Step 1: find an interesting backdrop and shoot it preferable with a wide angle lens on a tripod with multiple exposures for and HDR composite.
Step 2: shoot a good model with good dramatic lighting to fit the final scene Using edge lighting adds drama also shooting on light grey or under exposed white is the best way background to cut them out after, Green screens make color casts.
Step Three: process the HDR background to your liking with photomatics Adobe HDR pro or any other HDR software you would prefer.
Step 4: Open the HDR background in photoshop create levels layer and a hue saturation Layer above it.
Step 5: Open the image of your subject. Choose the select/color range. click the backdrop around the subject, add and adjust the sensitivity till you have a good separation between the subject the the background. click okay, you have the marching ants on the screen know. click the mask icon in the layers palette. You mask is now made. Clean up the mask to reveal anything masked off on the subject with a white paint brush, Black brush anything still showing from the background.
Step 6: edges and hair: this is were the work really pays off.
Press CRTL G To create a group layer Name the group subject. Your subject is now in a group separate from the background. Press CRTL and click and drag your subject mask to the group layer. Now this mask will mask out any other layers we will be adding to the group. You will use the mask to get tight on all the edges. Zoom in 300 % and get all the way around the edges with a medium hard brush. The hair should be feathered with a soft brush let the background bleed through a bit and make all the edges soft like hair should be. Course edges around the hair are the first big mistake people make in these kinds of shots. Just above your subject layer create a blank layer and name it clean edges. Use the clone tool at 70-80% with a 3 pixel brush to clone around the edges this gets rid of the white halos from the backdrop.
Step 7: Evening out the luminance and tone.
The background and subject images have different color and brightness we have to make the mood the same so they look like they were shot together. We will accomplish this with separate layers for the Group and separate layers for the background. we have already added hue saturation, and levels layers above the background. We will now create a color balance layer at the top of or group. Change the blending mode to Color. This this will give you control over the shadow mid tone and highlight tonality without Changing the contrast or brightness of the subject. Add a levels layer if you want to change the brightness and contrast. as long as these layers are in the Subject group they will only affect the subject. You can even mask these layers and paint them on for dodge and burn purposes. Do the same with the layers above the background anything below the subject group will affect the background only.
Step 8: Finishing touches. when the image looks balanced. You should save the psd file. they get pretty big and could crash PS. once save you could flatten the image. Now you need to polish a couple things. if the subject's feet are touching the ground you will need to create a blank layer and paint some soft shadows with a black brush. I then blur the shadows a little bit and the paint then a bit darker near the edge of the feet. Another good trick is to create a fill layer with black as the color. then drop the opacity to 40% and graduate the mask for a strong vignette.
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