Before & After #50

[azsteve-o]

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 # 51).

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

This game will end on Thursday, April 24th at 11:59pm (EST).

265280

[suzyb]

I couldn't figure out a way to save the top half of this photo and still have it look decent, so I made this into a street scene.

Corrected the distortion to straighten up the buildings.
Cropped.
Brightened up the shadows.
Messed with levels until I liked it.
Upped contrast and saturation.
Burning on the building in back.
Cloned out the sign on the wall on the right.
Added lights. I don't know why, since I it's not a night scene. I just thought it looked better. ??
Added a border.

[BitterSweet]

Well hopefully this looks ok because on my desktop (which has the better monitor) this edit has more sepia tones to it but on my laptop it has a more b&w tone to it so people might see two different things depending on the screen. I think it still looks good either way though so yeah. Anyways this is what I did.

-Added a Natural Density layer to bring out the dome.
-Did a paper toner layer (which gave it that sepia/b&w tone)
-added a reflector effect (soft gold) which gave it that old photo look to the buildings
-duplicated that layer and did a tonal contrast filter at a 30% opacity.
-Did two layers of black on soft light and a low opacity. One was all black and the other was just parts that I wanted to bring out more detail like the stones.
-Merged all layers and then duplicated it and used the wand tool to erased the part of the sky and added a new sky on a different layer.
-added vignette and border.

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh261/bittersweetphoto/BA50T.jpg

[SQuiP]

For what it's worth... :)

Cropped and desaturated
Retrieved colour (history tool) of church/temple
Curve adjustment to brighten and add contrast
Colour sky
Sharpened only outside toward edges
Darkened selected areas of church (tower etc)
Lightened buildings on either side.
Added birds
Lowered saturation
Dodged selected border

[TheSonofDarwin]

Levels Adjustment x 3 (darker, "normal," and blown out)
- Darker Layer I painted in all the darks, low opacity
- Normal Layer I painted in all midtones, low opacity
- Lighter Layer I painted in all highlights, low opacity
Curves Adjustment x 2
- Greater Contrast I painted in the darker areas
- Lowered Contrast I painted in the highlights
Added Sky (http://flickr.com/photos/flavijus/543987511/sizes/o/), Removed scaffolding
Tonal Contrast (Nik), painted in just left and right buildings, road on low opacity
Brown hue, selectively tweaked some some colors
Added a little noise
Few more levels & curves layers, targeted the background buildings for these
Cloned and patched out the red item in the upper right hand corner
For the border I used the Polaroid filter as a template. Magic Wanded the cut-out areas and created my own clipping mask to get the border without the filter effect.
*Fixed blue toning I had under the roofs for some reason

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y173/thesonofdarwin/baa50final-1.jpg

[ZeroOne86]

-Tone mapped only the buildings using a mask
-Used a Bi-Color filter with Nik Software
-A graduated filter in the sky of blue with Nik Software and another layer of a cloud brush on a mask
-A subtle vignette using two layers filled with black on a layer of soft light using a 50% gray in the middle
-Brightness/Contrast
-Photo filter
-A burn layer on just the building in the background and top most face of the building on the left

[azsteve-o]

These were some really great edits to choose from.

SQuiP, I’m generally not a fan of selective color, but you did an excellent job with this. The background color of the duomo blends nicely into the desaturated foreground. I also love the birds.

Suzyb, nice job with the colors and street lights.

Tracey, your edit was fantastic as usual. I’m a big sepia fan and you did a nice job of bringing out the detail in the shadowed area. The sepia was not overdone at all – very nice!

ZeroOne86, your skies are always incredible, and I love the color contrast, but feel the sky here, while beautiful, looked a little unnatural.

All that said, TheSonofDarwin is the WINNER! While the blown out sky in the original made it tempting to go crazy with a gorgeous sky, you picked one that fit perfectly. I thought your colors were incredible, and I was glad to see that you removed the scaffolding. I might just mimic your edit on the original, add some birds like SQuiP did and light up the street lamps as suzyb did.

Great job everyone!

[ZeroOne86]

Congrats TheSonofDarwin as well as to everyone else. Thanks for the comments azsteve-o. I agree it was a bit unnatural if I toned it down a bit and chosen a different cloud set it would have looked more natural. It's fine with me if I had a minor flaw because I get to do the next one :D

[BitterSweet]

Congrats TheSonofDarwin. Great job on the scaffolding.

Congrats to everyone else.

Looking forward to the next one.

[SQuiP]

Wow, all the edits were great! Well deserved Sonofdarwin :-)
Can't say I'm a fan of selecive colouring either.... don't know how that happened??

[Ocron]

Congrat SonOfDarwin, what a great edit. I missed this one but am looking forward to the next.

[suzyb]

Great job SofD! I was really impressed with all of these edits! With its blown sky and dark eaves, this one was just beyond my abilities - so what y'all were able to do really wowed me!

[qtaran111]

I think TheSonofDarwin is a worthy winner, congrats.

I missed this one, but can't wait for #51!

[SilverHCIC]

Congrats SonofDarwin. I've been too busy to play lately, but I had a chance to look at these just before the winner was picked. This was another hard choice. ... It could have gone to any of you !!! Inspiring work !!!;)

[ilmk]

Everyones edits were fabulous! SonofDarwin your win was much deserved. It is a stunning edit!

[TheSonofDarwin]

Wow, thanks! :) The competition is getting tougher and tougher each week. Starting at week one and progressing it's amazing to see how much everyone's skills have improved.

If anyone is interested, I use an adaptation of a technique I learned here (http://www.blog.bluehourphoto.com/videolibrary/makingof/) to do my levels and curves masks. It's an interesting, if not incredibly long process and you really can't tell that you've changed the image unless you compare your work as you go to the original. You work in just 5-15% opacities and build the image slowly. It also works nicely with filters (Nik, LucisArt, Virtual Photographer [free]). The tutorials are quasi-advertisement for the LucisArt filter. I have it but rarely find use just because it requires a little too much work sometimes. The effects are just so very intense unless you do some precise masking.

Anywho, I shall have the next one up once I find an image.