SManazis

I may have gone a little overboard trying to "fake" the dark look.

mind if I take a crack at it just for fun?

Would you mind if I played with it a bit?

What I'll add to what damien has already done  to achieve that look is add a heavier dose of dodge and burn.  The only other 3 things I'd change are:

1.  Cut out the subject and add a textured background. (Of just insert it and mask it in)

2.  On that background I would add a pretty strong vignette

3.  Darken the subject a little and add a little more "matte" effect.

my 2 cents.

What I've done in the past is basically (For Fireflies):

Pick Gradient tool

Pick the one that goes from White to transparent

Make it a Radial Gradient

Edit the Gradient to the colors you want White to Yellow to Transparent, or add a red/orange at the end and then create small spots with it.  

Go to Blending option and play with the Size/Spread/Opacity

For the magic sparkles You can pick a brush that looks like small splatters.  Pick a while or yellow color and then adjust outer glow in Blending options.

Hope that helps.

Without a RAW file, it's pretty limited, but I came up with this:

I think your pictures lack the proper lighting to create the "contrasty" look.  The rest is just matte and color grading I think.  

If you google "Fog Overlay" there's tons of free options you can use.  Would you mind if I tried a couple and reposted here?

Im just browsing around....got curious about this.  Educational purposes. I don't have an image with this issue.  

Damien, the PSD is no longer available.  Any input on the method here?

you're a gentleman and a scholar.

I said most, not all....

Oh boy...I went through that class twice...but I'm honestly drawing a blank.  I remember really liking it, and being familiar with most of the methods/concepts...

I'm not 100% on how just changing the Blending mode on a Levels layer that hasn't been adjusted causes a change though.  

Thanks.  There was one that had a Levels layer on the whole picture (no mask), in Soft Light blending mode, but no adjustments made that was baffling me.  

If we have questions about certain layers in one of these can we ask here?

I find that there's sometimes a Levels layer, and when I click to see what adjustments have been made, I can't seem to figure it out.

I know this is an old topic, but I was just curious, for my own learning purposes... Could you have maybe masked the car and made it a tad lighter then raised the saturation on it, and then another on all the red things (bowtie, suspender, wall) and done the same thing and THEN applied the process Damien provided?

Roger that.

If you're going for a colder feel in a photo, should you go with a cooler WB setting in RAW, or do the raw edits to the true tones and then deal with cooling it down in PS? 

Thanks for your reply.

On 12/12/2016 at 2:53 PM, Damien Symonds said:

Gee, I think they pop plenty.  I mean, they are the first part of the photo I see, my eye goes right to them.

PLEASE don't wait too long to take The Raw Class.

...your clients will thank you.

I'm not a pro, by any stretch.  I got into photography about 5-6 years ago and never really had the time to dive in so I've been slow moving. I'll take 200 pictures, I'll like about 10 of them, then edit them over the course of a few nights as spare time allows.  I was wondering how the editing workflow works for some pro's who have 1-2 sessions a week.  40-100 photos to edit, etc.  How long is spent on each picture?  Is it better to do all the raw work at once, then PS each one from there?  Or Raw -> PS-> Export in that order for each photo?