Before & After #58

[suzyb]

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 #59).

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

This will end on Sunday, May 18th at noon (my time-mountain).

Ah...the pressure of choosing an image. Do I go with crappy? Boring? Or crappy AND boring?

How about this for a challenge? Taken through the window of a moving car for no particular reason...just messing around the first day I had the 55-250 lens. I'm going to put this in the crappy and boring category. Let's see what you can make out of it. Good luck! :lol:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3180/2497506852_db898f5c11_o.jpg

[TheSonofDarwin]

Wow, this one was a toughie for me... this is all the result of no final goal.

Cropped + Straightened + Cloned out wires
Burnt Sienna filter (Normal)
Nik Infrared Therm filter, green, on Saturation blend 66%
Fresco PS Filter
Conté Crayon PS filter, Darker Color mode, 54%
Chalk and Charcoal PS Filter, Multiply mode, masked to show just the sky
Levels adjustment layer and masked to lighten up just the foreground trees
Nik Sunshine filter for border effect. Deleted center, Bevel&Emboss and Satin layer style

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

[ZeroOne86]

-Cropped
-Massive cloning effort with the light pole, power lines, various other things
-Sunshine & Graduated Density Filter w/ Nik Software
-High Pass Sharpening layer
-Clouds
-Warming filter
-Border

[Beau Hudspeth]

Here is my go at it.

http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb213/ViciousVP/hold-2.jpg

... and rather then telling you what all I did, HERE ARE THE LAYERS (http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb213/ViciousVP/hold2.jpg?t=1211000036) to look at instead. :)

[thekid24]

--Opened photo and duplicated
--then adjusted curves to my liking, in each color...red green and blue
--then opened up flare texture photo and copied over original photo
--set it to screen blend mode and then adjusted levels, darkening it a bit
--erased a lil in the middle of the texture so you could still see the photo
--added a light grain to the photo. set at 1-2 i think.
--then slightly gaussian blurred the photo, jsut enough to smooth out the grain
--then opened up another texture layre photo and set it to light overlay blending mode
--erased a lil in the middle of the texture so you could still see the photo
--adjusted curves on that layer as well.
--slightly gaussian blurred original photo
--combined all layers and did one last tweak to it with curves.

[Ocron]

- adjusted WB, black point, detail, vibrance and straightened in ACR
- cloned out the street light, wires and a few other small distractions
- ran an 'editorial' action on a copy of the background layer, multiply blend mode @50% opacity.
- some misc contrast and color adjustments (can't remember exactly)
- 10px high pass filter layer, masked out everything that wasn't an edge I wanted to highlight, set blend mode to soft light.
- used noise ninja to sharpen everything above the trees (I know it sounds weird to use NN for this...)
- cropped and resize
- vignette then a border

http://ocron.zenfolio.com/img/v1/p604076097.jpg

[monochrome]

In Aperture, so no fancy art filters:
Straighten and Crop
Clone
White Balanced on the small building
Exposure -0.3
Definition 0.5
Saturation 1.24
Vibrancy 0.24
Color - eyedroppered the sky, Saturation 1.0, Luminance -70, Range 2.0
Edge sharpen - edges 0.5

I should point out that I'm pretty darned colorblind and don't ever use the color adjustments, thus I have no idea what they do. To my eye I made the sky a deeper, richer blue and made the structure stand out more. Some of
you may scream at the level of adjustment.

[LeuceDeuce]

In Photoshop CS3

- Straightening in Lens Distortion
- Crop
- Clone Stamping (wires, dust bunnies, bird, light pole, street signs, van, car, cyclist, yellow posts in parking lot, couple things I didn't know what they were...)
- Steepen A & B channel curves.
- "S" curve on L channel.
- Luminosity blend of lighten blend on green channel.
- Hiraloam USM. (R 50, A 16%, T 0)
- Conventional USM (R 0.3, A 65%, T 0)
- Finished the scene with the Sunshine filter from Nik Color Efex.

Edit: Forgot to add - selected highlights, elevated to own layer, applied curves. - repeat for midtones and shadows.

Result:

[AngryCorgi]

...um, well it looks like Beau is running away with this one! ;)

Very creative!

[Ocron]

...um, well it looks like Beau is running away with this one! ;)

Very creative!

From the original post...

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

[Permagrin]

this one was a hard one for me this week

cropped
transformed (perspective)
added to canvas, color of sky
added clouds
lightened
sunglow action
frame

[Skaughtto]

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e177/skaughtto/SLO/ba58.jpg

- Straightened
- Cropped to capture the roller coaster
- Smart sharpen
- Gradient blue layer over the sky
- Selectively deleted parts of the blue gradient
- Increase the saturation of the trees
- Clone stamped out the yellow pole near the cyclists
- Black border

[suzyb]

Thanks to everyone for participating! Y'all did a great job with a less-than-stellar starting point.

Bronze medal to ZeroOne - definitely the best job sharpening and bringing out the grid of the coaster.

Silver medal to thekid - you have an amazing talent for making a photo look like something I'd find in a long forgotten box in my grandmother's attic. (That's a good thing...I like finding long forgotten things in grandma's attic.)

Gold medal - :confused: - I have a tie between Beau and Permagrin.

Beau - obviously has the WOW! factor. I loved how you added the lights on and the lights to the coaster. I wasn't sold on the moon - might've taken it a little over the top. But, overall, what a transformation.

However, I also loved Permagrin's edit. The crop is just right, you did a wonderful job on the sky. You actually made it look like I meant to take that photo and I wish I had!

I'm going to give this one to Permagrin. I figured since Beau just did the last one, we'll give him another chance to edit and I can't wait to see it!

Congrats Permagrin! I'm looking forward to #59.

[BitterSweet]

Sorry I wasn't able to do it. I wasn't feeling so well this week. I did try a couple of things like adding lights (like beau but it was before he posted it) but couldn't figure anything out that well. My mind just wasn't here this week lol. Anyways I can't wait until the next one.

Congrats Permagrin, Great edit I really like your border that you did.

[Permagrin]

thank you Suzy :) I just got home from a civil war reenactment, so as soon as I download the photos I'll put one up for #59!

There were so many I loved this week. Beau's was really great and thekid's was too...there were just some great edits. (I have to say that I'm really enjoying watching everyone's work...great idea for a contest!)

[ZeroOne86]

Thank you Suzyb, congrats to Permagrin, and to everyone else.

[Beau Hudspeth]

Good job all!