Before and After #22

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 800 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 48hrs 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 there "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 and After #23.)

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

This game will end on February 19th, 2008 @ 18:00 MST

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Wow this I couldn't think of anything to save my life got an idea but didn't quite pan out so this is about all I could come up with. Not my best edit, but...
-High Pass Sharpening layer with a setting of soft light with an opacity of 50%
-Nik Software sunshine filter
-Nik Software graduated filter with an olive color
-Levels
-Black and White
-Fixed the horizon

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Byte size: ZERO | PHOTOBUCKET ERROR IMAGE

Here's my quick and dirty try at it. I sort of drew a blank as what to do, so I just decided to do the 'misty water' effect type thing.
My process was:
1. Duplicate background layer --> blend mode --> screen
2. Mask off everything but the rocks
4. Clone out boats and person standing on the rock in the background.
5. Duplicate layer--> filters--> blur --> motion blur at 60 pixels for distance.
6. Mask off everything but the water and set layer opacity at 75ish percent
7. Go to adjustment layer --> black and white --> custom--> (I can't remember my settings, but I put a tint of a tanish color at about 20% opacity)
8. merge layers
9. Clone out people standing and sitting on the wall
10. Use the burn tool to burn down the upper part of the sky and edges, sort of a vignette

It didn't really take all that long to do. Twenty minutes, tops.

This photo was awesome.
-Started by adjusting the horizon
-Added some clouds from a brush to make to enhance the photo
-Cloned out all the people(was an arduous task)
-Decided it would be a great HDR so I mounted the photo to Photomatix
-Finally I adjusted the white balance.

OK...on this one, I:

1. Straightened the horizon.
2. Cropped.
3. Cloned out the people, the ships, and the long piece of wood on top of the rocks.
4. Upped the contrast just a little.
5. I think I raised the saturation of only the yellow with the wall masked off.
6. Tried to bring back some detail in the dark side of the larger rocks by using the shadows tool. I'm not really happy with how it turned out, but I couldn't figure out any other way.
7. A little noise reduction and some sharpening.
8. Border.

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OK, got to practice my cloning skills:
1. Cloned away ships & people
2. Adjusted color of sky via hue adjustment, darken, saturation
3. Added blue to water
4. USM 100,1.5,1
5. Restored original color of wall and rocks via mask w/ original layer
6. Slight adjustment to mountain range in background
7. Rotate 1.5 degrees counter-clockwise
8. Bump contrast slightly (+4)
9. Added border

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Here's my rendition:

-Straightened the photo
-Cropped photo
-Cloned out ships and log
-Bumped the contrast and brightness a little
-Added border

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Angdvl089 wrote in post #4939152
Here's my rendition:

-Straightened the photo
-Cropped photo
-Cloned out ships and log
-Bumped the contrast and brightness a little
-Added border

I'll take one that looks just like that as a 24X36 (or whatever the dimensions are) poster. Or maybe even one of those Simply Canvas big ass prints as a mural on my wall.

Toad

I tried too just for fun

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/png'

Duplicated layer
Desaturated
cropped
New adjusment layer-lower contrast using levels
Added texture
Set texture to overlay
Lower textured layer to 80% ocpacity
Merged visible layers
Lasso tool to grab the center(didnt make perfect circle)
feathered
inversed
darkened using curves to create the vignetting

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Evil Toad wrote in post #4939739
I'll take one that looks just like that as a 24X36 (or whatever the dimensions are) poster. Or maybe even one of those Simply Canvas big ass prints as a mural on my wall.

Toad

Thanks for the compliment. This was my first ever.

This one was a big challenge for me but it was fun.
-Cropped
-Cloned out boats and people (I actually liked the people but couldn't get any details in then so I decided to clone them out)
-Fixed the horizon and sharpened the picture a bit.
-added a indian summer filter to make the trees red.
-used dodge and burn on the stones
-added blue to the water
-added color to the mountains, and stones
-brightened the whole thing up.
-added border.

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Byte size: ZERO | PHOTOBUCKET ERROR IMAGE

Crop, straighten, +saturation, +blues (lighten), +yellows(darken), blur layers, more light, selective sharpened left side of rocks, cloned out the boats

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Here's my go:
Made a copy of it then ran it through Photomatix.
Tone mapped it:
-Str 95
-Saturation 81
-Light smoothing: high
-Luminosity -1
-Gamma 1.07
-Temperature 3
-Saturation highlights 3
-Highlights smoothing 7
-Everything else is default.
(Glow around trees is annoying)
Cloned out the boats and people.
Straightened the horizon.
Raised the sky's saturation with Replace Colour

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OK poured rum and tried to decide which one I liked best nothing objective about it. The one that pleased me most was “GM_of_OLC” (what does that stand for?) you brought out the colours of the late afternoon sun, didn’t over sharpen; a fine rendition.

At the #2 spot is “Suzyb” I liked your interpretation of the afternoon light too but some how the trees didn’t catch it

#3 spot filled by “Firu3000” your ability with clouds is fantastic. ALSO in the #3 spot “Angdvl089” (what does that stand for?) with an interesting crop that completely changes the image.

Honorable mention to: “thekid24” for his unique interpretation.

Appreciation to everyone for sharing with us, Thanks.