Before and After No. 44

[SilverHCIC]

This game is to help those of us who are trying to learn new tricks when it comes to editing.

Here's the breakdown of the game. I will post a picture that I choose, resized to exactly 800 pixels maximum on the long side. Outside of being resized it has to be unedited...meaning no adjustments to any levels, it has to look like it did as it came out of the camera.

The game will last 48hrs and whoever can produce the best edited image (as judged by me) will be picked and it'll be their turn to post their unedited picture for all of us to take a crack at.

The participants must have their "Image Editing OK" turned on and they must provide at least a simple breakdown of how they edited the image, some entrants are a little vague on this point, please give us all details so we can learn and share tips. For instance if you use the unsharp mask tool or Smart Sharpen, provide us with the adjustments you used so others can try them out.

You can post multiple images, but the first image you post will be the one that is judged - all other images will be considered for knowledge and tip use only.

Also, please keep all comments, be they positive or negative, to yourself until after the game has ended.

If you happen to be the winner of the game please start the next one with the title of the game and the following number. For example…the next game should read (Before and After # 45).

This is all about having fun so have at it!!!

This game will end on Wednesday, April 9th at 9pm (PST).

This picture may seem familiar to some of you. It is George Washington's home in Mt. Vernon. -- Have fun!!!

[shannyD]

here is my go at it.

shan

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c239/daisydeadpeddles/B26F-44.jpg

[stardrop]

Nice Shannon...how did you do it?

[Shadiow]

Crop, Added some blue to the sky, unsharp mask, border, little saturation, worked the curves, and dimmed some of the blown parts.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a272/RedG35C/POTN%20PS%20Challenges/B26F-44.jpg

[BitterSweet]

At first I had no clue of what to do but thing figure I haven't done a older looking picture yet and thought this picture would work great with that ideal.

-straightened
-cropped
-cloned and duplicated the door and window.
-tried to add color to the roof
-added contrast
-did a sepia and b&w layer
-did a polaroid filter
-border

[i-hunter]

Slightly OT, but could somebody point me in the direction of some good websites for borders, as I'm never sure where to find them. Thanks.

[TheSonofDarwin]

Slightly OT, but could somebody point me in the direction of some good websites for borders, as I'm never sure where to find them. Thanks.

I always make my own. All of the free borders I've found were... well, they brought down the quality of the image ;)

_________

Straightened Image
Indian Summer Filter
Layer of black on soft light (w/ mask)
Painted, cloned, and otherwise removed the people - Mirrored and rotated the top half of the lower left window to recreate that
Layer with darker exposure, masked all but the roof
Boosted contrast
USM
Border via canvas size this time

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y173/thesonofdarwin/house.jpg

[suzyb]

Straightened.
Cropped.
Brought down the brightness on the roof.
Cloned out the people and the fence.
Copied the edge of the house and the trees from the one side and transferred them to the other.
Added blue to the sky.
Added green to the grass.
Brightened up the house.
Added a little more contrast.
Some selective sharpening on the house.
Noise reduction in the trees and grass.
Added a border.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2272/2398112397_2b840c83c2_o.jpg

[SQuiP]

I had to try one for myself.... :)

Straigtened and cropped
Added brown colour layer, opacity 30%
Curve/contrast adjustment
Burnt/dodged using variety of brushes
Applied scratch remover
Polaroid picture feel using canvas sizing
Lighting effects for frame
Darkened corners etc for folds
Layer with coffee stain, opacity 60%
Burnt thin frame around actual picture
Added writing layer, no opacity

[shannyD]

Nice Shannon...how did you do it?

sorry i meant to post it, but i was getting sleepy.. i did a blur on it. probably around 4.0 then i added a sepia tone, and adjusted the blacks justa tiny bit more to give it the really aged civil war look to pics. i also added the black border as you can see, and the with the dodge tool. i ran it a long the trees to the left and right to put just a little bit more detail back into it.

sorry i didnt post that eralier.

shannon

[ZeroOne86]

-Cloned out all the people and cropped the photo
-Had to do 3 layers to bring back the roof first layer I did the levels and utilized the mask that it came with and filled in only the roof
-Second, is the exposure brought it down a bit and also used the mask as well to bring down the roof and the sky
-Third, a burn layer with the setting of soft light filled in the layer with black and created a mask and used it to select only the roof
-Paper toner and Graduated filter with Nik Software
-A texture layer with a setting of overlay (Source (http://infrastock.deviantart.com/art/Old-photo-texture-6356972))
-Then the border decided to go with a gold stroke to accent the photo

[SilverHCIC]

OK, you guys made this REALLY hard to make a selection. They were all quite good, and they showed a wide range of editing techniques. The edits fell into two basic categories. Some of the edits took the original picture and made it look much better, while preserving the original contemporary context. The other edits followed the “Aged-Damaged-Distressed” approach and were outstanding. In the end, it was a three way tie. One of the edits was a conventional/contemporary edit, while the other two were aged photo edits.

The three top images were by Shadiow, SQuiP, and ZeroOne86. I’m going to give this one to Shadiow by a sliver. I loved the horizontal crop and the balanced adjustments to the lighting to address the blown out roof, without muting the natural reflection too much. It looks natural, just better !!

SQuiP and ZeroOne86 tied in the aged-photo category. Kyle preserved the detail in the windows and building features, while creating an image that I would swear was taken about forty years ago; and SQuiP, your aged photo effects (bent corners, stains, and handwriting) are techniques I am definitely going to try some time. … They were amazing!!

OK Shadiow – You’re up !! Please post Before & After # 45!!

[TheSonofDarwin]

Congrats Shadiow!

suzyb, even though it isn't technically the same house (as captured in the photo), I was very impressed with your edit. It's one of those idealistic composures. You know, one where the architect/landscaper actually thought ahead about how it'd look in media. Ugly fence, unwieldy/unsymmetrical shrubbery... when will they start catering to us? :D

[BitterSweet]

Congrats Shadiow and to everyone else.

Suzyb- I like how you did yours it almost seem newer, almost like how it would be when it was first built with the smaller trees and no fence.

[suzyb]

It's one of those idealistic composures. You know, one where the architect/landscaper actually thought ahead about how it'd look in media. Ugly fence, unwieldy/unsymmetrical shrubbery... when will they start catering to us? :D

That is EXACTLY what I was thinking!! It may be some OCD-type thing I have, but I just COULDN'T have it all lopsided. And I didn't think George and Martha would've had the Adams' and the Jeffersons and the Franklins over for garden parties with that fence in their yard. :lol: (What is that fence for anyway? Is it surrounding something important? I've never been there.) Anyway, thanks Justin and Tracey for your nice comments.

My mental condition aside, congratulations shadiow! Good job!

[ZeroOne86]

Thank you for the comments SilverHCIC. Congrats Shadiow and to everyone else.

[SQuiP]

Congrats Shadiow, I like the panoramic!
But you nailed it with correcting the blown out roof Bittersweet, nice effect too
(I noticed the roof grew a little extention on the right.... :-))

My first intinct with this pic was to edit out the people, but gave up a few minutes in! Don't know how the rest of you managed that.... Took out my frustrastion and broke a few windows :-D. Your's much nicer ZeroOne!

[BitterSweet]

Congrats Shadiow, I like the panoramic!
But you nailed it with correcting the blown out roof Bittersweet, nice effect too
(I noticed the roof grew a little extention on the right.... :-))

My first intinct with this pic was to edit out the people, but gave up a few minutes in! Don't know how the rest of you managed that.... Took out my frustrastion and broke a few windows :-D. Your's much nicer ZeroOne!

LOL thanks yeah I outlined where I thought the roof would be with the lasso tool and colored it in red. It wasn't until I posted it that I noticed I added alittle too much roof.

[ZeroOne86]

Congrats Shadiow, I like the panoramic!
But you nailed it with correcting the blown out roof Bittersweet, nice effect too
(I noticed the roof grew a little extention on the right.... :-))

My first intinct with this pic was to edit out the people, but gave up a few minutes in! Don't know how the rest of you managed that.... Took out my frustrastion and broke a few windows :-D. Your's much nicer ZeroOne!

Thanks SQuiP I also liked your approach as well turned out very cool. Yeah it took patience with cloning out the people. I had to pay extra attention to how the pixels were placed and that they looked similar in color to the area around it. Especially the windows and the base of the house, then the cloning of the other door to close the left door.

[kab8715]

I loved yours, SQuiP! that was really neat. I could really imagine finding it in a box of old photos.

Anyone know what happend to #45?!

[SilverHCIC]

Anyone know what happend to #45?!
^^^^^ I'll PM Shadiow and see what's up.

[Shadiow]

Sorry guys, I kind of missed this somehow. I will come up with something for the next one! And thanks, I have been really working hard on my PP and cleaning up work.

[SilverHCIC]

Hey congrats Shadiow!! Your PP skills are great!!