Coffee With Morgan: The "300" Movie Style

Before I begin I will say that each image, no matter how many times you do it will not turn out the same. Each adjustment is made to taste and completely depends on your image.

Start out with your image and adjust the blacks, contrast, and clarity (along with any exposure/fill adjustments) in ACR

Once your image is open
let's do a little work on the sky. Make a new layer and a black brush and paint over the sky.

Now we need to blur the edges and set the blend mode on the new layer to overlay.

Now for one of the "secrets" add a sepia tone to your image.

You will need to adjust the sepia down until you see color in your image again. This is not an exact number it depends on your taste.

Next you want duplicate the layer and add an unsharp mask to your image to get the rough look. Enhance>unsharp mask

Then you want to erase any parts that are too dark (such as her face)

Then you run CoffeeShop Perfect Portrait  and do the following:
Turn the brightness off
Vivid color over sky set to 50%
Color pop off
Urban grit on grass and trees set to 15%
Burn sky at 35%
Vignette at 30%
(all adjustable according to taste and image)

Then you add an adjustment layer to add more color

Finally you add some warmth, I used Pioneer Womans warmer action

Lastly as always the before and after

Meet Morgan! I am from a small town in southern Texas, but now live in central Texas, Fort Hood/Killeen area to be more specific. I am a stay-at-home mom and do photography in my spare time. I am married to a wonderful man that I was lucky enough to meet and be able to spend my life with. We have two beautiful children, Payton 4 years old & Amelia 1 year old. The thing I love the most about photography is that you can take an intangible moment in time and make it last forever. I don't have any formal training, I just learn from experimentation and research.
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