How to get this effect?

[ndancona]

Saw some images on flickr and was wandering what this effect is:
Attitude in Blue, New York City_F_ | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Most of this guys images use this same effect. I like the result and would like to figure out how he is achieving this. Looks a bit like HDR but I don't believe it is as there would be a lot of movement in most of the shots.

 

[amolitor]

Push contrast into the midtones, inverse S curve, for starters, then push saturation way up, possibly in specific color channels.

 

[Amocholes]

It appears to be an overcooked HDR. Heavily tone mapped.

 

[Big Mike]

Check out Topaz Labs. Their 'Adjust' plug-in can easily get you something like that.

 

[Buckster]

Looks like single-image tone-mapping, which can be done by any number of programs. Some also have a fairly heavy vignette and possibly even more contrast and darkening than the usual tone-mapping results.

 

[amolitor]

Smack it with a curve something like this:



Mess with saturation on various color channels to whatever your awful taste is, and then hit it with a very large radius unsharp mask.

My grotesque features are almost invisible behind the grotesque effects:



And yes, this is basically how tone mapping works. Curves adjustments ARE tone mapping, they're the basic tool for mapping tones.

 

[ndancona]

Thanks for the replies. I appreciate it's not to everyone's taste and not sure if I would use it either although I could probably save some images by giving them this treatment.
I figure if I learn every technique then I can be a better photographer/artist.

 

[KmH]

The dragan effect - Bing