An HDR Devil

[Diavolo]

I took this on a fun shoot with a few friends of mine dressed in their Halloween costumes. It was April. Obviously we got some looks!

What I did was HDR as the base then took it into PS. There were four adjustment layers. The usual, brightness/contrast, curves, levels and hue & sat. The sky had some noise in it so I blurred it and created a mask. HDR's are OK but it is how you handle them in PS is what makes them shine. I don't believe I did any cloning or touching up other than the blurring. I like the fact that he forgot some make-up. At first I was going to fill it in but decided against it. I felt it gave some character.

I'll included the after and before for a comparison.

[ntinlizi]

deffinately is interesting, nice pp and great job with the hdr

[no.absolutes]

I absolutely love it!

[PKSon]

Really nice!
What do you mean by HDR in photoshop?

[Diavolo]

I did the HDR in Photomatix as the base file then took it into PS to adjust it to taste...or lack there of.

[Diavolo]

Originally Posted by no.absolutes

I absolutely love it!

But your name? You're not supposed to give absolutes!

[kentuckyranger]

Excellent use of HDR.
The first image is just ok.
The composition is excellent but the color tone and everything else is just ordinary.

The second image has taken the photo to its logical conclusion, excellent work!
I also like how you burned out the reflection of the photographer out of the sunglasses.
Did you burn, use saturation or air brush?

[no.absolutes]

Originally Posted by Diavolo

But your name? You're not supposed to give absolutes!

lol you caught me! Seriously, though, I do love it. Makes me want to paint my son orange and have at it. Just a thought - have you tried to achieve a darker effect in the sky? Maybe a blackish purple?

[Diavolo]

Originally Posted by kentuckyranger

Excellent use of HDR.
The first image is just ok.
The composition is excellent but the color tone and everything else is just ordinary.

The second image has taken the photo to its logical conclusion, excellent work!
I also like how you burned out the reflection of the photographer out of the sunglasses.
Did you burn, use saturation or air brush?

Nope. No airbrushing. You're correct. The original is definitely nothing to write home about except for the composition. With that in mind, the shoot was 100% designed around an HDR workflow.

[Diavolo]

Originally Posted by no.absolutes

lol you caught me! Seriously, though, I do love it. Makes me want to paint my son orange and have at it. Just a thought - have you tried to achieve a darker effect in the sky? Maybe a blackish purple?

I tried to go towards more of the violet end of the spectrum but noise became an issue. In the end I liked the contrast of the reds and oranges against the blue. I haven't tried going darker because I felt in love with that shade of blue. But your suggestion of a blacker sky could be interesting. I'll have to revisit it.