This guy was actually watching a kid's football match. I am not sure what made him scowl like that ... although the side that he was supporting lost!
* Shot in JPG.
* Select Highlights (using PSE3 workaround)
* Use highlights selection in Soft Light layer to darken highlights
* Overlay layer for contrast
* Multiply layer to adjust darkness for whole picture
* Hue / Saturation layer with layer mask for background toning
* Little bit of spot editing
* USM on the man only
* Soft light layer for some overall adjustments
* Two soft light layers - one for black brush, one for white - to add mood to background. Blurred for fun.
* Save for web
Estimated score: 5.2 to 5.5.
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Two things immediately stand out in this image. The first is the contrast in colour between the subject and the background. The second is the man's expression.
I have no idea what the title refers too, but I presume it is a real prison, and that your subject is supposedly one of its guests. If that is the case, the background is perfect in that it looks like an old sepia image from a time gone by. And if you think about it, prisons are places that mess with the idea of time: Time inside drags for the inmates, but time outside stops for them. Often they come out to a world that they no longer recognise. So the sepia representing the archaic, time bending institution of prison is a perfect choice. The man on the other hand is in glorious technicolour, representing his individuality inspite of his being incarcerated.
The man's expression to me could suggest fear or menace - both of which are appropriate in this context, and it was well captured.
Your post processing steps in acheiving your overall image might as well have been written in Greek, as I am PS challenged, so I can only bow to your expertise and say well done;)
Yes. Very, very good. I suppose the whole background is desat? Oddly enough, it doesn't at first seem so. It's an attention-grabbing image, and should be a good movie. I'll see it. 8.
I like your idea and I feel that your title fits well with your photo. I don't know what to think about the background this way. I guess it would have looked better if you used a different aperture or desaturated the man.
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