Before and After - The Weekly Editing Challenge

Stiga wrote in post #19289152
Good to see your interpretation. With such a large set, interpretations are endless

Interesting that you use the free MS ICE. I am using it more and more and like it better than PS. Pity it won't remember your preferred image type when saving though.

P.S. I see that Hugin is highly recommended and a couple of review articles; has anyone used it?

Yes, I've been using ICE mostly over the past several months. Very fast and I can't find many faults. Good layout detection and set of projection choices. ICE works with raw files directly (even .cr3), though I agree choosing your own default output type would be a nice improvement.

Hugin was the main program I was using before trending towards ICE. It is quite good with output and options, but wants an external converter to handle raw files. Also slow on a big set compared to ICE.

Good to know, Rob. I'll stuck to UCE

Stiga wrote in post #19289615
Good to know, Rob. I'll stuck to UCE

That's the way I'm thinking now, though more sophisticated users than I am might find more capabilities in Hugin that I haven't explored.

Just realized I should be declaring a winner about now (actually a couple of days ago).

These are all really attractive and hard to choose amongst. Lots of technical know-how and creativity in the set - good "transformative use" of my originals (see current copyright thread at the link Stiga provided above).

Having to choose, I'm giving the final thumbs-up to Bianchi for the range of treatments presented.

But thanks to all - fine work; good discussions too.

>> Bianchi, show us your raws!

ALSO - Whether legally needed or not, would like to have permission of each poster as I look into sending the images to the local (regional) newspaper and/or Town Council.

Thanks for an excellent challenge.
and use my inerpretations elsewhere if you wish.

Bianchi , what's next?

Peano did a great job from day to night !!

Thanks folks: Permission granted 100% Rob

This is a passage way/inlet to the Atlantic Ocean from the inner waters of Florida.

Download

https://www.dropbox.co​m …snwkq2w/_C7A250​2.CR2?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.co​m …3vcadcq/_C7A250​3.CR2?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.co​m …e604ujw/_C7A250​4.CR2?dl=0

The Standard Rules:

Download the image file from the current week

Contestants will have 7 days to edit the image and post their edited version to the thread (1 entry per week)

The owner of the original image will choose a winner

The winner will copy & paste this post and include a new downloadable image link

The new image must be unedited / SOOC (straight our of camera), full-resolution, and in a RAW format, ie. CR2, DNG, TIF, etc
(Dropbox works well for uploading and linking these large files)

The purpose of this game is to be creative and learn new editing techniques. You must give some insight into exactly how you went about editing the image. For example, increased shadows sliders, reduced highlights, local sharpening, white balance adjustment, specific filters used, tone curve adjustments, etc. Comments and/or questions regarding the edits are encouraged.

First attempt using standard workflow
1. DxO PL4 - denoise and lens correction. Export as DNGs
2. SNS-HDR (night filter)
3. PS - brighten light
More to follow

Similar to Martin's rendition (great minds ... etc.) but a little more nightish.

As usual, I am just loitering, not competing.

EDIT: Another version, just experimenting with the moon's reflection on the ocean. Always tinkering . . .

Here are mine. One version is darker, the other one is lighter. I enhanced the reflection of the lighthouse and highlighted the tips of the clouds in of them to my liking; that's the artist inside me.

A totally new approach this time

1. Aurora HDR using my own Day-to-Night preset
BTW, Aurora 2018 is free!
2. Minor tweaks and crop in Photoshop
3. Replace sky in Luminat AI
4. Back into PS for burning, dodging + resize
N.B. Best vied against dark background - why does POTN not have this option?

Stiga wrote in post #19292249
N.B. Best vied against dark background - why does POTN not have this option?

Martin, click on the glasses in the upper right. Nice one!

rrblint wrote in post #19292404
Martin, click on the glasses in the upper right. Nice one!

Thank you, Mark - yes, I know about this trick but I would like to see "dark mode" as an option for all POTN pages. Why do virtually all photo editors operate in dark mode or give the option to do so?

BTW, this image has led me to re-evaluate Aurora. I have the 2018 free version on my workhorse PC with mediocre graphics and the 2019 version on my laptop with a tip-top graphics and a fast cpu. Photographers on POTN keep saying that Skylum have abandoned Aurora since releasing Luminar but it is still available and IMHO does not require further development.

Aurora does a good job changing the time to noon. But I did have to turn off the light in the lighthouse using PS. (Not very successfully, I lost all the metal framework)

Well its that time again, thanks to all who participated, first place Martin I liked his Drama image, but keep an eye out for the haylo's in the palms and other area's, a close second is Renta as her technical edit was point on.

Take it away Martin

**Helpful Hint** If shooting a Lighthouse at twilighlight morning/evening, take a bunch of images of the light of the lighthosue at various stages of its 360 degree turn, and turn your still image into a Gif.

You will have a still image with the light of lighthouse rotating.

Bianchi wrote in post #19293537
Well its that time again, thanks to all who participated, first place Martin I liked his Drama image, but keep an eye out for the haylo's in the palms and other area's, a close second is Renta as her technical edit was point on.

Take it away Martin

**Helpful Hint** If shooting a Lighthouse at twilighlight morning/evening, take a bunch of images of the light of the lighthosue at various stages of its 360 degree turn, and turn your still image into a Gif.

You will have a still image with the light of lighthouse rotating.

Many thanks, Bianchi but I wisher there more competition.