Before & After # 105

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 #106".

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

This game will end on Thursday, Sept. 11th at 4:00pm (PST)
Let's see how creative you can be with an otherwise plain image of a white picket gate.

used HDR to bring out more detail in the fence
converted to b\w\ w\BW styler
dodge\burn
removed original background layered in the new one
Used transform\perspective tool on the new background to make it more realistic.
Applied another very light layer of HDR
added frame

cloned out sidewalk?
adjusted brightness and contrast
under filter gallery - used angled strokes -trying to give it a painted look
cropped
added border

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-Smart Sharpen
-Bleach Bypass filter at 50% opacity
-Cross Processing filter on a mask on the background
-Monday morning filter
-Color balance
-Photo filter layer
-Border

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... Either folks were too busy to play, or my picture just sucked too much:o.

Regardless of the reason, since only 3 people played this time I had a good chance to study each entry. Here's what I thought in order:

frechfx - BW conversion was good. That's actually the approach I originally took with this image. Your addition of HDR to bring out more detail at the extremes went beyond my own BW version, and I thought it accentuated the character of the sign & worn out pickets of the gate. The change in BG made it kinda spooky, and reminded me of some of the edits from earlier posts from Justin. ... Overall nice job.

kab8715 - you cleaned up the pic nicely, getting rid of the old concrete walkway and filling the frame with the grass & little yellow flowers. I'm not too sure the "painting effect" worked with all the chipped paint on the gate and the beat-up sign, but it certainly changed the entire image to a more pleasant & softer image. This was also a nice job.

ZeroOne86 - This was reminiscent of some of your older posts in B&F. You always seem to find a good balance that doesn't result in an image that is oversharpened or oversaturated or too contrasty. This was actually pretty close to my original edit, right before I decided to go with a BW conversion. Nice job Kyle.

And after one final look at all three, the winner is ZeroOne86. ... OK Kyle, set us up with a good one!!!

Nice edits

I think with summer winding down and school starting back up people are just so busy. Hopefully the game picks back up. I don't know what I would do if this game died.... even the ones that I don't participate in, I always check in at least once during the day to see if there is something new. Its my addiction... hahaha

I really liked the photo but just didn't have the time to do a before and after. I had a shoot yesterday and I'm still editing photos from my previous shots.

Kyle is sleeping right now and has to wake up early for work so he probably won't be able to post a the new B&A until tomorrow evening but he will put one up.

Frenchfx- I really liked the house in the background that you added.

Couldn't agree more with the decision, great job Zero and and kab.
Yeah, with kids back in school life is more hectic.

Great first edit. Hard to beat. Looks spooky!

SilverHCIC wrote in post #6289366
ZeroOne86 - This was reminiscent of some of your older posts in B&F. You always seem to find a good balance that doesn't result in an image that is oversharpened or oversaturated or too contrasty. This was actually pretty close to my original edit, right before I decided to go with a BW conversion. Nice job Kyle.

Thank you Silver. That's always my goal is subtly. I try not to go too overboard. It seems sometimes the most minute details make all the difference. Will have another one up shortly. Great edits everyone.

New one is now up.