Before & After #198

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 #199".

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

Have a happy and safe 4th of July everybody

This round will end Saturday July 4th at 6PM EST.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

Lightroom 2:
Cropped
Added contrast
Sharpened a bit
Clarity to +100

Photoshop CS3:
Borderd

Duplicated background
Levels and hue/saturation adjustments.
Created speed lines on separate picture and imported into bird pic. Reduced opacity to blend in
Erased unwanted speed lines.
Cropped and sharpened

CS4 - straighten & crop
selected bird into its own layer - adjusted brightess, contrast and highlights
Selected and inserted water and fishing people from another photo - tranformed to size, color balance, contrast and brightness adjusted.
layer effects - stoked, bevel and emboss.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

This was just for fun and I'd have to write a book how I did it !

This was the original piece I started with, just goof'n around !

Inspired by airshows.....

Cropped and straightened
added contrast
sharpened edges
unsharp mask
magnetic lassoo
layers by copy

Happy 4th all!

in PSE6:

Levels adjustment
Level horizon a little more
Nik bi-color filter
changed resolution to 300ppi
Nike define 2.0 noise removal
Crop

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

This looks hideous (really it does), but I've been messing around with Fractalius a bit and wanted to try it on this.

Basically:

Desaturated background - levels, curves
New Glow filter.
Bird cropped out, then Fractilized - re-colored red.
Sometimes it's good to try these, simply to learn what DOESN'T work.

Happy birthday America!

Here is my interpratation:

PS3:

background copy-filter-high pass-5.0 pixels-soft light-100% opacity.

adjustment layer-gradient map-b&w.

adjustment layer-levels-auto.

adjustment layer-curves-2 point s curve.

flatten layers-rotate 1.5 ccw-crop.

background copy-filters-Neat Image plugin.

device noise profile on trees- noise levels-+70 lum channels-+75 chrom channels-noise reduction amount-+55 lum channels-+100 chrom channels-sharpening amount +30-apply.

save as jpeg, and enter contest.

Well you all did pretty good on this crappy picture!! Seems that's the way summer is going to stay around here... hazy and ugly


Masterwilliams -- interesting crop and I think you handled the haze okay, could rotate it a bit I think

NigelD -- another interesting crop and the lines is a cool idea, think maybe a little noise reduction on the background would have helped here.

Timphoto -- nice job on replacing the water and adding the fisherpeople I like the way you handled the background here as well.

Douglas -- Whoa - hey you trying to blind me or what Interesting take on it but really the blinding yellow is just a tad much, I like the sun/terns a lot though!

ColinUK -- not bad on the copy/paste action there, horizon is still tilted a bit.

MJA -- Nice go at it -- I don't have NIK but I think a different gradient for the bottom would have worked better.

Kendoway -- Chris I've played with a demo of fractalus and think you could have done much better! Still a very interesting take on it

JasonC -- very nice edit, I like the crop and the way you handled the haze/background, B&W works well here.

All very nice considering the initial image -- Thanks for taking a go at it everybody!

The Winner is JasonC - Nice job and Congrats.

Congratulations Jason! The B&W looks great.

Well done Jason!

Oh my, this is a suprise. I'm looking at all of the other entries and saying to myself, "this is some really good stuff, should I just wait till next round?"

Thank you very much Monty, and everyone else who submitted some cool creative entries.

I will have B&A #199 up shortly, I am researching past contests and will rumage through my archives for the next round.

Once again, thank you.

Jason C

On second thought, and checking my schedule, I will wait to post the next round of Before & After #199 until tomorrow, July 5 2009 at 5:00 PST. That way, I'll be available to judge and declare the next winner. I have the image ready to go...

So, next round up tomorrow at 5:00 PST.

Thank you

Jason C