Before & After #208

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 #209".

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

This game will end Monday August 10th at 3:30PM CST

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Just come across this thread today and thought I join in for better or worse

All edits in LR. White balannce, exposure/brightness, curves, cropped, mono conversion, six gradiant filters, local (-) exposure brush over face/arm highlights, duo toned, various spot fixes for skirting board nails / distracting items on wall/curtains.

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Newbie Here, still waiting on my DSLR to come in the mail, shipped yesterday, but have been getting a head start while I was waiting for the right time!

Desaturation/Curves/Co​lors/Vignette/Unsharp Mask/Lowered the Harshness of the Window Light but took it up a bit on his face..

I seem to have a bit of a blue/green tone that I wasn't able to get rid of unless I went back to square 1 but hey this is a learning experience for me..

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In PS, multiply 3 duplicated layers, then adjust layer BW, masked curve to dark some area, put one duplicated layers (with color) on the top, and using soft light mode, reduce noise, vignette.

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Edits: Selective color(to adjust white balance), Hue/saturation(yellow lightness +100, cyans lightness -66,blue hues -38), Portraiture plugin(glamour), noiseware(full noise reduction)

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-Sharpened
-Used Hue and Saturation to tone down the yellows (sorry don't have exact numbers)
-Used Nik Viveza
-Added a bit more contrast
-Brightened

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CS3 edit:

dup layer/HP @ 15/overlay/invert to soften/mask eyes and mouth/6 point s curve-strong lower-weak upper/levels/color balance/desaturate -80/merge/eliptical tool/feather/invert/le​vels opacity @ 25%/flaten/crop/dup layer/warming filter @ 10%/flaten/canvas x3 for frame/resize/save/post​.

Jason C

Rotate/Crop
curves black, mid , white
USM
lab mode - lightness -> grayscale

HOSTED PHOTO
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Adjusted colour temperature in Camera RAW,
straighten and crop
LAB colour tweak
Vignette, Sharpen, gaussian blur/mask/bring back face and skin

Again, just challenging myself to something new so I thought it might be fun to try one of those cheap supplements that show up in the Sunday paper or "People Magazine'.

Lore Lad 1: Levels, Saturation, unsharp mask, high pass filter.
Lore Lad 2: Liquify tool to produce frown.
The Rest: MS Word, Adobe Illustrator, Downloads, Screen grabs, Photoshop. About 150-200 steps.

Oh, and for the love of god, please don't call the 800 number. It's fake - I have no idea who you will actually reach

OMG. that's toooooo funny!

GregSteer wrote in post #8417490
Just come across this thread today and thought I join in for better or worse

All edits in LR. White balannce, exposure/brightness, curves, cropped, mono conversion, six gradiant filters, local (-) exposure brush over face/arm highlights, duo toned, various spot fixes for skirting board nails / distracting items on wall/curtains.

I asked my Son who is in this photo which he liked best, in his 5 year old opinion, he liked this one best. It has an interesting look... kinda mysterious in a way... nice edit.

Fred Eric Norris wrote in post #8417620
Newbie Here, still waiting on my DSLR to come in the mail, shipped yesterday, but have been getting a head start while I was waiting for the right time!

Desaturation/Curves/Co​lors/Vignette/Unsharp Mask/Lowered the Harshness of the Window Light but took it up a bit on his face..

I seem to have a bit of a blue/green tone that I wasn't able to get rid of unless I went back to square 1 but hey this is a learning experience for me..

Nice edit here... it 'does' seem that the shadow under the chair ended up green, but that doesnt seem to bother me too much, fantastic edit.

bdbox wrote in post #8419556
In PS, multiply 3 duplicated layers, then adjust layer BW, masked curve to dark some area, put one duplicated layers (with color) on the top, and using soft light mode, reduce noise, vignette.

hmmm, not to sure about this edit, not sure if this is how it looks on your screen or if this was the look you were going for perhaps, but its awfully dark.

toin9898 wrote in post #8420004
Edits: Selective color(to adjust white balance), Hue/saturation(yellow lightness +100, cyans lightness -66,blue hues -38), Portraiture plugin(glamour), noiseware(full noise reduction)

very 'soft filter' looking & dream'esc' very intesting edit, well done.

BitterSweet wrote in post #8423473
-Sharpened
-Used Hue and Saturation to tone down the yellows (sorry don't have exact numbers)
-Used Nik Viveza
-Added a bit more contrast
-Brightened

The colors are very well done here, my only gripe would be that you could have taken it further and cloned out the scrape on the wall and perhaps the nail holes on the wood with this being a 'portrait' type photo, other wise, very well done.

Jason C wrote in post #8425594
CS3 edit:

dup layer/HP @ 15/overlay/invert to soften/mask eyes and mouth/6 point s curve-strong lower-weak upper/levels/color balance/desaturate -80/merge/eliptical tool/feather/invert/le​vels opacity @ 25%/flaten/crop/dup layer/warming filter @ 10%/flaten/canvas x3 for frame/resize/save/post​.

Jason C

I like the muted colors, too bad about the 'halo' effect that happened, nice edit.

monty28428 wrote in post #8427192
Rotate/Crop
curves black, mid , white
USM
lab mode - lightness -> grayscale

B&W is my favorite, infact it IS the way I went with this photo myself, although I dodged the shadow on his nose by his eye & hit it with more contrast, good edit however.

NigelD wrote in post #8427669
Adjusted colour temperature in Camera RAW,
straighten and crop
LAB colour tweak
Vignette, Sharpen, gaussian blur/mask/bring back face and skin

PP blurring is always a risk, sometimes it works nicely, somtimes not, in this it looks abit odd with just his face being so sharp, nice edit tho.

Kendoway wrote in post #8430351
Again, just challenging myself to something new so I thought it might be fun to try one of those cheap supplements that show up in the Sunday paper or "People Magazine'.

Lore Lad 1: Levels, Saturation, unsharp mask, high pass filter.
Lore Lad 2: Liquify tool to produce frown.
The Rest: MS Word, Adobe Illustrator, Downloads, Screen grabs, Photoshop. About 150-200 steps.

Oh, and for the love of god, please don't call the 800 number. It's fake - I have no idea who you will actually reach

LOL!!!!!!!! OOOOOOoooH! This is GREAT! Thank you for the wonderful laugh! This is fantastic! I keep seeing this Liquify tool pop up now and then, I have cs2, do I have this? I would love to give it a wirl some time. Awesome edit

B&A 208 goes to BitterSweet!

& here is how I edited the photo the day I took it & how I shared it on my Facebook with my friends.

Congrats Tracey - as always, an awesome edit!

Props to my fellow peeps and homies for the usual great work! Swell edits all

Lore - if you have CS2, you do indeed have the Liquify tool. It's under Filters, probably the 4th or 5th command down "Liquify". When you bring it up, it's not really a filter at all. Look in the upper left hand side of the screen - and you'll see some icons for Twirl, Pucker, Bloat - etc. Hellishly insane tool, I almost never touch it. Cheers

Nice looking natural edit Tracey well done.

Congrats Tracey!!

Nice edits everybody -- Chris you gave me a great laugh today!