Before and After #139

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 & After #139".

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 Thursday, 11 December at 10pm (East).
I'm moving it a few hours later to suit everyone.

Ok so I don't have a whole lot of pictures right now so here is a corny photo I took of my cat during Halloween. I know sad isn't it ^_^

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Cropped, curves, lowered saturation
Burnt around the edges
Opened in ArcSoft and used the old photo effect (only border)
Auto levels in Photoshop (gives a nice dark shade) - removed border
Played around with color balance.
Blurred the edges and eyes (dodged and burnt eyes)
Bit more burning

I actually wonder if the B&A shouldn't be 3 days during the holidays?

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Hopefully this looks right on the web! I forgot to convert it to sRGB before I started editing - colors should look right on every browser except IE.

A cat picture! How could I NOT make the time to edit it even though my feline anatomy final is tomorrow Uh.. biceps brachii innervated by the musculocutaneous nerve. Good studying practice!

Lots of steps, bare with me!
Levels adjustment - masked to remove some of the shadows of the foreground
Copy merge - Gaussian Blur - Multiply - Masked off the cat and tombstone
Levels adjustment just to bring out the detail in the nose
Four selective color adjustments: cyan, blue, yellow, and red - blue/cyan in the background, yellow/red in the foreground
Hue and Saturation in the eyes combined with a levels adjustment to make them stand out
Increased contrast on tombstone
Blank layer on soft light painted the background in with black to darken
Nik Darken/Lighten center (self explanatory!) - Lightened center
Added some green to the sky for some mood
Lightened the right side just a bit
Darkened just the sky a bunch more, blurred it, smudged it in a circular manner, then reblurred it with gaussian this time applying the blur to the entire background as well
Nik Cross Processing - Daylight to Tungsten (applied the orangish hue)
Desaturated the lower right corner a bit
Cropped a bit of the right and bottom off...

Really just played around with this one until I found a look I liked...

Copied/cloned the tree and flipped it to the other side to hide the house.
Brightened the shadows.
Added more of a blur to the background.
Added a duplicate layer set to overlay to darken.
Noise reduction.
Unsharp mask.
Changed the eye color.
Did a black layer...lowered the opacity...then erased it off the cat.
Then I used the liquify tool to give the cat's eyes a slant.
Border.

WOW great edits everyone. I was actually really worried that no one was going to do the edit.

Squip - B&W actually really suits this image well and brings more focus on Micah (kitty) more. I also agree that maybe it should be 3 days because of the holidays.

SonofDarwin- I really like how you were able to make the bright areas pop and darken the shadows. The colors of his fur and the tombstone are just amazing.

SuzyB- I love the eyes!!! It shows the true evil inside of him which I tried to get but he kept eating the grass which isn't very evil lol. I also like how you did the background.

Well I have to pick SonofDarwin as the winner. Great Job everyone!!

Congrats Justin! Love the whiskers and clear, bright eyes!

Thanks Will have the next one up shortly.

Looooved your edit Darwin! Congrats