Before and After #55

[Permagrin]

(copied from B&A #54)

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 #56).

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

This will end at 10:30 am PST on Tues.

[ZeroOne86]

-Brush layer with a setting of layer gave it an interesting texture
-Cooling photo filter on a mask excluding the flower out of it
-Selective color
-Brightness/Contrast
-Curves
-Levels
-Tonal Contrast & Bleach Bypass with Nik Software
-Border

[BitterSweet]

-Color Stylizer
-Contrast Range filter
-Fibers filter (not on flower)
-added a black layer to bring out detail
-added color to the flower
- did a brighten layer on overlay
-did another brighten layer on low opacity
-high pass filter
-added a slight vignette and a grunge type border
-regular border.

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh261/bittersweetphoto/ba55t.jpg

[Ocron]

This was a fun photo to work with. I tried to draw attention to the rose without being too obvious about it, and try to make the tractor intesting also.

- warmed the image, bumped the exposure 1 stop, and bumped up the clarity in ACR.
- opened in PS and ran the BHP Lomo action on a copy of the background layer. Set it's opacity to 50% and blend mode to overlay.
- merged up (stamp visible) and color balance midtones towards red and magenta, but masked out the rose.
- s-curve contrast bump on just the rose and smaller s-curve contrast bump on everything else.
- levels adjust on just the rose to brighten it.
- created to vignettes, one normal @60 opacity, and one overlay below it @80% opacity.
- USM 120-1-3, but masked out most of the rose except the edges masked at 50%.
- Flattened then a Bleach Bypass layer at ~40% opacity, added layer mask and masked the rose even more.

http://ocron.zenfolio.com/img/v1/p160077252.jpg

[Elizabeth44]

Increased exposure, offset. Increased sat of flower and decreased vehicle and stem sat. Changed shade of green. Cropped, added border.

[suzyb]

For this one I messed with levels, brought up the brightness.
Upped the contrast.
Desaturated a little bit.
Added a sepia filter.
Wasn't crazy about the color yet - so I desaturated the yellow a bit more and upped the saturation on the red.
Then I thought I'd turn it so the stem wasn't coming directly from the center on the right, but that made it so I'd have to crop pretty close to the flower.
Instead, I left as much as I could and cloned in the rest. It ain't pretty - but I hope that it blends in with the other imperfections of the old tractor or whatever.
Border.

[qtaran111]

- Curve adjustment layer for contrast
- Hue/Saturation adj. layer to change...hue & saturation!
- New layer with colorised rendered clouds for "mottled" lighting look
- Change blending mode to overlay
- New layer with vignette (blurred, transformed and moved until I liked it)
- USM
- Added border

http://camdenphoto.smugmug.com/photos/290012218_FSbBE-O.jpg

[SQuiP]

Curve adjustment to brighten and add contrast
Applied paint daub filter as background
"Painted" using a variety of brushes - dodge and burn with various opacities.
Sharpened image, blurred and smudged sections around edge.
Craquelure sections to look like thick paint
Lower contrast and made a few small colour adjustments
Cropped, added very poor signiture, vignette and border
...wasn't sure how to get rid of all the white... it lacks warmth

[TheSonofDarwin]

This didn't turn out exactly as I wished, but..

Layer Setup (http://img370.imageshack.us/img370/259/flowerlevelsdx3.jpg)
Ran the image through Dynamic HDR - Lowered all settings to lowest except the lighting and masked it over the original
Levels and targeted the lower left portion and highlights
Nik Bi-Color filter, low opacity, masked to allow it to affect the flower mostly
Nik Bleach Bypass, masked to hit the high contrast areas
Nik Sunshine, masked all except the flower and lettering
Levels to darken lower left corner
Border


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

[openmatt]

http://www.jmsuite.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=8502&g2_serialNumber=1

Adjust levels
Increased Contrast
USM
Dodging and burning
Sharpen tool on in focus spots
Select elliptical marquee
Inverse
Feather 250 pixels
Delete (background colour = black)
Resize.

[eastcoastsponger]

Camera RAW
Exposer adjustment
Tone adjustment
Opened in CS3
Adjusted satuartion
Reduce noise
USM
Desaturdated
History brush

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v115/eastcoastsponger/IMG_7231-1.jpg

[thekid24]

This one I didnt spend the time in preserving the original.

--Took lasso tool and went around the flower as if a light had been put on it, so I followed the contour of the metal and whatnot
--Inversed the lasso selection
--Feathered to 25
--Adjustments Bightness/contrast and adjusted to liking
--Did the same above to create the shadown under the head of the flower
--Opened up a texture photo
--Copied over the original
--Set the texture to screen
--Switched to negative
--Desaturated
--Used a gradient to give the yellow line on the textured photo
--Slightly blurred the flower photo
--merged the all layers together
--then took the photo to selective coloring and adjusted colors to liking
--then desaturated it a lil and there ya have it

[Permagrin]

Sorry I'm late. I had an apt. this morning.

I really enjoyed viewing the different interpretations of this photo. It was really hard to choose a favorite!

thekid24, I never thought to de-saturate it. I liked what you did very much.
eastcoastsponger, I never thought to do selective color either. You did a very good job with the processing.
bittersweet, openmatt, thesonofdarwin & Elizabeth44, your interpretations of it looked very much like mine (http://lcimages.zenfolio.com/img/v1/p584111117-4.jpg) (which of course meant I liked them too!) :)
zeroone86, your "cool tone" look was very interesting too. Yet another thing I never thought of.
ocron, that "grunge" style look worked really well with this photo
squip, you turned it into an artwork. I REALLY liked this one.

qtaran111 & suzyb, I loved both your interpretations of this photo. It was very hard to make a final choice btw them.

I ended up choosing qtaran111's photo because I love what you did...making it appear that there were shadows on the tractor and the tulip looked almost 3-D. It was a beautiful job of processing.

[TheSonofDarwin]

Congrats qtran111! I always love the darker styles.

Suzy, very nice as well! I was trying to find a crop to get the stem from piercing horizontally, but I couldn't find one I liked.

[BitterSweet]

Congrats qtran111 and to every one else.

SQuiP- Great effect.

[SQuiP]

Well done gtaran!! The rich colours are beautiful (...something mine is very much lacking!!)
Love the "mottled" look ;-)
Thanks bittersweet and Permagrin!

[SilverHCIC]

Congrats qtaran111 - and everyone else !!! Nice edits by all. ;)

[openmatt]

congrats... LoL. When I was playing with levels I made mine really green like that and liked it, then decided to try something else. It looks awesome with the green matting and gold border.

[Ocron]

Nice job and congrats qtaran111. Suzyb, I thought yours really stood out as well.

[ZeroOne86]

Thanks for the comments. Congrats qtaran111 and to everyone else. Cool outcome SQuiP I agree with Tracey.

[suzyb]

Good show! Some lovely edits...and a very nice photo as a starting point.

Thanks for the nice comments and congratulations to qtaran as well. The shadowy effect really gave it some depth. I liked it a lot!

[qtaran111]

Well shucks, thanks for the praise :oops:.

I thought there were some really great edits here, inspired by a great start image. Well done everyone!

I'll get the new one up asap.

[qtaran111]

Before & After #56 (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=499221)