Before & After #222A

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 #223".

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

Contest ends 2pm BST on Monday the 28th.

Increase contrast slightly overall in curves.
Used Selective color to increase saturation in graffiti
burned darker areas even darker
sharpened selectively with sharpen tool

16X9 HD crop
Vibrancy
Tonal contrast
Black point

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1. crop
2. black and white adjustment with blending mode "soft light" (you can use bw auto, but i try to find something more)
3. masking only color graffiti
4. black and white adjustment with blending mode "soft light"
5. masking only background graffiti (that bw graffiti)
6. vibrance +40-50
7. saturation -30 masking only background
8. photo filter dark brown with blending mode "overlay", opacity 30-40% (same mask in 7.)
9. curves take contras off from that photo filter
10. surface blur and mask graffiti off
11. lasso graffiti -> levels darken a bit and mask feather to 50-70px
12. curves bring more light.

Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

CS2 - Levels, Color, Contrast, Curves x's 2, Color Balance, Channel Mixer, Brightness/Contrast, Saturate Tool, Burn Tool
Water Layer - Exposure/Gamma, Saturation Tool
Clone
Unsharp Mask
Vignette
Overlay Spotlight lighting effects, 30% Opacity, Sharpen Tool

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for my go.

Levels for exposure.
curves for contrast
curves again, but on seperate chanels. Red= drastic S curve, same with green and blue chanels. ( for a more Acid effect)
color balance
Hue and sat pumped up sat to my tase
selective coloring for the reds in the brick, and the blues in the paint.
and a new layer<fill with black<blendmode<softligt..from there with the eraser tool set to 30% and flow to 40% i created a sloppy vignette.
USM 68% 4 radius, and 18% threshold.

First time in Before and After

Copied layer twice so never worked on original layer.
Used quick selection tool to select all but coloured graffiti.
Desaturated selection.
used the rubber to try make sure all blue around the words was showing
Desaturated the layer underneath.
Used the rubber and sponge (desaturate and saturate) tool to tidy up on the 2 layers.
Resized image to 800px on longest edge.

Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

Duplicated layer, levels in LAB Colour mode, edit/transform/skew & distort to straighten out, Duplicated layer again and changed to soft light mode, selected pathway and below and adjusted levels slightly, made border & stroke and sharpened using high pass filter.

Here is my entry since a while:

Cropped
Allot of selective coloring :P
Copied the colored text and flipped it, added a cheesy photoshop water ripple and voila:

Just having my usual mischievous fun and forcing myself to try something new (I’m easily bored ).

• Pasted the graffiti, new layer, lassoed out the wall.
  
• Fixed the black brick lines on the left (cloning).
  
• Shaved my arm.
  
• Shot my arm with a S5IS several times, including the can.
  
• Crops, levels, curves, USM.
  
• Took a shot of myself at about 30 degrees (timer).
  
• Lassoed myself – levels, curves, blur, saturation, USM.
  
• Combined layers, added some blurring here and there.
  
• Distorted and warped the graffiti until I was happy with it.
  
• Foreground blurring.
  
• Legs reflection on the glass.
  

Cs3
Some Nik Filters
Dodge And Burn
Levels
And some other non sense.

Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

"urban clean-up"

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by FLICKR

Wow, what a lot of great entries; I've really got my work cut out for me!

I shall try to write something vaguely constructive for all of you...

chrisa - Nice and subtle; it's a nice edit

Flo - For some reason I was instantly drawn to the colour of the plants. Something about the colours just kind of works... That goes for the whole thing as well.

lospallos - I like the colours, but the crop really doesn't work for me - with the graffiti at the bottom, the brickwork at the top just seems like empty space.

Lore - Possibly a bit over-saturated for my taste, although that's not to say I don't like it. The colours in the reflection work really well.

shannyD - Looks sort of retro to me. Part of me likes the saturation and colours; part of me wishes there was a bit more contrast between the graffiti and the wall.

Data - Welcome to the game. This is pretty much what I intended to do when I took the photo. I think I'd like it a lot more if the paint were desaturated a bit; as it is it sort of looks to me as it the graffiti is floating a couple of feet in front of the wall. Maybe that's just me...

NigelD - Not sure if it's the sharpening or the skewing, but something just makes it look a little overdone, like an image that's been zoomed in way too far. That said, nice work with straightening it out.

masterwillems - The ripple effect is a lot of fun. Something about the perspective of the reflection doesn't quite convince me

Kendoway - This one made me giggle. That's some serious effort you've gone to, rather than just sitting in front of your computer! If these were won by simple commitment to the cause, you would have this hands down!

Luke J. Photography - Lovely use of the darkness to draw the eye to the graffiti (and get rid of that annoying blue litter..!)

Jason C - Nice work with the cloning. I can sort of see you've done it, but I probably couldn't do any better! Unfortunately, without the graffiti I find the picture a little boring. Kudos for the urban regeneration project, though


So, after much hard thinking, I'm going to give this one to Luke J. Photography, with an honourable mention to Kendoway for going above and beyond the call of duty!


Here's my version; I used the GIMP's C2G function and a soft-light layer mode for the wall, along with lots of other things which I have long since forgotten!

You all rock - nice entries everybody!

Congrats Luke!

Man, you guys are good!