Before and After #160

[S.Horton]

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 72hrs 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 & After #161".

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

Round will end ~10 PM Friday, 13 Feb 09

Here's a chance to practice some portrait post-processing.

http://midnightblue.smugmug.com/photos/471490225_q554L-O.jpg

[BitterSweet]

-Cropped
-Cloned out spot on the lens,stray hairs, tree and flowers
- used noiseware. It really didn't need it but I like how it sharpens the image too.
- evened out there skin tone just a bit
- color contrast filter
- bleach bypass filter.
- added a bit of interest to the background.
- brightened
-border.

[MJA]

Adjusted levels
shadow/highlights 20-11-0
cloned out spots on faces/object on right/moved teeth closer together/lettering on womans shirt/white spots in eyes
Lucis weyeth 9
made duplicate layers
nik contrast color range on 1 layer
nik tonal contrast on next layer
blended layers
merged down
crop right a little
new background and made gradient based on original colors
vignette added

http://www.cornbread.com/~ratta/banda160.jpg

[suzyb]

Haven't been able to play in a while, but I had some time today...

I copied "mom" to a layer and moved her to the right to get her out from behind...then did some cloning and copying to craft the other side of her.

Cloned out the rest of the bricks.
Cloned out some stray hairs and the lock over "mom's" forehead.
Cloned out the letters on the sweatshirt.
Then just played with levels, exposure, contrast...nothing major.
Some noise reduction.
Dodged the eyes on "daughter".


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3444/3273642290_51379b61bd_o.jpg

[tkbslc]

Not my best work, but it was fun.

Snapshot from their Vegas trip:

overlayed people onto a snapshot of mine, attempted to match brightness and then added a lame lighting filter so it looked like some morning light.

[Ocron]

- Opened in ACR and adjusted exposure and WB
- Cropped then cloned out stray hair and the bricks that were left after the crop
- Did some teeth whitening, skin smoothing, contrast changes and selective sharpening: image of the Photoshop layers for this is below.

http://ocron.zenfolio.com/img/v4/p140237349.jpg


http://ocron.zenfolio.com/img/v4/p383620928-2.jpg

[dilorenzo1954]

I thought this one would look nice as an elegant "noir" portrait
Opened in ACR. Got rid of the entire background. Used brush to paint in black background, then added back some detail in every one's hair. Used Nik Color Efex midnight filter for dramatic shadow detail, but preserved brightness and removed most of the blur from that filter. Converted to B&W then adjusted color balance (22% Cyan, 17% Magenta, -7 Yellow) to get a silvery monochrome effect. Tight crop then added a slight vignette blur and frame. Resized and used Noise Ninja to smooth out the faces.

[S.Horton]

Well, now I know that judging posts is much, much harder than just commenting!

Not so easy to do!

Sean/Ocron is the winner here, only because that's what I asked for by implication, a portrait edit, and that is almost exactly what the client purchased.

But, the range of creativity on the thread is a pleasant surprise!

Thx for letting me play.

PM sent to get the next thread going.

[Ocron]

Thanks Sam. Ed, I really liked how you used the Nik Midnight filter, I've never had any luck with that one but I'm going to go back and experiment with it some more as you described. I'll try to get a new pic up this morning some time...gotta try to find something interesting.

[MJA]

I think suzyb's moving mom to the right was done very well. I thought she should have been moved over too but there was no way I could pull off what suzyb did.
I have never done a portrait edit so this B&A was informative as to what one is supposed to look like :lol:

Great job all!

[dilorenzo1954]

Nice edit Sean! Congrats;)

[BitterSweet]

Congrats Orcon! Nice job everyone.

[Ocron]

thanks all. new one is up here: http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=646510

[suzyb]

Good job, Ocron!