Before & After #65

[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 1024 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 #66).

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

This will end on Tuesday at 10:00am Mountain.

Here's one of mini-me that I didn't quite get in focus, but I like her expression, so I'd like to see what you guys can do to rescue it.


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3231/2541009637_e6184518b8_o.jpg

[Permagrin]

This game is so addicting. I'm behind the 8ball with two shoots to finish processing...and yet I can't help but play :)

I did really simple edits on this because I liked it w/o effects.

Sharpened.
Eye doctor action
minimal skin softening
added slight glow

[thekid24]

-Softened the lil princess' skin by using the magic wand to select the skin and duplicated it twice
-Worked on first layer by using Filter>Blur>Smart Blur and set it at 2
-Then worked on the second layer by putting a high pass on it set at 2 as well
-Set top(second layer of skin) to overlay
-Then merged
-Magic wand select eyes
-Feathered at 2
-Adjusted curves to bring out the bright parts of the iris while still keeping the pupil dark
-desaturated
-Opened new texture layer and copied over to photo
-Set to overlay
-Cropped
-added slight vignette
Done

[kab8715]

cropped
made 2 layers
1st layer - selected girl - masked out background - refined edges
sharpened eyes
2nd layer - selected all - used gassian blur
merged layers

http://yourmemories2dvd.com/potn/beforeafter65.jpg

[the_incubus]

turned layer to opacity 30%
selective color
color balance
new layer-adjust curves
turn mode to soft light
convert to RGB color
convert to grayscale
flatten image

heres another that i liked not B&W. The B&W is the one im submitting.

[BitterSweet]

I had fun with this one because I like editing portraits. I had about 4 ideas for this one and narrowed it down to the one I liked most. So here it is.

-cloned the rocks so I could crop it the way I wanted too (the crop was already great but I didn't want to try and clone too much)
-cropped
-Sharpened
-added a black layer on soft light (lowered the opacity)
-touch up her face (not that she needed it I was trying to smooth out the color variations on her face)
- Did a darken/lighten center filter
-brightened up her eyes and then brightened up the whole picture
-added border

[Ocron]

I've got a ton of soccer and softball pics to go through but I couldn't let this one pass by; very cute kid.

- In ACR adjusted the temp and tint, +35 on the recovery slider, +25 on vibrance.
- Cropped
- Ran a "hollywood highlights" action on a copy of the background and blended with original at ~65%.
- Ran through Noise Ninja and used a brush at various opacities to get the sharpness/softness balance where I liked it.
- USM on just they eyes. Not too much though, didn't want to give her the cyborg look.
- Used the blur tool @25% w/luminosity blend on her lips to smooth them out just a little.

http://ocron.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p567964981.jpg

[AngryCorgi]

Ok...

Started out doubling the size of the image before making changes
Performed a lens blur on the background (fairly conservative one)
Sharpened the young lady a little so that she would not be too soft after the smoothing work
Used Nik Pastel effect painted onto the only the girl with wacom tablet
Adjusted the color/saturation and highlight strength to give a warming sunlight effect
Cropped image to a vertical portrait
Applied slight vignette

And that's about it...

[theflyingkiwi]

cropped out the right of the photo
created a duplicate of the picture
applied a Gaussian Blur at a radius of 3.0
change the layer of the Gaussian Blur to screen and changed the opacity to 65%
created a new blank layer and then used the Elliptical Marquee Tool to create a oval border around the girl and then selected the inverse of that.
coloured in the selected area black and then applied a Gaussian Blue of 88 and then changed the opacity to 80%
bingo done.

[SilverHCIC]

This was way too much fun ;) !!! Your daughter is a real cutie!!!
Didn't need to do much, because the picture was pretty good-to-go. So all I did was:

1. Noise reduction 60% luminance; 60% color
2. Copy layer & sharpen USM 70%; 1;1
3. Copy layer & GB @ 6 pixels
4. Layer mask to reveal sharpened daughter @ 80% opacity
5. Layer mask to reveal blurred background w/ radial gradient @ 75%
6. Crop to square aspect ratio
7. Quick frame using colors to match color of rock & pink top

[ZeroOne86]

Not sure about this, but I just wanted to get the feeling of some sunlight coming down and a nice warm tone.

-Cropped
-Curves with medium contrast
-Brightness/Contrast on a mask on her eyes only
-Dynamic Skin Softener filter w/ Nik Software and lowered the opacity
-Colorize w/ Nik as well also slightly reduced the opacity as well
-Smart Sharpen
-Border

[TheSonofDarwin]

Edit: Just found out I will be out of town for the next few days, so I'm withdrawing mine on the off chance I'd have to host!

Hopefully I didn't butcher it too much..

Two layers w/ gaussian blur affecting just the skin
Layer with Bubble Wrap filter, just the lips
Reddened the cheeks a bit with selective color & mask
Nik Solarization on Overlay, just the girl
Desaturated a bit, then changed the hue to brown with an overlay layer
Nik Low Key - masked off the lips and eyes just a bit
USM - Just the eyes, very low opacity
Fixed the crazy edges the solarization effect created with the patch tool
Border

[Lee123]

Wow...what a cutie!

- Created separate layers for background and foreground
- Shadow/Highlights on background
- Cloned out blown out rocks
- Gaussian blur (4.5) on background
- Small saturation and darkened background
- Small amount of dodge tool on areas of face
- Sharpened and slightly lightened eyes
- Blur tool set to saturation on lips
- Blended layers
- USM
- Small crop
- Slight Vignette
- small border

http://coloradomazdaclub.com/forums/uploads/1212172829/gallery_2_166_17540.jpg

[symby]

Well this is my first try at this one. My PS skills are getting better (even though I use Paint Shop Pro and not actually Photoshop). :oops:

Different approach maybe? - goal was to get focus - I didn't really do any color changes (other than what comes from overlaying layers) since I like the shot as is personally. She's a cutie.

Here it is:
Made the typical eye pop layer (duplicated base, lasso the eyes, feather, make a mask layer from from, applied standard USM to just that one). Its only at %63 opacity and its the top layer.

Rest is separate:
Make 3 duplicate layers from the background.
Emboss the middle one and set it to overlay. (remove all color from it too)
Set top one to overlay.
Overlaying on top of an embossed image is a really neat effect, but its a bit much, so I played with the opacities of each layer so the colors aren't changed too much and the embossing isn't too too intrusive (ended up with background at 75%, Embossed layer at %77 and last (untouched) layer at 100%.
Then I basically just smudge or lighten darken parts of the Embossed layer to smooth out parts of it that I don't want to "punch" out. Like the face and neck.

Well I'm pretty sure thats it. I may have lightened or darkened some spots here and there on the embossed layer as well (need to when you have a popped ridge that won't seem to go away). I know its not a huge leap from the original. Some people do amazing things with photos for these contests that I just don't have the talent or time to do. :)

[SQuiP]

This was only for a bit of magic and fun :)

I don't really know anymore, but I used a few duplicate layers with art filters like cutout and poster edge, opacity around 15% to 25%. Layers include a landscape painting and a floral design. Curve adjustment and glow to brighten her face a bit. Smart blur to get rid of harsh lines caused by filters.... etc. The edges aren't great ...but I'm just playing along :cool:

[BitterSweet]

I know my first one is the actual entry but SQuiP gave me an ideal so I played around with the photo alittle more and come up with this just for fun.

[monty28428]

I don't envy you at having to pick one of these great edits Suzy!

[AngryCorgi]

I know my first one is the actual entry but SQuiP gave me an ideal so I played around with the photo alittle more and come up with this just for fun.

For a just-for-fun edit, that's great. I love the butterflies you used! ;)

[suzyb]

I don't envy you at having to pick one of these great edits Suzy!

You’re not kidding!

I think it’s great that so many people participated! Besides being a little out of focus on this one, somehow she got a tan on her forehead and nowhere else. I must’ve misfocused the sunscreen, too. Anyway, it makes me appreciate your efforts all the more.

OK, there were a lot to go through, so I made notes of what I liked and didn’t like, so I hope no one minds, but I figured I’d just rewrite them here.

SonofDarwin – we can always count on you for something different! I actually really like the shadows you created with this edit. Something’s just a little off with her right eye, though.
Incubus – nice high contrast b&w. I was actually surprised there was only one b&w entry..
Kid24 – very creative as usual. I like how it’s almost a sepia tone in the upper right that gradually becomes black and white in the lower left.
Squip – Lovely and dreamy! Looks like it could be the cover illustration of a children’s book.
AngryCorgi & Permagrin – great job evening the skin tones. Corgi, you said you doubled the size first…what does that mean?
Flyingkiwi – you created a great soft look. The vignette goes very well.
Kab8715 and lee123 – yours each had good points…Lee, great job on the eyes! But, the skin is a little overworked. Kab – yours was kind of the opposite. You kept the skin realistic, but a little too much on the eyes.
Symby – thanks for joining us! There is more definition there…but possibly at the expense of adding noise. I hope you’ll keep playing!
ZeroOne – I like the golden tones you added. It improves the background and makes her look a little more grown up, if you ask me.

So that leaves me with SilverHCIC, BitterSweet and Ocron. All three of these are great and I thought I was going to wear out my scroll button going back and forth between them. It was very hard to choose. I narrowed it down to Silver and Ocron because theirs were a little bit brighter. Then I decided on …
SilverHCIC! I think his ended up just the tiniest bit sharper.

So there you have it! Congratulations Silver!

Thanks to everyone for participating and for sticking with me through my decision making process! :)

[suzyb]

I almost forgot! Tracey, your last edit. So CUTE! Is that one of those "texture layers" that I keep meaning to find out about? Would it work on the color version?

I hope you don't mind, but I made it my desktop. I am a mom and that is too sweet not to look at every time I turn on my computer!

[AngryCorgi]

Congrats, Silver; I really liked how your border was in harmony with the image! Great job everybody!

Corgi, you said you doubled the size first…what does that mean?

Oh, I usually upsample the images before working on them in PS. It makes it easier for me to make small changes and to use my bamboo tablet without going bonkers. When you upsample an image and then sample it back down, the edits also can transition more naturally into the original with the proper resizing algorithm (i.e. bicubic and bicubic smoother uses color averaging in their algorithms that can smooth out the transitions of some of your edits).

[ZeroOne86]

ZeroOne – I like the golden tones you added. It improves the background and makes her look a little more grown up, if you ask me.



Thank you suzyb and congrats, I agree and see what you mean by making her look a little more grown up. Congrats and great job everyone else.

[BitterSweet]

Congrats Silver great edit I love the brightness to it.

Thank you for the comments SuzyB and I have no problem with you using the photos as a desktop. It's your photo I just edited it.

I used brushes that I found on deviant art and just put them around the edges in white on one layer at a low opacity and then did the butterflies on another layer. I also did a motion blur to the background.

I'm not sure how it would look with colored I went straight to sepia but I can try it in color if you want me to.

Again congrats to everyone on the great edits.

[Permagrin]

congratulations Silver...great edit. There were so many excellent ones this week, made me ashamed I didn't work harder on mine! Nicely done people. :)

[SilverHCIC]

Holy macaroni !!!
I am soooo glad I didn't have to pick this one!!! Everyone's edits were just so good!!! I think starting with your cute daughter just inspired everyone.

I was surprised at how close Ocron and I were on the final edits. ... I always edit my pics before looking at anybody else's to see what I can come up with on my own. Except for the eyes and the BG, I couldn't tell the difference!!

Suzy, I like your comment about wearing out your mouse scrolling up & down!!! I would have gone crazy selecting a winner. A HUGE congrats to all in this one :D.

I'm stuck at work right now, so I'll post # 66 as soon as I get home tonight.

[BitterSweet]

Heres the colored version of the one edit. Plus alittle pink in the bg.

[SQuiP]

Bittersweet! Love your "fun" edit :-)
Makes me sorry I didn't work on mine more... Both the Sepia and colour looks great!
Tough choice Suzy - Congrats Silver, great job :)

[Permagrin]

Tracey, that is SO CUTE!

[suzyb]

Thanks, Tracey! Now THAT is my desktop. It is very sweet..and I'm such a sap like that when it comes to the girls. :)

Thanks for the explanation, AngryCorgi. I had no idea you could do that.

These challenges are always good for reminding me how I have SO much to learn!

[TheSonofDarwin]

SonofDarwin – we can always count on you for something different! I actually really like the shadows you created with this edit. Something’s just a little off with her right eye, though.

Haha, I know! When I go, I really jump over the editing edge and go all out.

The right eye, though I can't see it (cause I'm biased in that I probably purposefully made it that way), is likely the result of me trying to preserve the detail in the eyes the best I could. The processes I used would have rendered the eyes almost completely black and blurry, so most of the editing was done around the eye.

Grats Silver!

[theflyingkiwi]

congrats SilverHCIC, I would hated to choose between those 3 at the end. that's very creative and really is a nice way of touching up a photo.

Suzyb, I didn't envy you in choosing a winning photo. Some very good edits shown here.

[kab8715]

These were all great edits!

It is actually the first time that I've actually tried doing anything with the eyes! Little by little I'm forcing myself to learn more! haha As I was editing it I thought it looked ok and then after I posted and was looking everyones and comparing I thought the eyes looked a little off... Oh well :) At least I won't be as afraid to attempt playing with eyes again!

[Ocron]

congrats Silver. I agree with exactly what Suzy said. I felt good about my edit, then I saw yours which was similar and went back and forth and gave yours the edge. It just seemed a little sharper and a little brighter in the right places.

[SilverHCIC]

^^^^^
Thanks Sean. ... I would consider ours a virtual tie. I'm glad Suzy had to choose and not me!!!
I think EVERYONE did a fantastic job (on a beatiful young lady)!!!

B&F 66 is up.