How to achieve this effect in post-processing?

[thereforeiamx]

http://b.f11.org/photo/Pilgrim/

I understand that a lot of this photographer's work is mostly enhanced in post-processing on perhaps photoshop, but how does he achieve these effects? It seems like he plays around with the highlights and shadows; I like how there's always a significant amount of shadow and the dreamy diffuse glow quality. Any constructive criticism on his work?

 

[harkain]

In Photoshop, soft glows and hazy effects can be achieved through the use of duplicate layers with the filter Gaussian Blur (set high) and then setting the layer blending mode to something like Overlay or Soft Light and adjusting the layer opacity to the desired effect. Then there are 1000 ways to selectively blend this effect into the image.

There are a number of professional actions and plugins that create these types of effects. Kevin Kabota has several very nice sets of actions that do this type of thing.

You don't need to buy anything, of course. Just figure out the tools and the possibilities are limitless.