Before and After #48

[Ocron]

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 # 49).

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

This game will end on Sunday, April 20th at 12pm (EST).
(Ok, it's a little over 48 hrs but I won't be around mid-morning Sunday)
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I had a hard time picking a shot to use. I decided on this one because it has some obvious exposure problems and, I think, potential for some creative edits. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with.

http://ocron.zenfolio.com/img/v3/p467546016.jpg

[ilmk]

Here's my go...

Boosted the colors by 64%
brightened by color curves
cloned out all foot prints
and added a border.
Simple and fun....

[sethmo]

Bored at work.

Adjusted: Contrast, Brightness, saturation, colors, tone mapping
Filters: Vignette, High pass
Cloned: Snow footprints
Added Alaskan mountain range(cause the picture looked like it should be in Alaska :P )
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f39/sethmo38/Randoms/ba48.jpg

[qtaran111]

Here's my shot at it.

Method behind the madness:

1. Cloned out handles on the ground
2. Couple of curve adjustment layers for ground and sky
3. Slight adjustment of hue & saturation
4. Added falling snow (new black layer, screen blend mode, filter graphic pen, gaussian blur, drop opacity)
5. Added border
6. Added text, following work path for slant

http://camdenphoto.smugmug.com/photos/281268725_hxBUw-O.jpg

[suzyb]

Ok...I have no idea what the heck these things are, so I improvised.

Made the canvas taller.
Added the flames to the whatchyamacallits.
Cloned out the prints on the snow
Added a little orangish color to the snow to make it look sorta like a glow.
Upped the saturation a little bit.
Border.

[TheSonofDarwin]

Decided to try a style I learned recently and add my touch to it. Perhaps my most extensive edit although I didn't change a whole lot for once, so here's my layer order (http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/769/layersxs8.jpg).

Levels adjusted just the foreground
Curves adjusted just the background
Copy Merged, overlay vivid light foreground and paint out blown out highlights in snow
Lucis filter on sculpture 15%, foreground only
Bi-Color filter x 2, 100% background, 20% foreground
Boost highlights, reduce shadows in foreground
Reflector effects (Nik), 35%
Levels layer again, blew out highlights, painted in darker areas of tower @ low opacity
USM 100/0.3/2, foreground only, 70%, selectively lowered sharpening where towers meet floor
Border just increased contrast and lowered exposure

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

[ZeroOne86]

It's been some time since I done a B&A. Work has kept me busy so don't get the time to do these. Thankfully things are slowing down a bit. Here's my go.

-Brought up the photo in ACR brought the exposure down by 1 all the way to -4 and then all way back up by 1 to +4. Brought these plus the original and complied them in Dynamic Photo HDR. After combining them I tone mapped the image.
-With the final image I noticed I ended up a nasty by product some crazy color noise on the metal pipes so I went ahead and did a black and white layer. Using the mask I selected them to hide the noise.
-With a layer on a setting of soft light and a reduced opacity, I filled with black. I used a mask and also filled with black. Then brushed in the wall to burn it down a bit.
-I wanted to bring out the snow a bit and used a Bleach Bypass filter with Nik Software. I used a mask to fill in the snow.
-There was a very strong blue shadow casted on the wall so I used a hue/saturation layer to bring down the saturation. I used the mask to fill in just the shadow .
-A brightness/contrast layer to brighten up the pipes using the mask. I duplicated my black and layer only to grab the mask, then delete the B&A layer. Dragged the mask down to this layer so it would save me the work of brushing the pipes in again.
-A Graduated Natural Density filter with Nik Software layer to bring out some of the detail in the pipe.
-Another Nik Software filter Reflector Effects to bring out the color in the sunset.
-A vignette that consisted of two layers that I grouped. One layer I filled in with black on a layer setting of black and used a 50% gray brush to fill in the middle and reduced its opacity. I wanted the vignette to be a bit more dynamic so I used another layer with the same settings yet a little further into the photo. On this layer I used a gaussian blur to soften the edges.
-Finally the border I just used a stroke around the image and duplicated the back and used a really big inner glow.

[BitterSweet]

I have no clue what those were I was going to have smoke come out of them but decided not to so this is what I came up with.

-Cloned out the paw prints & spot in the sky
-Added a Pro Contrast layer twice. Once all over and then the other for the pipes and snow.
-Added a bleach bypass filter onto the snow
-High pass filter on everything but the sky
-Natural Density on the sky
-Brightened everything but the sky
-Added stars with a outer glow effect.
-Added border with stars to bring out the stars in the photo.

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii244/Devilslilvamp/ba48.jpg

[SQuiP]

Ag, I didn't really do much, but here's what I got!

Desaturated
Cropped
Diffuse glow ;-)
Curve adjustment on weird pole goodies
Kinda liked the footprints so kept them in...
Burnt a few small areas in background and water
Vignette and border

[Ocron]

As I suspected, picking a winner was not going to be easy. There was at least some part of every edit that I liked, but in the end I narrowed it down to 3. (Btw, I have no idea what those poles are either.)

3rd Place - TheSonOfDarwin I loved what you did with the sky and ice, it really looks cool. The only thing I would comment on is I think if the snow around the poles blended in with that coloring more it would look even better.

2rd Place - qtaran11 I'm not usually a huge fan of adding weather but I though the falling snow was perfect in this shot. It had just snowed the night before so there was snow piled up on the pipe things and it blended in real nice. Might be the first snowstorm ever with a bright blue sky though. :)

and the winner is...

1st Place - BitterSweet I thought this was an all around great edit. The coloring, contrast, adding the stars (how did you do that exactly?), etc. all worked real well. Oh, and you got rid of the blue cast on the snow and made it nice and white which was great.

Congrats and I'm looking forward to #49.

[suzyb]

Way to go, Tracey! Great job. I want to know how you did those stars, too!

[SilverHCIC]

Congrats Tracey and all the others. ... Nice edits!! ;)

[qtaran111]

Well done BitterSweet and everyone else. I think suzyb's flames were superb :).

I hope somebody here knows what those things are!

[SilverHCIC]

Well done BitterSweet and everyone else. I think suzyb's flames were superb :).

I hope somebody here knows what those things are!
^^^^^
I have NO CLUE what they were, but i also think that suzyb's flames were way cool. ;)

[TheSonofDarwin]

I have no clue either. My guess would fall in line with Suzy's take in that they look a little like gas regulators at a sewage treatment plant. But I've never seen any that looked exactly like that.

Congrats Tracey!

[ZeroOne86]

Congrats Tracey and to everyone else. Suzyb it would have been cool to see if you smudge those flames a little to make them look alive.

[BitterSweet]

Wow cool thanks everyone. The next one is up now.

As far as the stars- Kyle had downloaded a brush that has different size little dots. I just put a few on the pictures (on a new layer) and erased the parts I didn't want. Then went to layer style and added a slight glow to it.