Replica of Dave Hill and Parc Cruz effect

Dave Hill and Parc Cruz Effect

disclaimer: Use this at your own satisfaction. If you find this tutorial useful, feel free to distribute it to our fellow photographers, you can also donate on my paypal account accemm2000@yahoo.com

open your desired portrait image

duplicated the background image

set the blending mode to screen

add a layer mask, hide all

make sure you select the layer mask

brush the eyes off to make it more brighter

change the opacity to around 50%-70% depending on your taste (do not make your model look like an alien)

merge the layers

add a channel mixer adjustment layer to convert the image into b&w
   monochrome, red 54, green 54, blue 32

change the blending mode of the channel mixer to multiply

select the merged layer (background)

apply an image adjustment shadow/higlights to make the photo lighter
   shadows: amount 50, tonal width 50, radius 144
   highlights: amount 50, tonal width 50, radius 30
   adjustments: color correction 20, midtone contrast 0, black clip 0.01, white clip 0.01

merge the layers

select the dodge tool, highlight, opacity around 40%

dodge the eyes part to make it more appealing (again, do not make your model look like an alien)

duplicate the layer

apply a high pass filter of around 80px

change the blending mode to softlight to add contrast to the image

merge the layer

save your image

you can still fine tune your image by using your other techniques

here's the image before and after