The Post-Processing

The whole idea of this shoot is based around the post-processing, so we’re going to have some fun with this one! Basically, what we’re going to do is select our subject off the background (which will be easy, thanks to how we lit it), then we have to make him match the color and tone of the background we’re putting him on, so it looks realistic. Then, we add high-contrast effects and sharpening to both parts (background and subject) to unify them, but you’ll learn lots of important little compositing tricks along the way.

STEP ONE:
Here’s the photo in Camera Raw, and luckily there’s not a lot that needs to be done here, but I definitely would open up the shadows a bit by dragging the Fill Light slider to the right (here, I dragged it over to 18). This not only opens up the shadows on him, but on the background a bit, too. Also, since we’re going to add a high-contrast effect on him (one I learned from my friend, German retoucher Calvin Hollywood), let’s go ahead and increase the Clarity to +18 while we’re here to make it a little punchier right off the bat. Now, click the Open Image button to open it in Photoshop.