Before and After #99

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 1024 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 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.

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 #100".

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

This game will end on Tuesday, August 26th at 11pm (Eastern).

This is my nephew on his 2nd birthday - This is what can happen to a 2 year old after a long day of lots of attention and too much cake and ice cream. Tough being a kid.

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cleaned up the face with gaussian blur and the blur tool
lots of cloning to get rid of the finger in the nose, create a nostril and extend the lip
turned up the edges of the lip and eye to more of a little smile
added the lollipop to distract from the fact that I removed one finger
added a canvas texture and a border

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Go for gold, kiddo!!!!

Clone Stamp
Blur
High Pass Filter
Exposure +
Gamma
Sepia Photo Filter
Photo Editing
History Brush
+ Contrast
Burn Tool

My Try:

Wow...I loved working on this one...

- Cloned extra background and right shoulder
- Corrected color balance
- Moved finger from nose
- Repaired nose
- Added Surface Blur to facial skin
- Added Cow Party Hat
- Merged layers, desaturated, added Sepia tone.
- Added border
- Vignette

Decided to keep the original picture (... one of those priceless images), so all I did was:

1. Cleaned up face
2. Removed tear streaks & watery eyes
3. Removed some of the reflection on index finger (I guess he had been digging pretty deep!!!)
4. Slight skin softening around lower cheeks
5. Levels adjustment
6. Convert to B&W
7. Slight lightening of the eyes
8. Slight sharpening of eyes
9. Softened background
10. Heavy vignette
11. Drop shadow

That's it. ... Hope he got what he was looking for

Wow!! how come its easier to say "if it were up to me # whatever would win" but now that I actually have to choose......ahhhhhhhhh​hh I've been sitting here for probably an hour going back and forth comparing them. Who knows maybe its the added pressure of knowing that I'm picking the winner that has to post game #100 - thats a lot of responsibility! haha

So on with the choices -

Christine - Great job at cleaning up his face and fixing the nose! The poor guy needs all of his fingers though!
Lore - I burst out laughing when I saw yours because I thought what are the chances someone would pick the Toy Story theme for this picture - he *Loves* that movie. Like the bandaid on his finger - cute touch.
Lee123 - Very cute. Love that you extended the photo edges - love the texture on the edge and the sepia tone. I always have a hard time picking the "right" color for my sepia photos. The hat is cute - would have loved to see it rotated a little to match the turn of this head.
SilverHCIC - Love it. It drives me crazy when kids dig in their nose but your right - it was one of those priceless moments that I knew I had to grab so I was glad to see that someone left his finger there!! Great job at cleaning up his face. The edit I did was alot like yours - only I left all the mess and tears - I think B&W is an excellent choice for this one - adds to the "sad" feeling.
I think I might have to try cleaning his face up on the original.... you all made it look so easy.

So..... I kept comparing 2... Lee and Silver's..... I narrowed it down that much is that enough?!?!?! hahaha

I'm going to pass game #100 onto Lee123! great job everyone!

Congrats Lee123!! You get to post # 100 - Make it a good one!!!

Kim - That was a great picture to work with. ... I'm surprised more people didn't play this round. I actually cracked up when I saw what you had posted. First I took his finger out of his nose, but then when I was done editing, I liked the finger back in better!!! I've been working on my B/W conversions, so I thought I'd give it a go on this one. ... B/W can be so tricky to get the right balance .

Thanks very much Kim...

#100...I feel honored...
As soon as I finish my night shift I'll dig through my pics and see what I can get posted up.
Thanks again.

SilverHCIC wrote in post #6186604
Congrats Lee123!! You get to post # 100 - Make it a good one!!!

Kim - That was a great picture to work with. ... I'm surprised more people didn't play this round. I actually cracked up when I saw what you had posted. First I took his finger out of his nose, but then when I was done editing, I liked the finger back in better!!! I've been working on my B/W conversions, so I thought I'd give it a go on this one. ... B/W can be so tricky to get the right balance .

Thanks Its funny because after I posted it I got to thinking about it and started to wonder if I should have posted something else. I was thinking there wouldn't be too many creative things to do with it since he filled so much of the frame. I never gave a thought though that everyone would clean up his face or take his finger out! Just goes to show what a fresh pair of eyes can do to a photo!
I love b&w photos but I too struggle getting them just right... sometimes they look to dull and other times I think I get them too dark....

I really wanted to compete with this one, but had to go away for a couple days for class!
Great stuff everyone

Awesome edit Lee!

SQuiP wrote in post #6189385
I really wanted to compete with this one, but had to go away for a couple days for class!
Great stuff everyone

Awesome edit Lee!

Thanks SQuiP. That was a fun photo to edit.

kab8715 wrote in post #6186432
Lore - I burst out laughing when I saw yours because I thought what are the chances someone would pick the Toy Story theme for this picture - he *Loves* that movie. Like the bandaid on his finger - cute touch.

I'm going to pass game #100 onto Lee123! great job everyone!

Having 4 kids of my own, I know that movie is always a hit at that age.

CONGRATS Lee! Can't wait to see what photo you come up with