Before & After #59

[Permagrin]

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 #60).

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

This will end on Tues, May 20th at 6pm (pacific time).

How about some canon fire for #59? (Sorry about the over exposure)

[AngryCorgi]

Okie dokie...

*Changed the yellowing grass to healthy green grass, selectively
*Fixed the nervous background bokeh to a smoother effect
*Cropped some distracting items from the scene, cloned others
*Slight vignetting effect
*Desaturation + Sumi-e on blast smoke = slight 3D sensation
*Modified contrast and lowered strength of highlights

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3083/2503500421_263b026b1a_o.jpg

[BitterSweet]

-added contrast
-sharpened
-Did two different low key filters. One for background and one for the men at two different opacities.
-added color to uniforms
-did a slight vignette and border


http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii244/Devilslilvamp/ba59t.jpg

[thekid24]

Right up my alley.

Desaturated photo
Opened texture photo
Copied texture photo over original
desaturated texture layer
set texture layer to multiply blending mode
Gaussian blurr set to 2
added film grain set to 2
used selective coloring to get the color I wanted on the texture layer
flattened layers
used curves to lightly adjust colors and brightness.

DONE!

[ZeroOne86]

-Cropped
-Cloned out the odd something beneath the plume of smoke and also what looks to be a person being ninja like behind the dirt mound
-Burn layer with a setting of soft light and opacity of 30% on mask on the cannon
-Selective color to give the reds a bit of a boost
-Photo filter with brown at 90% and a setting of color
-Gradient map with a setting of multiply and a opacity of 45%
-Color Stylizer with Nik Software with an opacity of 43%
-Went out of my normal modes of operation and tried some out of left field and used a solarization filter w/ Nik Software and went through the layer settings. Came upon exclusion and interestingly enough it brightened up the shadows a bit. I put this layer at an opacity of 49%
-Old Photo filter with an opacity of 70% also with Nik Software
-Border

[qtaran111]

Well, I had about 20 layers going on this one so kind of forgot what I did:

- Cropped
- Blurred background
- Curve adjustment layer
- Converted to tritone
- Hue adjustment layer
- Added film grain & scratches
- Slight Gaussian blur
- Added place & date

http://camdenphoto.smugmug.com/photos/297781226_CXrGd-O.jpg

[Ocron]

OOB Civil war, or how I spent my lunch hour.:)

I really rushed to get this done while I ate lunch, so I didn't keep track of detailed steps, but basically what I did was...

- Gave it an old look by using a Nik filter and a "damage" overlay image both blended at a lower opacity over the original and in the case of the damage layer multiply blend mode. I also mucked with some individual color channels.
- Did the OOB by making a white frame and warping it and making 2nd copy as a drop shadow. masked out the parts that I wanted inside the frame, blended the smoke over the frame so some was in front, some behind, burned some of the foreground/frame intersections to try to give some depth.
- Created a background layer using a "damage" layer and gradient layer and masked out the foreground elements.
- dirtied the white frame (should have done this earlier, it would have saved some time)

http://ocron.zenfolio.com/img/v0/p377189101.jpg

[LeuceDeuce]

ACR
* Temperature: +7
* Tint: -12
* Exposure: -0.40
* Recovery: 30
* Blacks: 5
* Clarity: 50
* Noise Reduction - Color: 20
Photoshop
* Change color mode to LAB
* LAB Curves
* L: I:20, O:15
* A: I:127, O:101
* A: I:-128, O:-102
* B: I:127, O:101
* B: I:-128, O:-102
* Blend If A: This Layer 0 160/175
* Flatten and return to RGB
* Select Midtones, apply contrast curves
* Select Shadows, apply contrast curves
* Luminosity blend of Darken blend green channel. Opacity 25%
* Luminosity blend of Lighten blend green channel after contrast curves applied. Opacity 65%
* Replace some blown smoke
* S/H: S:5%, H:8%, MTC:10%
* It was at this stage that I decided to apply the Old Photo filter from Nik Color Efex.
* Nik Color Efex: Old Photo; Style 5, Grain 10%, Brightness 34%

* I reapplied the same filter with the same settings to the original photo, and felt that there was a considerable improvement in the photo having done all of the contrast work ahead of time. Although the color work was probably redundant.

* Vignette

http://www.novuscom.net/~chrisjdoucette/images/2359.jpg

[suzyb]

For this one, I borrowed Tracey's idea from a few challenges ago and tried to give the "soldiers" a ghostly appearance.

First thing I did was flip the image horizontally.
Then cropped.
Then cloned out the main part of the image.
Copied the men to another layer. Added a sepia tone and a diffuse glow. Lowered the opacity.
On the background, I adjusted the levels and contrast a little bit.
Border.


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2075/2506683712_ceb4a17be6_o.jpg

[TheSonofDarwin]

Desaturate
A few curves adjustment layers
Desaturate
Blur
Applied a hue gradient
Selectively inverted colors
Used a levels adjustment to burn and dodge places
Nik Reflector just a tiny bit to open up the ground under the smoke
Low to Moderate noise
Used this texture (http://deadmansdust.deviantart.com/art/Screen3-74116270) and this texture (http://da-mara.deviantart.com/art/green-da-mara-75477778), both on soft light
Crop & Resize


http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y173/thesonofdarwin/59.jpg

[Permagrin]

You guys made this SO hard this week!! Suffice it to say that I loved your edits and it was virtually impossible to make a choice.

Ocron, your OOB version was really cool!
Sonofdarwin, I really loved the look you went for here. I've bookmarked your post for future trials of my own. Nicely done!

My two favorites were Suzyb's and theKid's and I'm late because it really was hard to choose btw them.
Suzy, it was a FANTASTIC idea to make the soldiers appear as ghosts! I really loved what you did.

the winner this round though, is thekid. You were right, this was right up your alley. Everyone I showed the photo to was just blown away. Great edit. And thanks for turning my photo into art.

Congrats and well done everyone!

[BitterSweet]

Congrats thekid24, your edit was just wow and congrats to everyone else.

I knew alot of people were going to do a older style finish to it so I kept the color. Next time I'll go with my gut feeling lol.

Looking forward to the next one.

[ZeroOne86]

Congrats thekid24 great job and congrats to everyone else as well.

[firu3000]

Congrats thekid24, I liked all the edits, Congratulations!

[TheSonofDarwin]

Good job everyone :cool:

I knew alot of people were going to do a older style finish to it so I kept the color. Next time I'll go with my gut feeling lol.

My first go I kept the original color. However, when I went to implement my smoke idea, I just couldn't get it to look right. I added texture to it, but I couldn't get my mask such to prevent it from looking cutout, so I tossed the whole idea :confused:

[suzyb]

Thanks, Permagrin and congrats to thekid. Amazing, as usual.

Qtaran, what font is that? It looks great- added some good fake authenticity to your edit. :)

Justin, your take turned out really different. Very cool. I've never used textures before - I might have to give it a try.

[qtaran111]

Well done thekid24. I thought there were some great edits here, but yours was outstanding.

@suzyb, I didn't use a font. I got the writing from an image of a civil war document (http://archives.delaware.gov/100/wearelivingandlearning/Writing%20Home.shtml), cut out the place and date, adjusted the levels then pasted in as a new layer and messed with the blending mode until it looked right.

[Ocron]

Congrats theKid24, I knew that one was going to be hard to beat. qtaran111, I really liked the look of yours as well.

[SQuiP]

I missed the last two weeks (holiday), but feel very inspired after seeing all theses edits.. I think everyone did a fantastic job!