Before and After #124

[DonJuanMair]

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 #125".

This is all about having fun so have at it!!!
Any edit, over-the-top creative or subtle, is encouraged!

This game will end on Frdiay 3.00pm (EST)

here is a shot that i think could turn out nice......

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k21/DonJuanMair/_MG_4311.jpg

[monty28428]

Did a psuedo HDR in DPHDR (demo so I added some junk at the bottom first), this really added some wild colors to the sky so I took the original and played with the levels for the sky, copied this to a new layer on the HDR version and painted the sky back in. I don't know if I realy like it but it was fun.

[SilverHCIC]

Decided to have fun with this one:
1. Copied layer 5 times & adjusted lighting via Levels
2. Photomatix to merge all 5 images & tone map
3. Selected sky & adjusted Levels again to exaggerate detail further
4. Applied glowing edges style @ 45% opacity
5. One final Levels adjustment to make it look like night
I wanted to make it even darker and add a bunch of kids in costumes Trick-or-Treating, but I was too busy :(

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3156/2983372124_3fd91a64b4_o.jpg

[athrasher]

1. Skewed the color balance towards yellows.
2. Adjusted curves to make things a little darker.
3. Put a slight yellow hue on and boosted saturation.
4. Tightened crop a little bit (cut out stuff at bottom, removed empty space to building on the right).
5. Clone stamped out the antenna (or whatever it was) on building to the left.

[mzondeki]

End Result : View of an Apartment Complex from Bottom Up.
Tool : GIMP

Steps: 1. Replace White sky with Blue Sky.
I used a LayerMask, painted the mask for sky with blue, applied gaussian blur of 5pix to the mask. Increased contrast/hue a bit for rich color. Save the image. say img0.jpg

Step2. Create a flipped image of the above.
Create a create a copy of image, flip horizontally. (idea is to join with img0, for mirrored effect). say it img1.jpg

Step3. Abut the above images in pattern img0,img1,img0 (Like panorama stitching)
in GIMP Click Filter-->Combine-->Filmstrip , then choose the images, set image spacing =0 (for perfectjoining)

Step4: Surround Effect from Panorama.
in GIMP Clik Filter-->Distort-->Polar Coordinate.. voila u got your apartment complex

Step5: Cut a rectangular section , UnsharpMask a bit (radius 5, amount 0.5)

Resize to 1024 pixel.
Done.

[SQuiP]

This is such a fantastic shot :D ...I just had to cartoon it up, it looks almost like a children's book illustration.

Cropped, curves adjustment to brighten slightly and added a bit of contrast
Played around with hues to see which color would suit the houses best - blue
Painted in blue sky and added smoke and fog with wet brush (color white, then dodged)
Added 2 layers, each with cartoon
Added a bit of shadow underneath the boy on the original.
Named and framed

[frenchfx]

Ran through b\w styler w\selective color
removed middle section
Cut out left side then used perspective tool and pulled the left side forward
Cleaned up middle a bit.
added sky
ran through high pass filter
created frame
http://frenchfx.smugmug.com/photos/405676096_amw9S-L.jpg

[suzyb]

Went for a pseudo-aged type look.

First, I cloned out everything that looked "modern" - the antennas, the bikes, the string of lights, the grill, the tables, the scooter and the things in the bottom left corner.
Added a b&w layer with a sepia tone filter - then lowered the opacity of that layer.
Added a new layer just filled with brown which I set on overlay.
Stamped on some texture.
Burned some bright spots.
Hue/Sat layer - took out some yellow.
Added grain.
Added border.

Didn't turn out exactly how I imagined...but there it is.

[Nistelrooydude]

A bit out of the box, but it's worth a shot.

I first added outlines using Smart Blur and then redid the color base with filters like Smudge Stick, Paint Daubs, and Flim Grain. Then I just added the border and voila: a postcard fit for any Italian tourist.

[DonJuanMair]

okay very cool, we had a lot of entries which was good!

monty: really nice i liked this one, i liked the contrast to the picture and it gave it a good feel to the pic.
Silver: very different, the neon is a different indeed!
athrasher: this one looked a little dark for me unfortunately
mzondeki: so cool, i love the idea behind this one and the execution, nicely done
squip: another fun and original one, with the cartoons too!
frenchfx: i love that perspective tool, i never even knew about that, i like it a lot
suzyb: this type of effect worked really well for this one and it looks like a lttle street from italy or something
nistelrooydude: which leads to this one dedicated to italy!

the winner i think is Frenchfx, i really liked the new dimension you added to this pic! and i learnt something new!

[frenchfx]

Whoa, thanks DonJuan I didn't see that one coming. There were some really incredible edits here, a lot of out of the box thinking. I love monty's edit and the last 2 were very nice also, the "greeting from Italy" edit fits that image perfectly.

The new one is already up....

[monty28428]

Congrats Richard - Awesome edit!

All the edits were great! Nice work folks.

[PictureDisk]

Nice job to all. Ilse, when I saw yours, I loved it!!! Very playfull !!;)
Congrats Richard - very nicely done!!

[SilverHCIC]

Congrats Richard.
Monty your HDR effect was fantastic.

[SQuiP]

Congrats French!
Haha, thanks, those building really should be blue eh? :D

[suzyb]

Way to go, French!