Help with PP Technique

[Irishwake]

To me, this has to be some of the most amazing PP work I've seen in quite some time and any attempts to duplicate it with my lackluster Photoshop skills has proven quite frustrating. Now I can only imagine some blending / mild HDR went into this on top of just basic PS, but does anyone recognize this style and if so point me to a few workflow techniques that can achieve similar results?

Before:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/great_one/5488902487/sizes/l/in/photostream/

And After:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/great_one/5489495452/sizes/l/in/photostream/

I can handle cloning signs out, gradients on the windows, but that asphalt(PS brush maybe?) and sky(also PS brush?) just do amazing things..

Here's what I tried...

Raised Vibrance / Reduced Saturation / Sharpen / Curves and a few other small details but man, anyone look at this and say, oh yes, I can do that? Help!

 

[PASM]

The sky looks substituted for another one than in the original. The car and building has been cut out (were the lamposts too fiddly - omitted) and laid on top of a different sky. The asphalt maybe looks dodged (adjustment layer - opacity x%), using perhaps also masking/ gradient techniques.

 

[ghache]

there is quite alot going on with this picture actually, exposure, some fill light adjustement. de-saturation, burning and dodging, replacted the sky, removed a bucnh of ****, numbers on the parking lot, lantern, lights, signs.

I really like how he got rid of all the stuff that was takin away fro mthe car and took them out really nicely

 

[Formatted]

Thats no longer a photo thats a photo composite.

 

[Alpha]

You need masking for the sky. Look up masking tutorials. I would start there.

Shadow/Highlight plus Unsharp Mask will get you most of the way there with the rest of the image.

 

[KmH]

It doesn't sound like the photos you posted yours. If they are, no problemo.

The rules here at TPF don't allow us to post photos we don't own the copyright to. (TPF rules/regs are on the FAQ page. See the 3rd, * down.)

We can link to photos someone else owns the copyright to all day long.

Every time someone clicks on this link, a record is made the owner of the web site shown in the second photo can access, showing where their web site hits originate from, like Google Analytics.

Several months back, a TPF forum member posted some car photos they didn't own and the photo's owners saw a bunch of web site hits coming from someplace they had never been before (TPF) and called out the TPF forum member out in the thread.

Thre is also an image search web site called TinEye that photographers can use to search the Internet for unauthorized use of their work.

 

[Irishwake]

I changed them to links to the owners flickr.

Thats no longer a photo thats a photo composite.

It's seeming like this is (sadly) the case, I really hate how good it looks even though it's not the same image anymore. I can handle replacing the sky, depending on the foreground, but was just wondering about the rest of the actual image itself.

It looks like he cut and pasted pieces of the car at different exposure(headlights) to get this effect as well.