How to get this color atmosphere mood on photos?

[fogseller]

Hi everybody. this is my first post, but i read everything on retouchpro for long time now. maybe someone can help me with this one. thank you!

i found somewhere this 2 pictures, i think that is from some advertising agency called Carioca or something like that (probably from some ads against child abuse, i don/t know). anyway, i would be thankful if someone have idea on how to get this type of color/ mood on the picture. i try with few things on some random photos (hue/sat, color overlay, gradient, but... hehe, you know allready...) didn/t work out.

so that is my first post here, thank you for your time and answers )

bye

fogseller

[igot2pman]

Interesting picture

I worked backward recreating the original the best i could.

1. Start with a dark looking picture (plan the shoot to be dark)
2. Fist you desaturate till almost nothing (NOT B&W) (about -60)
3. Make a new color balance layer (color blending mode)
4. Shadows:-1, +3, +3
5. Midtones:+12, +19, -9
6. Highlights: -6, +36, +23
7. Double click the layer to open the layer style box
8. Blend if: Underlying layer: white tab : Alt+click it: drag the left half all the way over: you should have 0/255 for the value
9. Create a brightness and contrast layer: -5, +5
10. *D&B where you want to be darker

Hope it helps,
-Keven

[fogseller]

Thank you very much for your time Keven!

i will try your technique and let you know how it work out. thanks man!
i'm very gratefull!

bye
fogseller