Before & After #473

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 #474".

Submissions end, Wednesday, May 29nd, 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.

RAW File

Lots of cloning, then I leveled the tower with crop tool in CS6. Converted to Black and white using Silver Efex, than applied the filters; detail extractor, bleach bypass, brilliance and warmth, and color contrast in Color Efex 4.

Great shot. The only problem I find distracting with the photo is the blown out portion of the image. The post-edit looks a bit flat as well. But great composition overall.

ktan7 wrote in post #15960969
Great shot. The only problem I find distracting with the photo is the blown out portion of the image. The post-edit looks a bit flat as well. But great composition overall.

From Before&After 471...

M_Six wrote in post #15921709
Umm, thanks for the input. But the whole idea of this thread is to rescue images that weren't decent straight out of the camera. It's a test of post-processing skills, not photography skills.

Basic adjustments in LR, exported at 5 different EV levels. Fused images in Photomatix. Straightened and cropped. increased blue saturation.

Here's mine : Opened in ACR and adjusted exposure, vibrance clarity and sharpened. In CS6 did some cloning/pentool for some selections and got rid of some distractions. Selective colour adjustment on sky, smart sharpen and stroke and a few other bits and bobs.

ktan7 wrote in post #15960969
Great shot. The only problem I find distracting with the photo is the blown out portion of the image. The post-edit looks a bit flat as well. But great composition overall.

Please would you go to page one and read the rules and purpose of this competition - your comments seem to indicate you haven't read what's going on.

Lightroom: Crop, straighten, adjust exposure, vibrance and fill light.

Photoshop: Clone, patch, and content aware tool. Adjust mid, high, and black channels.

IMAGE LINK: http://s1157.photobuck​et.com …fel1_zpsf7e89dc​c.jpg.html

Fuhrtographer : great edit, nice highlights recovery of the tower and nice dramatic effect
T3 Heavy Shop : nice edit overall but the top of the tower is too dark and i would have loved a symetric crop on this one
NigelD : almost same as T3 Heavy Shop but I prefer the crop here. However the tower is too dark too.
Dawicka2 : very nice edit and crop.

I hesitated between Fuhrtographer and Dawicka2 but I think I'll give it to Fuhrtographer. The metallic feeling of the tower is more present and the dramatic effect and the sepia color is nice here.

Thanks everyone.

yb98 wrote in post #15980283
Fuhrtographer : great edit, nice highlights recovery of the tower and nice dramatic effect
T3 Heavy Shop : nice edit overall but the top of the tower is too dark and i would have loved a symetric crop on this one
NigelD : almost same as T3 Heavy Shop but I prefer the crop here. However the tower is too dark too.
Dawicka2 : very nice edit and crop.

I hesitated between Fuhrtographer and Dawicka2 but I think I'll give it to Fuhrtographer. The metallic feeling of the tower is more present and the dramatic effect and the sepia color is nice here.

Thanks everyone.

Wow thanks I am flattered, I like these you can really learn a lot by participating in them. This is the first time I have ever won though so you will have to bear with me for a day or so to get the next game going.

Great job everyone and thanks for all that participating in this game and please take a crack at my file in game Before & After #474. Good luck.

Nice work, everyone. Congrats on the victory, fuhrtographer!

Looking forward to the next one!

I was thinking about entering this one, but when I saw Fuhrtographer's entry, I thought, "Boom, home run." I didn't think it could be topped. Excellent edit.

The rest are also impressive, especially the cloning work. Well done everyone.

Well done Fuhrtographer and some great entries this challenge!

Dawicka2 wrote in post #15980679
Nice work, everyone. Congrats on the victory, fuhrtographer!

Looking forward to the next one!

M_Six wrote in post #15981032
I was thinking about entering this one, but when I saw Fuhrtographer's entry, I thought, "Boom, home run." I didn't think it could be topped. Excellent edit.

The rest are also impressive, especially the cloning work. Well done everyone.

NigelD wrote in post #15989581
Well done Fuhrtographer and some great entries this challenge!

Thanks again guys. I really pushed the image in Color Efex 4, I was really worried about the color noise in the sky hurting my edit. I actually didn't notice it until after I posted it, ran out of patience after the clone marathon. Again nice edits by all.

Don't forget #474 is up. I'm starting to think the image I picked is no good, because of the lack of entries!?

Fuhrtographer wrote in post #15989751
Don't forget #474 is up. I'm starting to think the image I picked is no good, because of the lack of entries!?

Been away for a few days hence my lack of posting. Just a quick question before I push the wrong button - on filedropper there are 4 "download" buttons - which one is it? I don't want to download anything I don't need and am unfamiliar with the site?