Modern portrait look post-processing

Today I want to share with all of you how did I edit my previous portrait from a dull and normal image to more contrast and look modern with a saturated color tone. The process is simple and only takes minutes to complete. This technique I get it from my favorite magazine DCM :).

From the raw image that I shoot, I begin with make a bold crop to fill the area with the old folk face. I do this to highlight the expression of him and din't want any distraction from the background.

 After that continues with duplicate the layer. Choose level to enhance it. Slide the black slider more to the right and white slider more to left. Until you have what result that you want it. Then slide the gray slider to make the image more exposure.

Select Hue/saturation to saturate the image to black and white. Slide the saturation slider to left make it to 0%. Choose soft light blending to make the images pop up the shadow.

Create another hue/saturation layer. Make the saturation slider same as the previous step and right now change the capacity of the layer to about 60%. Now you will get a sketch of what you will get :).

Drop down the filter windows and choose adjustment and then shadow/highlight. Change the shadow amount to 10% highlight to 15% and color contrast to +20. Press OK. This will give the correct amount of shadow to the image.

To make the image more sharp, drop down the filter menu and choose sharpen>unsharp mask. Slide the slider till you get the result of what you like.

The final stage would be playing with Dodge and Burn tools to dodge the shadow and burn some overdose highlight. And also burn the background to make viewer eyes focused on the character.  Done!!!