Before and After #121

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 #122".

This is all about having fun so have at it!!!
Any edit, over-the-top creative or subtle, is encouraged!

This game will end on Wednesday, October 22th at 10:00 pm (EST)


Nothing too exciting; I had some creative ideas for this one but I've not had time to work them over. Taken at the Philadelphia Zoo.

okay ill play for this one...........

first of all i sharpened this one with unsharp mask...

amount 400
radius 0.3
threshold 0

then i fixed the color problems

in the layers palette i chose threshold and then slid the bar all the way to the left, then slowly sliding it to the right i waited for the first part to be black and then i clicked ok. Then i went to the eyedropper tool and clicked right mouse button and chose color sampler tool, then clicked once in that black area that was showing from the threshold slider. Now i double clicked back in the threshold layer again and pushed the slider all the way to the right and then slid it back to the left. When the first white showed i clicked ok, then same again with the eye dropper tool i clicked inside this white area.

Now you should have 2 sampled areas. Drag the threshold layer into the trash bin.

Go to curves and you should see three of the eye droppers, all look a little different, the one on the left is shadows, the one on the right is highlights and the middle is your midtones. Click on the shadows one, (left) and click inside the first color sampled area from the threshold. It should be the blackest area in the pic. Then click on the highlights eye dropper and click on the second color sampled area. Then click on the middle one, this one is easy. Just click on any grey part in the picture, i chose the rock he/she was standing on. You should see the color in the pic change again. Now click ok.

Now i just wanted a bit more focus on the polar bear so got the rectangular marquee tool and chose a feather of 100px and selected the whole pic, inverted my selection and then created a new layer from that selection, then went to edit, chose fill and then changed the blending options to overlay

Finally played with curves just a little and boosted the midtones a little and lowered the shadows just a bit.

Nothing too crazy because it was a simple pic before

made the image alot softer and added a glow by using a layered gaussian blur.

cropped and made b/w

Converted to b\w
Added new background
Used clone tool to help blend the bear in with the scene.
Used HDR to change lighting blend
Ran the entire scene through b\w plugin.
Still wasn't pleased w\results but here it is anyway, to tired to redo

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Just for fun, decided to set him free:

1. Changed background to Mendenhall Glacier (Alaska)
2. Changed scale of polar bear layer
3. Rotated polar bear layer CC about 10 degrees
4. Layer mask to reveal upper portion only (just did a quick job)
5. Slightly darkened fur near edge of water
6. Tipped head back slightly (to take a breath)

DonJuanMair wrote in post #6534648
okay ill play for this one...........

Can I just tell you that your steps were great, I was able to replicate the output easily and I've learned some new tricks to PP my images.. Wow such a simple process but it really does improve the image 100x.

Thank you so much

no probs! thats why this is a good idea, i like this thread

I will play too...

1. Crop image
2. make a duplicate layer
3. make the layer options as "overlay"
4. adjust the opacity and fill levels to your preference - i believe mine were around opacity 70% and fill 65%
5. make the duplicate layer desaturated completely.
5. dodge and burn different sections of the photo for a better look.

here it is

A quick and dirty edit to get in before the contest ends...

In Photoshop use magic wand tool to select the bear.
Paste it into the image from the last contest.
Position it.
Adjust colors to make bear look a little more like it should be in that pic.
Save and open in Lightroom 2.
Adjust exposure, highlight recovery.
Add some contrast.
Make the sky a little bluer with adjustment brush.
LOL.

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Sorry I'm a little late!

MntnRnnr - Haha, that's great using his image.
Kissa - Great, simple edit. Pretty much what I did with it.
frenchfx - I really like that one! I only wish it wasn't so blown out in some areas.
shaunjoyce - Nice B&W conversion
SilverHCIC - Aww, that makes me a little sad. Funny edit

DonJuanMair - A wee bit oversharpened for my taste, but I like the edit otherwise. And you fixed the bluish hue on the fur! Even I didn't take the time to do that

I'll give this one to DonJuanMair

cool ill start a new one............

congrats DonJuan!! that would have been my pick too, you cleaned everything up very well, and added a nice little pop to it.

Congrats can't wait to see what you come up with

I'll play, I'll play... if it's not too late

1.) I adjusted the levels to remove color cast.
2.) Duplicated the the original layer with overlay blend to increase the saturation.
3.) Created a high pass layer to increase the sharpness.
4.) Added a hue/saturation adjustment layer to remove some of the "yellow" from his fur.
5.) Added a final curves adjustment layer to punch up the midtones a little.

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Congrats DonJuan - Look forward to the next one!!