Lighting FX
This is a processed Nokia E72 5MP capture.
The red beauty in the picture (a 70's Mustang Convertible) was plenty of lovely details (the back of the car, Mustang logo, windshield chrome parts...) with that crafty flavour away from current production vehicles.
The photoshoping here included background extraction, new environment reflections, some body painting and color restoration, chrome parts cleaning, general lighting improvements, daylight WB and flare.
HDR Simulation
Common HDR (High Dinamyc Range) digital workflows start with a burst plus a bracketing setup for the EV values.
But the idea here was to get a final composition with tailored light from a single RAW file, mixing different processed layers. In the example above from Carrer del Bisbe de Barcelona (Nikon D90 + Nikkor 50mm f1.8), I focused into the sunny background (high lights), the front wall (medium lights) and the lower corners of the picture (low lights).
The number of zones/layers is up to you, i.e due to equipment performances (lens specs, sensor resolution...) or to the number of objects/subjects in your composition (one layer per face in a group of people, front & background...).
Self-Portrait Retouch
This portrait was taken one morning at home, with soft natural light coming from a window in the right. There's a coated wall in the background. The hair in the left side was flat, and my face expression was clearly near someone's waking up.
The challenge in here was to convert an average picture into a usable photo for a user profile.
The retouching consisted in the figure extraction, white background insertion, face softening and smoothening, bigger eyes, exposure compensation (levels), glasses plus polo-shirt color change, frame rotation and little zoom.
