Portrait of my son...

Canon EOS 500D
Exposure Time:1/250
F Number: 5.6
ISO 800
Focal Length: 55mm

The original picture was pretty dull, but some Lightroom manipulations gave a nice result, imo.

very strong portrait
I like it a lot

I have the feeling to read a book from dickens ...with the image of course! I like it: it tells a story and I like the ambiance a little bit .. dark?

Fantastic Tom,
My favorite image posted on this forum.
This a perfect « chiaroscuro » as your illustrious compatriot Rembrandt

Tout y est pour l'ambiance rétro : le regard de l'enfant, la saleté sur le visage, l'éclairage et bien sûr ces couleurs...
Une photo extraordinaire.
Serait-il possible de voir l'original sans les retouches ?

Here's the original...



Like I said, a pretty dull portrait, but it's amazing what you can do with Lightroom...

Magnifique !
Il y a une emotion qui se dégage de cette photo.. c'est fou.

T'en aurais une autre ou il fait pas la gueule ?
Ca promet les fou rire quand tu lui remontera dans 10 ou 15 ans ^^

Ses beaux yeaux bleau sont sans doute la dernière chose auquel j'aurais touché .. mais cela augmente le sentiment de tristesse. Belle réussite.

Tom, now that we've seen the original picture, could we imagine that you give us your secret to come to that result ? What filters, effects have you used (if you remember)?
It would be a good workshop to try to do the same with other pictures.
Thanks

Well, I didn't do that much to it.

First I applied the 'Dark Horse 1' preset (which you can download here if you like).

After that I changed the lighting a bit (depends of the picture of course) and added some vignetting.
Here's another example:


The problem is only that it's quite difficult to obtain the same effect with other pictures.
This is another picture I took that day with the same preset (Dark Horse 1) applied to it. In this picture it gives a somewhat different look. More 'vintage', which I like a lot.

Very nice pictures ! I like a lot ...