Before and After #51

[TheSonofDarwin]

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 # 52).

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

This game will end on Sunday, April 27th at 12:00PM (EST).

Had the camera with one day I noticed a blimp fly over our town's private airport, so I drove over and watched it land. Looks like I need to go take images specifically for this competition. I'm a macro guy, but they don't leave a whole lot to artistic interpretation.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y173/thesonofdarwin/BA51.jpg

[ilmk]

I was bored. LOL so here is my attempt...

-Carefully cloned out all the white thingy and people and such
-cut out the deer from the original pic
-pasted and resized it
-duplicated the deer layer
-flipped the image
-filled with black
-motion blur
-lowered opacity of the "shadow" layer
-duplicated so i had 4 deer instead of two
-sepia
-bordered it and there you go....

EDIT: eek! banding! I didn't notice it when it was in Paintshop. :( aww well we live we learn. It was fun anyhow. :D
EDIT #2: K... fixed it. It was bothering me to no end. It's at least a bit better. lol

[sf1]

I'll give it a try.

Cloned the people, wires, houses, barns...
Added a foilage filter, contrast filter and tonal filter - all to different opacities.
Cropped to taste.
Added vignette.
Added boarder.

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u198/shanef1/BA51.jpg

[NicholsonPhotography]

Here's my attempt...

Selective color by adding a duplicate layer. Desaturated that layer and adjusted the levels a little. Magnetic lasso'd the blimp and deleted to let the color of the background layer show. Clone Stamp or Healing brush to get rid of most of the people/ropes.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f280/stellar1110/BA51.jpg

[Elizabeth44]

The one that got away....
Cloned people etc. Magnetic lasso to move blimp. Rotated flying people by using mag lasso and then edit, transform and rotate. Tweaked colour by uping the individ saturation of greens and blues. Used exposure compensation to offset -200. Added border by select, modify, border, feather 15pixels. Using black brush. I think that's it...

[azsteve-o]

selected blump and made a separate layer, cloned over where blimp sat on the ground and cloned out all the people and buildings except for the blue building on the side (I liked that one so much that I selected it & the tree and increased their size. adjusted curves. selected sky and did a lot more curves adjustment. multiplied layer on sky. selected grassy foreground and yellowed the grass with color select (red & yellow). did slight hugh and saturation adjustments. selected the blimp and adjusted the exposure and added a couple of filters to make it blend more naturally and finally sharpened the entire image and cropped.

(btw: Elizabeth, I wasn't trying to steal your blimp position idea. I just saw yours when I uploaded mine - wierd coincidence)

266029

[ZeroOne86]

-Hue/Saturation
-Selective Color
-Vignette
-Burn layer with a setting of soft light with a mask
-Cross Balance and Pro Contrast with Nik Software
-Border

[BitterSweet]

-Cropped
-Pro Contrast filter
-Cloned out cones, white things, the checked tent thing, house in hills, and the poll in hills.
-Foliage filter (for grass)
-Low key filter on sky and hills,
-Surface blur on blimp and sky (tried to remove the pixels)
-b&w filter on blimp to remove red shadow cast.
-vignette and border

[qtaran111]

I thought the original image looked OK (apart from a bit of curves, HSL) so thought I'd do something completely different:

First for the "night vision" look
- Duplicate layer, hue/saturation, colorize green
- Curve adjustment layer to change contrast & darken
- Filter render fibres on duplicate layer, with motion blur, rotate 90 degrees, blending mode overlay, adjust opacity to get horizontal streaks
- Filter add noise, gaussian

For the "night vision goggles" border & stuff
- New layer, fill black, delect centre selection for border
- New layers, add custom shapes for centre target, black triangular bits, radiation symbol & chevrons
- Type text tool on new layer
- New layer, customised brush (increased spacing) for dotted lines (hold shift whilst brushing to get horizontal, vertical)
- Add layer style, outer glow for symbols

http://camdenphoto.smugmug.com/photos/285220422_7Nz7h-O.jpg

[Ocron]

I went around in circles with this one so it's hard to say exactly what produced this. In the end I decided to add a few more blimps flying in at different angles and make it look a little aged, though that might have worked better if Sanyo wasn't plastered on the side. :) Basically what I did was cloned the blimp and made a bunch of copies then put them at different sizes and angles using transform. Bumped the contrast and did some desaturation. Added a little noise and a light vignette.

http://ocron.zenfolio.com/img/v1/p814595759.jpg

[ilmk]

(btw: Elizabeth, I wasn't trying to steal your blimp position idea. I just saw yours when I uploaded mine - wierd coincidence)

We all think alike then! LOL Because I originally did that too but got cloning happy. :lol:

[suzyb]

Tried to get creative.

Converted to b&w.
Upped contrast.
Added grain.
Added a bright vignette.
Copied the explosion from the Hindenburg. Aligned it with the back of the blimp.
Tried my best to blend it in.
Changed the canvas size.
Added text to the top and side.
Added a layer of grain over the text.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2212/2443279237_36c8f2e3c8_o.jpg

[ZeroOne86]

^^ I was waiting for the hindenburg edit :D

[monty28428]

LOL -- Me too!

[ilmk]

me three. LOL

[suzyb]

How can you NOT look at a blimp and think of the Hindenburg? Even without the whole hydrogen factor...those things just look like they're asking to blow up.

Glad I could come through for y'all, though! ;)

[ZeroOne86]

Very true Suzy and we know we could count on you Lol

[TheSonofDarwin]

I couldn't decide. They were all very well done. I asked a friend to pick his top choice, and since it coincided with my lean...

.. the winner is suzyB! Although predictable in hindsight, the edit and blending was well done. The people originally holding the rope look like they are all pointing at it, so it works well :D

Runner up(s) Ocron and Elizabeth44. Ocron, I just love that style. You'd have won, but it looks more alien invasion than blimps coming to the fair. Elizabeth44, the hanging people were priceless. Just would have liked to see the image around the blimp boosted a bit more.

qtaran111, this is why police interrogate us when we take our camera to the airports! :lol:

ZeroOne86, that's pretty much what my edit looked like when I finished with it. With Bittersweet's crop.. I don't know, that could have been perfect.

[BitterSweet]

Congrats SuzyB you did really well with the blending like sonofdarwin said and the newspaper was a great touch.

Congrats to everyone else too. :) :)

[qtaran111]

Well done suzyB, a worthy winner. I loved the subheading (from the real disaster) "Oh the humanity!" Great.


qtaran111, this is why police interrogate us when we take our camera to the airports! :lol:

Yeah, doubt I'll get a job with Sanyo now!

ps. Can I make a suggestion to add to the rules that when the winner starts the new thread they post a link to it here in the last one. Makes it easier to find (and we get an email notification its started!)

[ilmk]

Excellent! Congrats suzyB!!
I can't wait for the next one!

[Ocron]

Congrats SuzyB, I was really impressed with your edit. Contrary to what it says in your newpaper article, I thought you really did do a great job blending in the explosion. :) Elizabeth44, the people hanging on and flying through the air killed me. That was great.

[suzyb]

Congrats SuzyB, I was really impressed with your edit. Contrary to what it says in your newpaper article, I thought you really did do a great job blending in the explosion. :) Elizabeth44, the people hanging on and flying through the air killed me. That was great.

LOL! Could you actually read that?? I thought I messed it up enough so that it still looked like real words without actually being readable.

Thanks SofD! I prefer not to think of it as "predictable"...rather more of a "great minds think alike" thing. :lol:

I have to go out for a little bit - but I'll get the next one up as soon as I get back.

[sf1]

Congrats suzyb and everyone else.

[Elizabeth44]

Congratulations SuzyB! That was a great edit! I had tons of fun doing it and thanks to everyone for their comments.
Bring on the next one SuzyB.... yay!