Before & After # 141

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 #142".

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 Tuesday, December 16 at 6PM PST.

This is a modified Sikorsky Helicopter after a water drop during a wildfire that burned quite a few homes in Malibu. This will be a good test to see what you can all do with hazy images. The sky was so full of smoke & ash, that this was the best image in the bunch. The lighting was very flat, since the sun was blocked out by the smoke, so contrast was an issue. OK, let's see you all work your magic !!!

Vibrance, Selective color, Curves on helicopter
Brownish Red painted on in.. Overlay or Softlight
Painted with a soft black brush on soft light to darken some clouds
Painted with a white diffuse brush on low opacity from lower left to bottom of copter to simulate smoke
Another soft light layer darkening clouds
Painted with an icicle brush (yes, icicle), black on soft light on lower 1/3 of image - gave contrast and more darkness
Liking the icicle brush, I did another layer bottom 1/3 using a brighter orange - flamish effect
* One layer multiply 100%, duplicated and the 2nd layer on overlay 15%
Render lens flare from the blue break in clouds
Vibrance layer to boost just the blues in the clouds

Wow! Both of those edits are pretty cool! When I saw the original, I didn't know what to think, but I was pleasantly surprised!

Basically just burned more details into the smoke, noise reduction, and some final sharpening.

I played with the sliders in color efex pro's tonal contrast plugin until I got the contrast cool, then I used viveza and made a control point over the helicopter to bring it's exposure up abit, That is all I did.....
Oh, and some noise reduction in dfine

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I'll give this one a try..
Didn't really do to much though.

Applied Nik grad filter orange #4
Used ReDynamix HDR to enhance the smoke details
Cropped
A bit of dodge and burn
Added frame

Cool pic! Have to admit, I didn't do much.
Cropped
Duplicated layer, multiply
Adjusted curves
Brightness/contrast (+2/+11)
Exposure (exp -0.1, offset -0.0662, gamma correction 0.74)
Dodged helicopter a bit
Selective color enhancement (reds, yellows, whites, neutrals)
Border

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Great edits everyone:

Justin, you did a fantastic job cleaning up the helicopter and bringing out the detail/contrast in the smoke. While the browns and reddish tones are more dramatic than the actual scene, they add to the overall feeling of devastation. It was a horrible fire.

David, your simple approach was closest to my original edit. I think I boosted the saturation of the helicopter and selectively sharpened it slightly, but other than that, I took a similar approach to your image.

Picturedisk, your image lacks the clarity I was hoping to see, and still has a bit too much haze. While the image represents the actual conditions most accurately, I think more could have been done to draw attention to the Sikorsky.

Pendulum, your image is also similar to the approach I took. Perhaps your treatment of the helicopter is a bit brighter than my image, but I think I like it. The increased detail in the smoke is quite good, and has a nice balance with the reddish brown hue.

Richard, your tighter, off-center crop helped to move the helicopter out from the center, but I think it was a bit too tight. … By eliminating so much of the BG, I think the viewer loses the perspective of how gigantic the fire was. As effective and accurate as the water-drops were, the giant Sikorsky helicopters were absolutely dwarfed by the endless wall of smoke clouds that reached up thousands of feet into the sky. … I think the tighter crop looses that context.

lhos, your image seemed to pull together a lot of the good features of the previous edits. I think the crop is a bit tight (similar to Richard’s crop), but there is still plenty of smoke to be dramatic.

OK, this is a tough one for me, because several of the images are so good for different reasons. But in the end, I kept coming back to lhos. Perhaps the only change I would have suggested, would be to keep a slightly wider crop and run the image through some noise reduction. Other than that, I think it’s a keeper.

OK, lhos, you’re up!!!

Congrats Ihos!

Awesome edits everybody!! I could not even come close to these after several attempts.

Congrats Ihos!!

Congrats Ihos

pendulum15 wrote in post #6892816
Congrats Ihos

+1

Awesome! Thanks!
Just got home from working a night shift....the next pic will be up soon

-Lucy