I have no idea if there are any similar looks to this but does anyone have any idea what was done?

BJ2A3605_2 by Sharp Chen, on Flickr

<img src="https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1647/25060799334_7f1b366a06_z.jpg">

Reduce yellows (increase blue) and lift blacks.

And use colored contact lenses

I took a screen grab and tried to reverse engineer it. The tonal adjustments are fairly straightforward, but after about twenty colour/saturation moves I gave up. It's impossible to say without seeing the original. And I suspect there may be quite a bit of selective adjustment.
PS Is there a bluish solid layer above at a low opacity.

If you send an image with similar light but with natural colors I may try to reproduce it.

The challenge is not how to reproduce this particular look, the challenge you have to face is how to understand colour and how it works in terms of composition, light, balance, complementary colours, etc..

It doesn't matter if you manage to achieve this look without understanding why as next time you will be facing the same challenge..

my advice is, if you try to reproduce any looks, make sure you understand how colour basics work.. from there everything will be easier as when it comes to retouching there are not recipes!!

I have another look I want to imitate.


https://scontent-sin1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hp … e=57B9D87F

I have tried bringing up the blacks in a curve and lowering the contrast but it still eludes me. Also when I bring up the blacks in a curve, the whites in the photo become brighter. Do I need to brush the transparency of the curve layer to bring the whites back down, or is there another way?

You should share an example of one of your images that was shot in a similar outdoor setting, so we can see where you are starting. That would make it less of an abstract process for individuals to help and give more accurate guidance.