Before and After #165

[MJA]

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 #166".

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

**Due to my work schedule I will not be able to choose the winner until approx. 4pm

This round will end Tuesday 3/03 at ~12:00pm EST


http://www.cornbread.com/~ratta/banda165.jpg

[sancho1983]

Don't really know what i'm doing with PS, thought this would be a good way of learning. I made a new levels layer, then set the blending (?) to exclusion in order to get an interesting sky, then used the pen tool to revert the rest of the image back to how it was. Then i made a new curves layer, set the blending (?) to linear light to give the foreground a little more detail. Then used the USM at 100%, 0.5 and 0. flattened the image and saved it.

Now i'm sure there are easier (and better) ways of doing what i did, which i hope to learn! And it's not a great edit, but i've only ever cropped, popped colour and added a vignette in PhotoShop, about time i got more out of it and i only learn from having a go!!



http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu79/sancho_1983/banda1651.jpg

[tkbslc]

Here's my take:

Shadows/highlight's/contrast boost
Optikverve Virtual photographer plugin with moonlight preset (freeware)
cropped
Framed

[donati03gt]

http://i487.photobucket.com/albums/rr232/donati03gt/boatcopy.jpg?t=1235947523

[monkeybanana]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3608/3321591198_589dc0f48a_o.jpg

My take on this

[MarineManiac]

soft light layer, overlay layer, highlights/shadows, warming filter on sky, midtone contrast, crop

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e363/cabbage2003/banda165-3.jpg

[Ocron]

- Opened two smart object copies from ACR, one with the clarity and blacks bumped up for the clouds, one more or less untouched. Blended into 1 layer.
- Cropped
- Curves adj layer with a mask to brighten the boats and the bridge.
- LAB color mode soft light Apply Image on the "a" channel to bump the blue on the bridge and the yellows on the boat. Masked out most of the other areas.
- added TRA Warm it Up layer (curve adj layer that warms) and selectively masked out parts of the clouds and water to try to give a little more depth and color contrast.
- I still though the image was too dark so I added a levels adj layer to brighten it, but masked out the edges.
- Now the clouds were looking noisy so I did a light noise ninja pass then a border.

http://ocron.zenfolio.com/img/v5/p122809309.jpg

[kidgetup]

-I brought the right side of the dock up to match the horizon line.
-Took care of some of the rust blemishes on the bigger ship.
-Tightened the crop
-levels adj to get more contrast
-brightness/contrast layer to do the same
-Hue/Sat layer adj to dull out the yellows and push the blues/cyan
-new layer, added a gradient from dk br to lt blue, with the layer set to 'color', dropped opacity to 60%
-color balance layer adj to bring out the brighter colors just a bit.
-a little vignetting and that's all.

hope you like :)

[sancho1983]

I like that one!!

[MJA]

Thanks all for playing. I see alot of new entrants which is very encouraging! Sorry I am late to judging but work is always first.

sancho1983 - thanks for joining us...you will learn alot here so stick with it. Your sky looks very menacing. Was there a reason the it was resized without a crop?

tkbslc - I like the drearyness your edit shows. I like the crop and the edit reminds me of a high iso B&W with a tint.

donati03gt - I wish I knew what you did to your edit. Also please turn on "image editing ok" on your profile to participate. Your edit appears just a little dark and on my screen there is a purpleish cast on top of the clouds on the right.

monkeybanana - I wish I knew what you did to yours too. Your edit reminds me of a storm that just rolled through and the sun is trying to come out.

MarineManiac - Your edit gives the photo a morning feel. On my screen the sky looks just a little too saturated.

Ocron - Nice balanced edit. Looks like something I would do to it.

Kidgetup - I like the small details you did to help the composure. Overall it looks a little underexposed.

Very tough choice as always and I am always second guessing my choice. But SOMEBODY has to win so its going to be MarineManiac. Based on the tighter crop and best detail in the bridge. Congrats! Great job all!

[sancho1983]

Thanks, will definitely have another go.

I wasn't sure if i was allowed to crop or not, the re-size just happened when i uploaded it to my photobucket account, wasn't intentional!!

[donati03gt]

turned on

[Ocron]

Congrats MM, looking forward to seeing what you've got for us.

[MarineManiac]

woot! thanks guys. edit will be up soon.