Before & After # 164

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 72hrs 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 #165".

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

This round will end Friday 2/27 at ~6:00pm EST

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Here's mine. Semi-HDR'ed

Shadows, highlight, level, and color adjust. cropped. sharpened

Ran through LucisArt Exposure at 40% and 5th button.

Nik silver efex Sunrise
pre-filter =5 and strength at 60% rest at defaults.

Used Nik darken\lighten to darken borders a bit and brighten the center
crop and added Border

As usual with dark photos I did a mild HDR in Photomatix +/- 1 stop in .5 increments
Overlaid original file and erased everything but the blue barge in the background
Noise reduction
Reduced the green tones on side of the tugboat
Added contrast to the boat and reflection
Cloned out blue objects on land near the bow of tugboat
Nik color efex bi-color filter - cool/warm #2 at 22% opacity
Nik graduated filter - coffee#2 at 40% vertical shift
Crop
Slight sharpen

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Can I just ask what is the significance of this boat? I was watching CSI NY while running on the treadmill today and one of the cut scenes had this exact boat. Made me do a double take.

I started out trying for a bright colorful version but I just couldn't get it to where I was happy with it so I took the if all else fails fallback and made it into a sort of aged sepia look.

- Crop, levels, shadow/highlight, LAB color adjust to get a well exposed color version. Decide it's lame so from there...
- TRA Old Skool, modify edge burn mask, and adjust opacity on the mid tone, warm tone, grain, blur and contrast layers until I liked the look.
- TRA Dirt Bag, multiply blend mode at 17% opacity
- TRA Antique Tone layer (not quite sepia)
- Added an antique border blended over a black background
- Put a texture layer over the border and picture, soft light blend mode @20% opacity

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tkbslc wrote in post #7415935
Can I just ask what is the significance of this boat? I was watching CSI NY while running on the treadmill today and one of the cut scenes had this exact boat. Made me do a double take.

Just a tugboat -- he is attached to that large barge and is helping pull it up river, there is one more tugboat that you can't see that is pushing the barge from the side.

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huh, just seems like quite a coincedence that the first two times I have seen a tugboat like that were in the same 48hr period.

You all are killing me!!

Really great edits everybody -- It's tough choice...

tkbslc -- this is close to what I did with it as well, a nice well balanced edit.
MarineMechanic -- Wish you had included what you did other than crop it -- the crop is not a bad idea.
frenchfx - Sweet edit and I really like it - nice job on bringing out the details and the crop works great.
MJA -- I love the change in mood here -- another sweet edit.
Ocron - I hear ya on trying to bring something out of this -- I crummy somewhat foggy day and mid day at that. NIce job - the sepia works well.

Hate to choose one as they are all wonderful but this is going to MJA -- Congrats!

Congrats Mike, that is a great edit. I especially like how the sky turned out.

Thanks, it took a few hours to do but even I was surprised with the results. I will have the next one up shortly.

ETA: Ocron, what is TRA?

MJA wrote in post #7425001
ETA: Ocron, what is TRA?

It's Totally Rad Actions. http://www.gettotallyr​ad.com/ I like them because all of the layers (for the most part) are left in place so you can customize them. A bunch of them are available as free samples.

MJA - gorgeous edit. best i have seen yet on this forum

Wow, I miss a few weeks and this is what you guys come up with. Fantastic edits everyone!!