Before & After #70

[BitterSweet]

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 #71.)

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

This will end on Sunday, June 15th at 8:00pm (Eastern).

This is a picture from the Norfolk Botanical Garden. Have fun!!!

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii244/Devilslilvamp/ba70.jpg

[Shadiow]

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a272/RedG35C/ba70.jpg

[lhos]

I've been secretly playing along for a while at home...but finally, my first actual post. Here goes....
Cropped
Duplicate layer, multiply
Adjust curves
Selective color to enhance red, yellow, green and magenta
Unsharp mask--> 144%, radius 2.2, threshold 3
Gaussian blur
Border/feather

[SilverHCIC]

Tried to see what it might look like in the morning as the sun was coming up ...

1. Copied layer & applied extreme sharpening to bring out reflection in the water (USM 100, 10,1)
2. Layer mask to reveal only the water
3. High pass @ 2 pixels w/ softlight blend to sharpen remainder of image
4. Increased blue
5. Reduced lighting in entire image
6. Added sun via lens flare @ 100% on separate layer, then reduced opacity of that layer to 60%
7. Added reflection of sun on water on separate layer, then reduced opacity of that layer to 45%
8. Merged both "sun" layers
9. Changed blend mode of new "sun" layer to overlay, then reduced opacity to about 60%
10. Adjusted lighting of background layer to even lighting out for entire image (until I thought it looked like early morning)
11. Applied cooling filter
12. Recropped
13. Added quick border

[SilverHCIC]

BTW -
Welcome lhos !!! Glad you decided to join us. This is so much fun, and you get to learn great tips from the others that play. Since you've been watching, you can see how good suzy & tracey & kyle & sean & justin ... and the others are. I am always inspired by what they come up with, and I have learned so much from them. Keep playing, and you'll get hooked !!!

[ZeroOne86]

Welcome Ihos. It is the best way to learn by joining in and experimenting. Here's what I did...

-Curves
-Selective Color
-Burn layer on a layer setting of soft light filled layer in black and used a mask to fill in just the wooden portions of the arch and decking
-Also used the same setting as before, but filled with a pink I eye dropped from the flowers and just put some pink here and there. A little tricky, but alt-shift clicking the mask helps big time
-Added some clouds to add some more interest into the sky and put this on a mask so that they only show up in the sky
-Did a graduated filter with Nik Software and added a control point to the sky. Found the control points work wonders especially when recovering blown out skies
-Pro Contrast filter w/ Nik Software
-Smart Sharpen
-Crop
-Border

[suzyb]

Cropped.
Cloned out some little things...like the handrail and the chain link fence.
Saturation.
Contrast.
NR/Sharpening.
Border.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3140/2577830214_bdb1a40317_o.jpg

[gburwash]

Cropped
Cloned out fence/rail and other distractions
levels to brighten + increase contrast
increased Saturation and tweaked Hue for Red / Green / Magenta separately
Smart Sharpen
Added Boarder


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3024/2577398013_bc88731361_o.jpg

[Nistelrooydude]

All done on LR because my version of PS is messed up (apart from it being Elements 4).

Cropped
White Balance Alteration
Clarity Increase
Vibrance/Saturation Increase
Curves (Contrast Increased)
Sharpening
Sharpening Mask

[Ocron]

This picture didn't need much. I tried to give a more soft/dreamy look without going overboard.

- cropped and levelled
- LAB apply image, soft light blend on LAB channel, color blend mode result @70 opacity
- Shadow/Highlights, +15 highlights, luminosity blend mode
- contrast bump on the lower part of the water
- ran a blur action I have on a copy of the result of the previous steps and set the opacity to 40%, and used a layer mask to reveal some areas more.
- vignette

http://ocron.zenfolio.com/img/v1/p758484341.jpg

[theflyingkiwi]

cropped the image top and bottom to make the horizan centered.
created a layer mask to change the colour of refelction by using the hue/saturation tool, settings: hue +96, saturation +19, lightness -25
created a layer and painted some fog in the picture.
applied a gaussian blue of 40.2 pixels on this layer
Done

[TheSonofDarwin]

2 or 3 contrast layers with varying intensities, then blended them together
Gaussian blur, around edges
Levels layer, lightened around the upper treeline and lower water relfection
Very carefully desaturated the water - it starts ~40% desaturation and gradients to almost 100% desaturation at the bottom
Tweaked the greens and pinks slightly with selective coloring
USM @ ~70 - Just the parts I didn't blur
Crop
Border: Red/Brown fill, craquerlure filter, angled strokes, blur, then layer adjustment of inner glow, bevel, and satin. Lightened the lower left and upper right corners.

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

I've missed a few, need to get back into the groove :D

[BitterSweet]

Hey sorry about being late I lost track of time.

At first it was very hard to pick a winner because alot of them are almost the same but still have their own style to it but I quickly realized I kept going between about of them.

gburwash- I really like the colors in yours but if the crop was just a little higher I think it would have looked better.

SilverHCIC- At first I had to attempt I didn't like it but then I really started to look at it and really couldn't stop. The whole effect looks great and I like the sun. The only thing I would have liked to see was a little more color boost imo.

TheSonofDarwin- I had to pick you as the winner. The colors look great and I love how you made the reflect more dull looking it really brought out the landscape more. Not so sure about the border but that isn't really important.

To everyone else I loved all your edits Suzyb your crop was perfect and great job on the cloning. lhos great job on your first b&a I hope you have alot of fun with this and continue to do more of them.

Again Congrats TheSonofDarwin and I am looking forward to the next one.

[SilverHCIC]

Congrats TheSonofDarwin. ... I liked your desaturation of the water. It helped make the entire image rather dream like.

Congrats to all the others as well. Many good edits in this set. Can't wait for the next one!!;)

[theflyingkiwi]

congrats TheSonofDarwin, you really did have a great edit.

[suzyb]

Congrats, Justin!

This is a very nice photo, Tracey. It has an almost 3-D quality to it. Very pretty.

[TheSonofDarwin]

Wow, thanks! And yeah, I didn't particularly like the border after I finished it either, but I always try to do something different with it. I think it'd have been better if it had been more pink like I intended.

I'll have the next one up shortly. I was out.. 12 hours today taking pictures, so once I transfer them over!

[ZeroOne86]

Congrats TheSonofDarwin. Congrats and great job everyone.

[lhos]

Congratulations TheSonofDarwin! And thanks everyone for welcoming me to the game.....it's so fun-- I can already feel myself becoming addicted!

[gburwash]

Congrats :)