Thanks Dave Hill and Jim Marshall!

[Sahil]

basically i took ACR to the limit (fill and contrast) then i used photoshop to selectively increase exposure and selectively apply different levels of local contrast in different areas. then i basically sharpen my images like crazy - starting with the bicubic sharper downsize interpolation and further output sharpening (normally 0.3px at 50%) and sometimes selective sharpening with the sharpen tool.

selectively increase exposure and selectively apply different levels of local contrast in different areas

I guess this is one place I need to work upon. No clue how this is done. Its just playing with Unsharp Mask Sliders?!

Thanks, Troy.

[pwnage101]

selectively increase exposure and selectively apply different levels of local contrast in different areas

I guess this is one place I need to work upon. No clue how this is done. Its just playing with Unsharp Mask Sliders?!

Thanks, Troy.

when i say that i "selectively" do something, that normally means that i duplicate whatever is visible (ctrl+shift+alt+e or just flatten), apply the modification, apply a mask, delete the mask contents, and use the brush tool to select different areas. sometimes i apply gaussian blur to the mask. selectively modifying exposure sometimes means using the brush or gradient modification tool in ACR before the conversion to help maintain data. sometimes i use "highlights/shadows" tool in photoshop for automatic tone-mapping.

upon inspection of dave hill photography, i notice two things:
1) tone mapping with seamless transitions. it is obvious he does not resort to programs such as photomatix that limit his control. each object is placed in the image via photoshop, and must each be exposed differently. this is why i use fill in ACR and selectively apply "highlights/shadows" in photoshop: to avoid halos.
2) use of a ring flash creates a unique effect that darkens every surface with an off-axis normal vector. this cannot be duplicated via post-process, but closely approximated with my selective use of local contrast. an even closer approximation would be to use a different radius of local contrast for different areas. even easier: get a damn ring flash . Maybe i should get a job?

and yes, i use unsharp mask with a radius normally between 70px to 150px. i work with 10 megapixel images.

hope this helps!

as a note, the sand in the storm trooper image looked pale at first, but adding contrast would adversely affect the storm trooper, so i used a mask to apply contrast to the sand, leaving the storm trooper untouched.

[Sahil]

Thanks Troy, for taking out time and putting down so much of information for me. Yes it definitely will prove helpful. Just that its little too technical for me. My bad I haven't read ENOUGH, YET!