Below is a simple walk-through on how I achieved the look in my “Incognito” self-portrait. When browsing through my set of images, sometimes it takes me a while to realize the potential in an image. I force myself to visualize how the images will look if I try cropping them a different way. The composition can really make a mediocre image a GREAT image.

I almost overlooked the image in this tutorial, but then I realized it could be more striking if I cropped it in close. Note: If you decide to crop an image, ensure it is of high enough resolution and that it won’t look too grainy/noisy after cropping.

Before:

I opened the selected image in Camera Raw and set the crop boundaries.

After I have the desired crop, I usually go on to the basic editing. My first reaction is to click “Auto” and see what I get. Auto suggested a bit more Exposure so I left the exposure setting as is and started to tinker with everything else.

Exposure: +.50

The image felt a little too cool-toned for me, so I warmed it up slightly by adjusting the Temperature and Tint.

Temperature: 3950
Tint: 0

I knew I wanted this image to be dark and mysterious so my first instinct was to lower the Brightness.

Brightness: +15

The bright saturated colors in the image began to bother me, so I bumped up the Vibrance and reduced the Saturation. I usually drag the saturation slider all the way to -100 and slowly increase it until I get the amount of saturation I want.

Vibrance: +40
Saturation: -75

Now the image is starting to get closer to how I want it to look, but it still doesn’t pack the punch I’d like it to. So a little technique I’ve discovered along the way, is increasing the Recovery and Fill Light and then adjusting your Blacks and Contrast to compensate for the latter adjustments. Be careful with image noise when doing this.

Recovery: +80
Fill Light: +30
Blacks: +30
Contrast: +40

At this point the image is a little flat and just generally dark all over. I want the skin to pop out a bit more. I go to the Tone Curve tab which is the next tab over. I bump up the Lights and Highlights. Now the image has a bit more depth.

Highlights: +20
Lights: +35
Darks: 0
Shadows: 0

For some more intensity, I go back to the Basic tab and increase the Clarity just slightly. This defines the lines and edges in the image. Note: Don’t go overkill on this. This will do a number on the skin and make all spots, pores, and bumps really stand out. However, it can be a great effect if that’s the look you desire in your image.

Clarity: +8

I thought a slight vignette would look great with a dark and moody image like this one. I go to the Lens Correction tab and under Lens Vignetting make the following adjustments:

Amount: -90
Midpoint: 50

The image is looking great and I didn’t even set a finger in Photoshop yet! With some really simple adjustments we have brought a mediocre image to life.

I make my final tweaks in Photoshop, which are really nothing more than some spot curve adjustments and high-pass sharpening. TA-DAAAAH!! Finito!

After:

If you enjoyed this walk-through and would love to see more like this, holler at me in the comments.