Keefer's Halloween Costume | A Step by Step Look

For Halloween this year, Keefer decided he wanted to be an Army soldier. Now, I love a good camera phone shot of the kids in costume on the front steps of the house as much as the next guy, but we had some free time before Trick-Or-Treat started. That gave us the opportunity to do a photo that was a bit more elaborate. This is not a tutorial, rather just a look into the process of how I created this photo. Enjoy. 

I pictured him in a tank filled battlefield leading the charge. The problem was, I didn't have a battlefield, or a tank, at my disposal. This is where Can Stock Photo helped me out. For only $5, I was able to download and get a license for this background scene.

Background scene from Can Stock Photo

I made some adjustments to the tone and exposure using Photoshop adjustment layers to get a warmer feel to the photo.

Now I just needed to add Private Keefer to the scene. I placed him in front of a white backdrop and lit him with a simple 2 light set up. 

I then masked him out in Photoshop and added a little motion blur to give the appearance of running. 

Next, I dropped him into the scene and started to add the finishing touches. 

Nik software was used to get some depth, contrast, and grunge to the photo. Over at Deviant Art, I found a muzzle flash to add to the gun. 

 

Then, back to photoshop where I added some dust, cleaned up the sky, and added sharpness and some birds.  

Here is the finished product.