After seeing your contest and reviewing your great background HDR images, I evaluated each of your backgrounds for a story. The gas station had the strongest story in my mind…having the appearance of being closed/abandoned, the image of someone who had just walked miles to get some gas for his “out of gas” vehicle only to discover it was out of business just fit. I then went and looked at Joel Grimes’ amazing work and determined one way of integrating a subject into an HDR background was the introduction of lighting the subject and light sources in the image. I set up the light in my basement and got the spray bottle out and sprayed my son to provide the sweat look. We talked through the story until he was able to show the right posture and emotion. I ran the image through HDR toning in Photoshop to achieve a similar coloration, saturation, contrast, etc. I then ran a selection mask and copied the layer onto Caryn’s neat background. Next I added a light layer to the background to legitimize the subject lighting better. I then added light rays through the open roof by using a radial gradient adjustment layer and masking in where I wanted it to go. I darkened areas of the photo to draw the eye back into the center of the composition. I really liked the visual circle created by the eyes of the subject toward the pump…the lines of the roof leading to the pump…the rays of light that lead from the pump back to the gas can and back up the arm…to the arched back which leads you back to the subject’s face and his eyes which leads you back through the visual circle again. Final touches were softening the focus in some areas and adding some additional sweat to the subject’s face and arms.

Caryn, thank you again for some great images to work with and a fun contest to compete in. Since first place gets a signed print from Joel, does second place get an “unsigned” photocopy of a print from Joel, or a signed copy of a print from you? 🙂