this is pretty much my very first attempt at taking a photograph this far beyond a simple photograph.

I'm doing a lot of things for the first time - Blending in certain ways, using lots of layers, Photoshop brushes etc.


I kind of had this whole scene in my mind when I took this shot (so I asked them to pose as if it had been a bad day)

Any feedback about any of the various components would be appreciated.

Going into this, I wanted it to be DIRTY looking, lots of real grunge (I made a few attempts at ash, but to no avail)

before and after shots... please CC very very much appreciated.

Seems you definitely accomplished your goals! Bet the guys like it!

Thanks I hope they do. If not I still have the original!! ^^;;;

Impressive work, well done

Dick.

I love it. My dad was a fireman in NYC for over 20 years. He would have loved that pic.

I like what you have done. How do you get this look.

Dick on Aruba wrote:
Impressive work, well done

Dick.


Thanks There are things about it that I wish were different. But this was my first shot, so I'm happy.

justdevine wrote:
I love it. My dad was a fireman in NYC for over 20 years. He would have loved that pic.


Thanks. I'm from NYC too. Most of my family are cops though.

Out here in PA, people are REAL proud of their volunteer fire Co. 's They've asked me to come back and take the Company Photo's O.O I declined at first, but I might agree if they let me do more of this stuff with them

garyjr wrote:
I like what you have done. How do you get this look.




Weeeeelllll. I will give you the short story, You tell me if you want the long one lol..

Basically it's done by blending different layers. in the original (I'll attach to this post) there was no trees in the background, so I took a landscape photo and layered it into the background.

Then to get the "HDR" look, I used Lucis Arts Sculpture filter and blended it by vivid Light, and played with that until I got what I wanted.


In order to make it dirty desaturated the whole image and then masked it and brushed in the B&W - Mostly on their coats.

Edit - Took off original, Didn't realise I already posted it

Then I did a Difference Clouds layer and blended that and messed with the opacity so that you got what kind of looks like smoke or soot.

Added the flames, added the puddles of "oil" ... and that's about it.

again. The short story ^^;; Lots of learning done here!!!

Lots of steps but worth the effort. I bet they hang this on their wall! Very nice

nice work - worth the effort

I showed them this photograph today. (Along with the others which I have posted elsewhere) They really really liked it. Especially the dad (pictures on left). He wants a Big print made of it

That's pretty gratifying.