I agree with Chris, it’s a subtle form of photoshopping. I know multiple people who believed that his photos were untouched.

And yeah Aaron, his portfolio totally made me do the jaw-dropping how’d-they-do-that bit when I first saw it. I was floored.

You’re definitely right, of course. These two photographers are quite different from each other and impressive for for very different reasons. What I like about Dragan’s work, for example, is that although it’s “Photoshopped”, it’s really a fairly subtle and sophisticated alteration even while preserving the obvious drama in his images. I think some viewers, for example, might not recognize the Photoshop alteration at all. That, for my money, is what makes it so effective.

Andrzej Dragan’s was one of the few photo portfolios that made me simultaneously gasp and think “how on Earth did he do this?” He sells some sort of a howto thing on his site, but it was more than I was willing to spend. So much of the success of his light painting technique is owed to his wonderfully textured subjects.

Photography is essentially based on light, so mastering light must necessarily be a great step toward mastering photography.