Before & After #470

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 #471".

Submissions end, Monday, May 6, 2013 at 8:00 PM GMT+2 and a winner will be announced.

Good Luck and have fun!

Here's the RAW File for those who would like one to work with.

Honfleur.CR2

LR: used a preset called hallowed BLACK. lots of changes to HLS and split toning. exported and reset image.
increased exposure .50, highlights - 100, slight increase to shadows, whites, clarity, vibrance and saturation. Medium contrast tone curve. exported and saved with new name.
PS: opened both. set the 2nd image as the background and pasted the BLACK image on top of it with 50% opacity. Cloned out the stuff in the foreground, cropped.

When I saw the image not sure why but the first thing that grabbed my attention were the awnings, kinda weird I know.

So I decided to make those the focal point.

Pretty noob-ish when it comes to LR, but made some basic adjustments while still in color then took it PS.

Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

The surrounding buildings caught me attention so I wanted to make it pop.
LR4:

• WB: 5800
  
• Straighten perspective & crop
  
• Filter & Mask to + exposure on the background buildings & hill
  
• Minor adjustment on HSL
  
• Little Grain & Vignette
  

This is my first attempt at editing a picture for in Adobe Raw and PS.
Started by bringing the expoure down and the highlights up slightly. Brought the whites down and the blacks up. Vibrance and clarity was boosted way up. Then fixed the lens distortion followed by cropping to get rid of the blank space. Removed the motorcycle and 2 people on the left with the healing brush. I didnt want to crop the buildings on the right so i removed the backpack with the healing brush. Used a quick slection of the sky and then brought the blacks up with the levels layer.

IMAGE LINK: http://s335.photobucke​t.com …0Photos/Honfleu​r.jpg.html

Opened in ACR and adjusted whites, shadows, blacks and highlights. Sharpened then opened in CS6. Corrected perspective then increased canvas size. B&W Conversion then sharpened. Stroke and fx drop shadow to finish.

Thanks everyone for the participation.

T3 Heavy Shop : I like this edit and the WB in particular but I would have love more presence of the sky
KalebA : good idea for the selective colors but I would have love more presence of the sky too
kagealita : nice edit with more sky but would have love to see more textures in it
Beaner242 : nice recovery of the sky, eventough a little too dark in some parts
NigelD : nice dramatic effect, but a little too much contrast for my taste

And the winner is Beaner242. Congrats.

Well done Beaner242 - good edit.

thanks guys. now the hard part. finding a photo to edit

Kudos, Beaner. Looking forward to 471.

And well done, Nigel. I like your treatment with the drop shadow.

Thanks Mark

I prefer #4. More vibrant and punchy and more life to the picture.

ktan7 wrote in post #16009698
I prefer #4. More vibrant and punchy and more life to the picture.

If you mean the correction by kagealita then I agree.