I'm a huge fan of Cliff Mautner and I'm curious if anybody knows how he achieves his look on his indoor color images. They have a very warm toned feel to them that seem desaturated yet saturated at the same time. I love the look and have struggled to get anything that comes close to it. Anybody have any insight?
Cliff achieves almost 100% of his look in camera because he's got an amazing eye and he sees the light not the camera. His way of doing indoors is to use either cloudy or even warmer white balance, and underexpose somewhere from one to three stops in Aperture Priority matrix metering mode. He did two teaching videos for Kelby Training and you can learn his techniques from those vids. Though his visual style is not for everyone. Some younger or less sophisticated folks think his images are too "dark."
I've definitely seen his work on Kelby Training but there's definitely something going on in post beyond the under-exposing and the warmer white balance.
I know Cliff very well, and have been to his studio a few times. I can tell you his workflow is very very minimum in post. What gives his look is not the post but rather his unique eye.
