Before & After # 67

[gburwash]

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 #68.)

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

This will end on Sunday at 4 pm PST/ 5pm MST




http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3137/2556473207_992d6679f0_o.jpg

[sf1]

OK, you guys are way to good lately and I find it hard to try and compete - most times I see the first one or two posted and give up. I'm going to jump in and see what happens - just for the heck of it and because I'm first.

1. Straightened bridge.
2. Free transform to try and straighten left side.
3. Converted to B&W using NIK software - adjusted.
4. Cropped.
5. Shadow/Highlight adjustment.
6. Filter, render, lighting effects, ONMI for center area of buildings to be highlighted - it just worked.
7. Filter, render, lens flare, 105 mm prime.
8. High pass filter.
9. Added boarder.
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u198/shanef1/BF67.jpg

[SilverHCIC]

Here's my go at it:
1. Skew to remove WA barrel distortion
2. Noise reduction 60% luminance; 65% color
3. Crop to pano
4. Change sky
5. Adjust levels & contrast
6. Change hue, brightness and saturation of sky layer
7. Slight sharpening USM 70,1,5
8. Highpass filter @ 3 pixels w/ soft light blend
9. Add border

[monty28428]

My feeble attempt:
Camera Raw - WB and exposure
Curves - black, mid, white
Distortion - lens
Reduce Noise - fade luminosity
Hue/Sat +++
USM

[kab8715]

I thought the clouds made it look like it was a stormy day... So what I was going for was something that made it look like you were inside another building looking out at the rain.

Rotated a little
cropped
added lightning
adjusted hue/saturation a little to give darker look
used a rainy day action to add rain and condensation
border


http://my-photo-storage.net/potn/after67.jpg


Sorry - had to edit my post to change where I had the pic uploaded.

[Lee123]

Time for an Aurora Borealis feel...:)

- Selected and deleted the sky
- Added in new sky
- Added Saturation and darkened the buildings
- Darkened them more using the levels
- Increased the Contrast also
- Duplicated the new sky and placed underneath the river
- Using the eraser tool at 25% opacity, brought Aurora Borealis reflection through.
- USM
- Baby little border to finish

http://coloradomazdaclub.com/forums/uploads/1212172829/gallery_2_166_321604.jpg

[Ocron]

I thought there were a lot of nice colors in that shot so I decided to really bring them out.

- Cropped and straighten buildings w/lens correction filter
- Shadow/highlights layer, +5 highlights
- Nik photo styler, partially masked out the sky
- Curves adj layer to bump contrast
- LAB soft light apply image on B channel @60% opacity, partially masked out the sky
- Another shadow/highlights layer, +5 on both
- 50-1-10 USM

http://ocron.zenfolio.com/img/v0/p189809477.jpg

[bennyy]

Ok here goes my version. trying to remember everything i did.
1)dublicate image
2)alien skin plugin
3)grabbed lightning from another one of my images blended it in.
4)flatten image
I know i have forgotten some steps.


creating frame still have this in my history so its easier to put down.
duplicate image
flatten image
image size
new color fill layer
duplicate layer
blending
gaussin blur
stroke
flatten image

http://certifiedhost.com/xFrame.jpg

[thekid24]

Im not 100% positive all I did. There were some steps I erased...so please bare with me.

-First I cropped
-Then I used levels to adjust the colors of the scene
-Then used color balance to give the scene a 'warm,hot, humid' feel to it
-Added a brush of birds (top right corner) set at 70 ocpacity
-Then created light rays with the filter>render>lighting effect
-Then opened a texture of a steamy window
-Copied it over the original photo
-Set blending mode to soft light
-Then slightly blurred the cityscape
-Merged layers
-Vignette

DONE...i think.lol.

[PeteJaffa]

Straightened image (i think)
Contrast up
Brightness down a touch
Cut/paste a tiny batman that is not in proportion unless he's about 30ft tall
Cut/paste bat signal - contrast up
Cut/paste bats - contrast up (free transform so they weren't identical)
Flatten image
Convert to B&W

This was a fun attempt.

[ZeroOne86]

Wanted to give the feeling the that the sky was an ominous sign of impending doom :D
-High Pass Sharpening w/ a setting of overlay
-Burn layer w/ a setting of soft light and burn downed the bridge
-Bleach Bypass w/ a surface blur on the sky only using a mask
-Midnight filter
-Graduated Filter
-Indian Summer Filter
-Cropped
-Border

[BitterSweet]

-I tried a HDR effect.
-Smart sharpen (all over) and a surface blur (sky and water)
-Did a midnight filter
-added a tonal contrast layer
-tired to make it look like there were lights on in buildings
-brightened
-border

[suzyb]

I think I was kind of trying to bring out the look of the sun just coming out right after the storm has passed.

Rotated the canvas to straighten.
Lens correction to fix the slight distortion.
Cropped.
Cloned a little in the bottom corners so I didn't have to crop out some of the water after using the lens correction.
Used shadows/highlights twice with the highlights slider at 100%.
Added contrast.
Blurred the water and clouds.
USM.
Upped the saturation of yellow a little bit.
Sharpened more.
Added the border.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3132/2560784411_a93620a397_o.jpg

[AngryCorgi]

Okay...

*Added saturation and darkened the sky and used diffusion effect to smoothtone graduations in the sky
*Straightened the buildings for the most part
*Added fog covering river along with a shadow under the bridge
*Used blur tool around building after sharpening to remove encreased jpeg artifacts
*Created a light source near the out-of-frame sun shooting rays of light down
*Enhanced fog effect to include a diffused glow
*A little lensflare to create stronger light rays from light source
*Shading on right side of buildings (darker storm side)
*Cropped and added a simple border

And here is the sun breaking the early day storm...

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3048/2562371696_27d42365a3_o.jpg

[gburwash]

Okay! wow, lots of edits to choose from.. lol

All are very good, some neat effects done to some and some humor on others :) (batman :p) Alot of them fairly similar to the way that I edited it.
the Three that really stood out to me, as diferent/unique and very well done would have to be ZeroOne86 - love the sky!, Lee123 the Northern lights addition is very well done, great job on the reflection, and BitterSweet - Love the Dark mood.

Overall, this time around, im gonna have to go with ZeroOne86 as the winner!

[sf1]

Congrats to ZeroOne86 and all.

[AngryCorgi]

Good job Zero, and everybody else. Lot's of good edits this week!

[ZeroOne86]

Thank you Gburwash and everyone else. Great job and congrats everyone. :D I'll have 68 up here once I find a picture.

[monty28428]

Congrats Zero!

Pete the batman idea was very cool!

[Lee123]

Well done Zero...and I have to agree, the Batman theme was awesome....loved it.

[AngryCorgi]

Pete the batman idea was very cool!

I had to take a double-take on that one. Funny, neat idea. Batman, himself, is like 3.5 stories tall on top of the building, no? ;)

[ZeroOne86]

#68 (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?p=5685819#post5685819) is up and running.

[suzyb]

I had to take a double-take on that one. Funny, neat idea. Batman, himself, is like 3.5 stories tall on top of the building, no? ;)

Ha! I didn't even notice that and had to go back for another look. :lol: But, cool anyway, Pete!

Great job ZeroOne. Definitely a feeling of impending doom. Reminds me of that movie that movie from the 80's with the comet and people either got fried to red dust or turned into zombies.

Great edits, everyone!

[ZeroOne86]

Ha! I didn't even notice that and had to go back for another look. :lol: But, cool anyway, Pete!

Great job ZeroOne. Definitely a feeling of impending doom. Reminds me of that movie that movie from the 80's with the comet and people either got fried to red dust or turned into zombies.

Great edits, everyone!

Lol funny thing about that I was contemplating on whether or not to put a comet :lol:

[BitterSweet]

Congrats ZeroOne.

Thanks Gburwash for the comment. I was going to try and add lightning but it just didn't seem to look right.


Lee123- Great job on the Northern Lights I love the reflection you added.

Congrats to everyone else all the edits looked fantastic and it much of been hard to pick the winner.

[SilverHCIC]

Kyle, that was a really good edit. I studied all of the edits as they went up, and I knew yours would be among the top choices. This set had a lot of really good stuff, and I picked up some good ideas. Of particular note, I also like viewing the scenes through a rain-soaked window and the steamy glass effect.

Nice job to all participants!! Looking forward to the next one!!

[kab8715]

I also like viewing the scenes through a rain-soaked window and the steamy glass effect.



Thank you. It was an action I had just downloaded the other day - of course now I can't remember where I found it though.... - anyways when i saw the before photo I knew I had to try it out on that one! I had to play and play and play with it though... sometimes the "rain drops" were too big or there were too many.... so I would adjust it and they were too small or not enough... It was fun though :) What I did think would look cool was if I could frame it more like a window.. add some wood trim maybe... But after a few attempts I gave up because my skill just arent there :(

[PeteJaffa]

I had to take a double-take on that one. Funny, neat idea. Batman, himself, is like 3.5 stories tall on top of the building, no? ;)

Hey I did explain myself on that one. :lol:

Well done Zero and everyone else.

[ZeroOne86]

Kyle, that was a really good edit. I studied all of the edits as they went up, and I knew yours would be among the top choices. This set had a lot of really good stuff, and I picked up some good ideas. Of particular note, I also like viewing the scenes through a rain-soaked window and the steamy glass effect.

Nice job to all participants!! Looking forward to the next one!!

Thank you SilverHCIC for your comments. I never know if it will be the best I just go for what looks the best in my eye, but I have a humble opinion of myself :)