Before & After 462

The game will last 7 Days 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.
Feel free to comment and/or ask questions at any time. This is a good competition for learning new methods, so let's make it a bit more dynamic. I will be judging edits, not comments. Feel free to comment on the original image as well.

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 #463"!!!

Submissions end , Saturday 9th March, 2013 at 7:30pm (GMT) and a winner will be announced.

Here's a RAW File for those who would like one to work with :-

https://www.dropbox.co​m …sok4f0gita/_MG_​0790.CR2?m

I wanted to darken the image some, but not loose the details, so using the RAW file--
LR: reduced exposure 2.5 stops, increased contrast 40. Highlights +25, shadows +75, whites -55, blacks +30.
Clarity +40, Vibrance +45, Saturation -35,
Tone Curve -- Highlights, Darks, Shadows, +100, Strong Contrast
over-sharpened a bit, touch of NR, auto lens correction, chromatic aberration, cropped.
PS: lowered exposure slightly with layers, but masked the train track, track reflection, and the bright part of the clouds. Resized and saved.

Sorry; Too bad an image. Just Retake!

samsen wrote in post #15670691
Sorry; Too bad an image. Just Retake!

To get back to the original purpose of the thread - it's called before and after for a reason....

Just changed the time of day.

Place image with nice sky, move it to background layer, change original layer to Multiply. Erase parts of background layer not wanted. Reduce opacity on background layer. Dupe background layer and flip vertical. Line up flipped layer with background layer. Again, remove unwanted parts. Flatten layers, dupe, and sharpen with high pass filter. Flatten again.

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

Just played with the contrast, highlights and blue-tone, then made a black and white. Pretty simple really!

Different conversions with DPP, then blended together with DPP++.

samsen wrote in post #15670691
Sorry; Too bad an image. Just Retake!

Comments like this reaffirm my choice to not pay attention to them. You should not post here.

Curves in lightroom to bring back sky a little.
Photoshop-Vibrance boost, knock back overall contrast then readjust tonal contrast (just individual high mid and darks) in nik's colorefx. Add lens flare and glowball to mask where sky was blown.

Well here goes...haven't entered anything in a while...basically did most adjustments in camera raw...warmed up the temperature and upped the exposure...also increased brightness, clarity and vibrance...straightene​d along the bridge rail for a different horizon line (ya I know should be lower on the water...but liked this look)...finally the graduated filter to bring back the details in the clouds...duplicated the layer and overlayed it with about a 15% opacity to give just a hair more depth...oh..about forgot...did two separate directional blurs on the water to give the effect of a longer exposure...

Whoa, good luck judging this one, Nigel.

yb98 and M_Six have my vote. Though the sunset one should be a tad brighter so more of the details come out of the image rather than appearing underexposed.

nice work guys

Slightly ahead of schedule - but here goes :-

T3 Heavy Shop - Pretty much how it was - good natural edit.
M_Six - I really like this one - excellent change of sky and light on the water, well done Mark.
Heycoop Photography - Pretty simple - yes, but pretty effective as well, great B&W conversion.
yb98 - you've really managed to get some good detail out of this. I would have preferred it a bit darker overall but the result is really good.
Dawicka2 - The effect is not my cup of tea although I have to say that you've also managed to create a good alternative, good work.
damccomb - - unusual colouring but the treatment of the water has been done very well.

So - c2thew - you're spot on as far as choice of winner goes. Is it the detail of yb98 or the change of daytime from M_Six - well, I'm a sucker for dark pictures so this time, over to you M_Six, looking forward to #463.

Thanks everyone!

Congrats and Good job M_Six!

Good job everyone else as well...as to my color...I'm ready for spring...and it just reminded me of the sun breaking through after a nasty spring storm...very vibrant colors...anyway...as with any art form...we all have different interpretations...than​ks for the comments NigelD.

Looking forward to the next image (hoping I can find the time to continue participating).

Thanks, folks. Tough competition this round. I really liked several of them. I'll get something up soon.