over the years. Or at least in the Netherlands it is. €18 for a pack of 8 photos...

[the ocean 67,367]

3 minutes ago, Jeaurt said:

I definitely agree. Some things just cannot be emulated properly in a digital way. It really sucks that polaroid film has become so expensive over the years. Or at least in the Netherlands it is. €18 for a pack of 8 photos...

 

I really wish there was a good Polaroid film knockoff that worked with Polaroid products

[Cherry Blossom 16,595]

i don’t really have much help in the polaroid sense, but for his work like the Rust Dress photos, i create gradient maps and select colours from either my original photo or a photo of his that i’m trying to emulate. if you need more help understanding gradient maps you can find tutorials on youtube, however instead of selecting realistic colours for Neil Krug you want to stay within a colour, so for example your lightest and darkest would both be a shade of green, not white and black. would be  then i make the original image black and white, play with the exposure and offset etc, and then invert the gradient map field. then i paint the areas that i want to be the colours of the gradient map, and repeat this process for all the colours i want. it usually takes like 7 layers of gradient maps. you can mess around with the layer burn for these gradient maps also to see what looks best, it’s usually Darken or Multiply. i’m not the best at explaining but it should be easy to work out

 

then, if i want to add additional affects i overlay images on top of the photo, or i burn a wood texture etc onto the picture, and from now on i’ll be using the one @kallumlavigne posted above  hope this helps 

[SalvaWHORE 27,023]

So... i tried my very best to do the "Neil Krug technique" with my own photo. Taken on Canon

Spoiler

 

With the tradition LDR font so y'all can get the 'vibe'

 

[the ocean 67,367]

5 minutes ago, Whore of Tropico said:

So... i tried my very best to do the "Neil Krug technique" with my own photo. Taken on Canon

  Hide contents

 

With the tradition LDR font so y'all can get the 'vibe'

 

 

a. the effect looks excellent and really well done

b. you are stunning

[SalvaWHORE 27,023]

2 minutes ago, avenue said:

 

a. the effect looks excellent and really well done

b. you are stunning

 

a. yeah i still pretty much need to work on the highlight thing but it looks better than the last time i tried to do this shit.

b. thanks luv, but that was me in 2019, i look old af now