Before & After # 66

[SilverHCIC]

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 #67).

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

This will end on Thursday at 6 pm PST.

I saw these two having a great time on the beach and quickly snapped a pick. ... Nothing special, so let's see what you can all do!!

[heathermarie]

Some vignetting, curves, dodge & burn, cropping

[gburwash]

Tough one :)
Did some Levels to Brighten up a bit
shadow/highlight to brighten up the riders a bit more
Hue/saturation to boost overall saturation + a little extra to red
Cropped
Vignette + burn around edges
Duplicate layer - LucisArt filter on Sculpture, Layer set to Darken, and Opacity reduced
Flatten..
Smart Sharpen
Added border
resize n save :)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3077/2549336945_833851edec_o.jpg

[AngryCorgi]

Ok... a lot of Nik effects were used here...

First, as always an upsample, then...

*Crop to a more pleasing vertical setup
*Slight high-radius USM applied
*Nik Brilliance warmth selectively brushed onto parts of the beach and subject
*Nik graduated blue brushed onto water, with graduation angle at 205 degrees
*Nik MMV brushed lightly over whole scene with a strong grain (that I later diminished)
*Saturation adjusted to bring the blues up some in the water
*Vignette applied
*Border applied
*Resample back down

And some little things I might have missed, but nothing major.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3266/2549480313_bc36375ed6.jpg

[Lee123]

Thought I would try a different approach with this one...

- Shadow/Highlights
- Played with the levels
- Used the curves auto setting
- Increased Saturation
- Crop
- Vignette
- Border

http://coloradomazdaclub.com/forums/uploads/1212172829/gallery_2_166_130583.jpg

[azsteve-o]

This one just screamed for a ton of cloning and cleaning up. In addition to cloning out rocks and tracks in the sand, I repositioned the bike so it wasn't dead center, I did a slight curves adjustment & shadow/highlight adjustment, selected blues and yellow, sharpened and cropped.

277121

[Permagrin]

well, it's late here and I decided to make this a "flight of fancy" processing.:lol:

So I separated everything into layers...the foreground rocks on the left were one layer, the rock on the right was one layer, the shadow one layer and the boys one layer...then I took another of my sunset beach shots and used it for the background.

Then I moved and blended each of the layers til they gelled using layer masks for each layer and the move tool.

Then flattened. Ran a NR to give it a "smooth" look.
Used tonal contrast filter to give it depth
Used a glow action to make it have an unreal type feel.
Flattened.

[theflyingkiwi]

created a copy of the photo applied the graphic pen filter with all the settings to full and had the stroke direction to Right Diagonal
created a 2nd layer of the photo and applied the graphic pen filter again but changing the stroke direction to Left Diagonal.
reduced the top layer to 35%
reduced the middle layer to 60%
Edited the photo so people on the bike are leading in to the photo rather than being in the middle of it.

[BitterSweet]

I know selected color is so typical but I thought it worked with this shot since I did the edit in sepia. So here is what I did.

-Cloned out the rocks and made the photo wider and cloned in more sand in ocean. Even though I ended up cropping out most of the cloning I did.
-Cropped
-Turned sepia and kept the hats red.
- Did two tonal contrast layers to bring out the details in the sand and water.
- Did about 3 layers of Darken/Lighten center filter ( different opacities until I got what I wanted.
-Added square vignette and a sepia toned inner glow to have a small border.

[AngryCorgi]

well, it's late here and I decided to make this a "flight of fancy" processing.:lol:

:lol::lol::lol:

[Ocron]

I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with this one, so I basically experimented until it morphed into a look I liked. Here's what I did...

- Opened two copies from ACR, one with the kids exposed, one with the rest of the scene exposed and used a layer mask to blend the two.
- Contrast adjustment layer
- Graduated filter, masked out the kids
- USM (50-1-0 I think, and yes this is early in the workflow)
- Ran a Plantino action, overlay blend mode, 80% opacity, masked out the kids
- Darken/lighten center and border

http://ocron.zenfolio.com/img/v1/p672836842.jpg

[suzyb]

Cropped.
Cloned out the remaining rock.
Moved the bike and the guys back a little bit.
Levels.
Contrast.
Saturation.
Sharpened.
The guys seemed a little lonely down there on the beach, so I gave them a little company... the seagull from one of the earlier B&A games.
Added a shadow to that.
Border.

[ZeroOne86]

-Cropped
-Warming photo filter w/ layer setting of multiply
-Midnight Blue filter w/ Nik Software on a mask with only the water, with an overlay setting and reduced opacity
-Duplex w/ Nik Software
-Smart Sharpen
-Vignette
-Border

[SilverHCIC]

OK everyone, I apologize for taking so long, but I had trouble figuring this one out. Of all the B&F's I've had to choose, this is the first one that I had so much trouble with. ... I've been staring at ALL of your edits for the past 3-hours, just scrolling up & down!!! Finally, I noticed that I was gradually scrolling between fewer and fewer images.

OK, the two I kept spending the most time on were quite different.

AngryCorgi - At first I thought your edit went a bit too far. ... But then it grew on me. I'm not sure what all that Nik software does (I'm still using software from the dark ages) but obviously you sure do. I really ended up liking the vibrant effects.

gburwash - Your edit was a very conventional edit, but just about every aspect of it was just right!! About the only thing that I think would have made it even better would be cleaning up the beach the way azsteve-o did. ... But that's a LOT of cloning.

And the one I finally stopped my scrolling on was --- gburwash!! Congrats!!

OK gburwash, your up!!;)

[SilverHCIC]

Oh, I almost forgot - suzyb, I loved the way you added the seagull from a previous B&F. ... As I recall you won that one!!!

[AngryCorgi]

AngryCorgi - At first I thought your edit went a bit too far. ... But then it grew on me. I'm not sure what all that Nik software does (I'm still using software from the dark ages) but obviously you sure do. I really ended up liking the vibrant effects.

gburwash - Your edit was a very conventional edit, but just about every aspect of it was just right!! About the only thing that I think would have made it even better would be cleaning up the beach the way azsteve-o did. ... But that's a LOT of cloning.

And the one I finally stopped my scrolling on was --- gburwash!! Congrats!!

OK gburwash, your up!!;)

Yeah, the effect I went for was a little "strong" to say the least. ;)

You definitely made a good choice, I'll say that. It took me a few times looking at gburwash's work to realize why I liked it so much --- it's just perfectly balanced. The sharpening was not overcooked, nor too soft. The colors were vibrant but not scorching and the tones were pleasing. I couldn't point to anything in that edit that I found even the slightest bit unpleasant; just superb!

Congrats everybody on the great edits! They all looked great and congrats to gburwash on a job very well done! :D

[BitterSweet]

Congrats gburwash.

Suzyb- cute idea with the seagull.

[Permagrin]

congrats gburwash!

Great edits everyone :)

[suzyb]

Congrats gburwash!

Can't wait to see what's next!

[gburwash]

Wow, lol didnt see this coming :) Thanks everyone.. Now to find a suitable image to post for #67 heh, will post the new one shortly!

[theflyingkiwi]

Congrats gburwash