How I Made: Agent Escape

 

Bill Bailey created this image as the final part of a six-part story inspired by James Bond and film noir movies. “The agent gets his assignment, confronts the enemy, escapes and rescues the girl. Inspired by modern action movies, I wanted some big explosions to end the scene.” Treating the models separately from the background, Bailey was able to create different effects on each level before merging the images and “adding a film grain as well as increasing the vibrance and contrast”. To create the vibrant tones and desired effects in the image Bailey used Photoshop tools such as “the Lasso and Pen [tool] to cut out the buildings and models, a normal round brush to add things like glare in the back and fire color uon the edges of the models, as well as Dodge & Burn for contrast.”
 

Insert your Elements

Here I placed all the individual buildings together, added sidewalks, gutters, cars and then reflections to make it look like it had rained. I also brightened up the centre to add depth.
 

Add Contrast

I then desaturated the image to add drama to the scene, increased the contrast and sharpness, and only then added my models and explosions separately
 

Boost Vibrance

I used Dodge & Burn to give the models more contrast, then added some colour on the edges to reflect the explosions. I reduced the hue and saturation, added film grain and vibrance and increased the contrast again.