Before & After # 145

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays everybody!

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 #146".

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 Sunday, December 28th at 2:00pm EST . (added a day as I figured that very few people are going to be around today)

Give this one a go.

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Duplicated twice
Used layer 1 as background - used curves in a subtle S shape (brightness and contrast)
Saturated this layer more, 2 or 3 point hue adjustment and a variety of color balance adjustments, I also added a slight burn vignette
Layer 2 became a lighter foreground layer with the sky and water erased (parts of the landscape and bridge in the background was also erased). Slight desaturation on this layer and some selective sharpening and dodging.
I then made sure the 2 layers blended together well and also healed a few random spots/items on the ground/water as well as cloned the lamp post out.
Brightened overall picture slightly, cropped and added border

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Attempting for the first time in one of these, so bear with me. I edited the image and then went back and read the directions that say I must share how I edited it. Here goes from memory.

Slight unsharp mask, crop, slight black to transparent gradient layer from upper right corner, slight grain filter, and black and white conversion.

Tried something new here in an attempt to make it look more like dusk/evening:

1. Copied original layer twice
2. Added two adjustment layers to first layer: Levels & Hue/Sat
3. Tweeked levels & hue to dramatize color of sky
4. Changed mode of 1st layer to inverse
5. Layer mask to blend sky with foreground
6. Levels adjustment to entire image to make scene look like dusk/evening
7. Applied high-pass filter @ 5 pixels to 2nd layer
8. Changed blend mode to soft light
9. Lots of cloning to eliminate CA problems, then I just gave up when it looked OK
10. Ran through Noiseware @ 60%/70%/+2 sharpening (my usual settings)
11. USM 50%,1,1
12. Added quick border.

... Not really happy with my results, but I can't spend any more time on this picture. ... I'm taking the family to the Rose Palace in Pasadena, where I had a friend who got us permission to decorate one of the floats that will be in the Rose Parade on new years day !!! -- It will be easy to spot the part I decorated on TV, because it will be the part that's all messed up!! -- I won't be able to use PhotoShop to fix my mistakes !!! Happy new years everyone !!

First, I cloned and cloned a bunch to remove the 5 pedestrians
Curves
Selective color enhancements
Selected sky and adjusted levels to make more dramatic
Adjusted brightness and contrast a little
Added border

Just as an aside....does anyone else struggle with their picture not looking as good when they post it as it does in photoshop? I'm pretty new to this...is there a trick? I keep being disappointed because the product I post is not how it looks on my computer.

Thanks!

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firstly i decided on a tighter crop for this one, then cloned out the people at the top of the picture. Then went to lightroom and made three exposures and made a fake hdr in photomatix. Then took it back to photoshop and adjusted the curves and increasing the contrast. Oh and straightened it, then dodged and burned around the picture

Okay -- this comp is closed... give me a few to look these awesome edits over!

Going to be a tough choice.

Ilse -- Wonderful work on this! Nice job on evening out the exposure and the sky looks just about right.

stx221 - Great first entry and very nice B&W conversion - Nice Job. I also used a gradient filter on my edit. I like the pano crop.

David - this is a another great edit - Nice detail (maybe a tad too sharp) and it's very true to the actual scene.

Silver -- Wow -- how much work was that! A really nice job at lighting the bridge and boats! Looks too much like a swimming pool light bottom center (my only nit..)

Ihos -- Great job on the cloning and another good pano crop. I too have problems saving for web -- colors seem to over saturate when saving to srgb.

DonJauan -- I love this crop and great job on getting things straightened out! Nice HDR -- kind of noisy but I know what you had to work with!

Ok... well I really hate to pick one.. Overall I would like to see Ilse's or Davids edit with DonJaun's crop

Isle -- this one goes to you. Congrats!

Thanks for taking the time to enter everybody -- I appreciate it and overall just a great job by everyone.

Congrats Ilse -- very well done!! Congrats to everyone else also; this was a nice group of edits!!

Congrats!

What was your final edit btw?

LOL -- I don't have a finished one!! Gave you guys a fresh one to work on! A quick resize and save to web on what I have though..

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Thanks guys
Here's the new one:
BA #146

Congrats Squip! I ended up going over my head trying to work with the sky and couldn't finish it. As Silver said, lots of touch up cloning work to be done.

Justin -- You figure out what's going on with CS4 yet ??