Before & After #75

[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 #76.)

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

This will end on Saturday, June 28th at 5:00pm(Eastern).

Here's one of my future husband (ignore his wedding ring - and mine ;)) taken on the rooftop of a bar downtown with my p&s. Didn't get anything decent. Should've known better.
Anyway...can you make anything cool out of this?
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3184/2613515241_b5d70d9807_o.jpg

[Lee123]

Well, I have no idea where I was going with this one...but this is how I got there...

- Selected musician and placed in separate layer.
- Duplicated musician, rotated, warped a little, applied a motion blur and added contrast
- Added lots of hue and saturation to background, darkened also
- applied a smaller amount of hue and saturation to the musician
- merged layers.
- USM
- Vignette
- border

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3169/2615517172_8e6f6530f3_o.jpg

[Permagrin]

lightened skin
Desat
creative NR to get smooooooth skin :)
changed hue
(edit: I forgot..I used the draganizer action in here too)
used overlay for texture

[SQuiP]

I see a few of us already thinking in the same direction :lol:

Desaturated
Heavy contrast
Cloned out parts of background
Tight crop
Layered inverted newspaper clippings (opacity prob around 40%)
- Erasure tool for clarity in centre
Layered concrete slabs - same as above
Slight vignette

[BitterSweet]

At first I had no clue what to do with this one. I tried to clone out the rope but found it way to hard. Then I messed around with different filters and came up with this.

-Cropped
-Cloned out buildings in back and other things
- Tonal Contrast filter
- Bleach bypass filter
- Color stylizer filter (low opacity) gave it a sepia tone feel but still colored
- blurred foreground
- brightened whole thing and then just his sunglasses
- added vignette then border.

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii244/Devilslilvamp/ba75.jpg

[LuckyStar08]

Well this is my first time having a go at this. I really enjoy this thread. It was harder than I thought keeping track of everything I did.

-Some color/sharpening adjustments.
-cropping
-added sunburst effects
-muted reds x 2
-eroded edges

http://a809.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/105/l_0cf7223024d8d2d3fbd5119b99eae060.jpg

[ZeroOne86]

Here it goes..
-Cropped
-Black and White filter with a tint added to it
-Cloned out the rope and that took a bit of time and I tried by best to fill in what was covered by it
-Brightness/Contrast and Hue/Saturation on just the guy the h/s layer I used tone down the red on his skin
-Added the sky
-Colorize filter and did this on a mask to give the guitar a bit more color
-Low Key filter to tone down some of the background
-Pro Contrast filter
-Border

[pepperboyd]

Just wanted to play, too. I opted to send him to Aruba:

cropped vertically
dupe layer
cut silo
add new bg (Aruba sunset), blur & add noise to match other layer
added contrast & boosted color in original image
sharpened face to bring out features & scruff
added selective blur to simulate split diffusion
added slight vignette to obscure equipment in lower right corner
tweaked minor areas to help hide original silo
took out wedding ring

total time: little over an hour

[Ocron]

I did a b&w, and a slightly retro version and decided b&w worked best.

- Opened in ACR and did a bunch of adjustments. bumped temperature +15, recovery +35, fill light +17, blacks +7, brightness +15, clarity +35, vibrance +35. Brought down Red saturation -35.
- In PS ran a "hollywood highlights" action which gives a more contrasty look and pushes bright areas real close to being blown out.
- Channel mixer: 55, -20, 70 w/monochrome checked for b&w conversion.
- curves adjustement layer over that, s-curve contrast tweak.

http://ocron.zenfolio.com/img/v0/p377145345.jpg

[suzyb]

Thanks everybody for contributing. I'll admit, with this starting picture, I wasn't expecting this many, so that's great!

This one had me deciding between Ocron and Permagrin. I had a hard time deciding between these two very different edits. Ultimately I decided to go against my normally conservative nature and choose Permagrin. It's very creative and very different than anything I would normally do for myself. (Just for fun, I included what I did do for myself.) I love the texture, especially in the sky. I like the larger crop you went with, except that it leaves so much of that red ripped paper in front. A lot of you found good ways to hide that a little more.

Very well done, everyone.

Can't wait for the next challenge, Permagrin!

[BitterSweet]

Congrats permagrin.

SQuiP I liked you newspaper effect.

[Permagrin]

Suzy, thank you for choosing my photo. I really didn't expect to win this one and so while I'm happy that you liked it...

I would like to defer to your other choice since I don't have time to do the next contest. Thank you though..


Ocron, you are up :)

[theflyingkiwi]

congrats permy,

as try as might, I couldn't come up with a good edit.

[ZeroOne86]

Grats Permagrin, and great job everyone.

[SQuiP]

Thanks Bsweet, This was in the end a fun edit :)
Congrats, Perm... and Ocron! Great edits everyone.

[LuckyStar08]

So when is #76 going to start????

[Ocron]

76 will be up shortly...I just found out I was up. Thanks!