Before & After #227

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 #228".

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

Contest ends 12 Noon on Monday the 19th.
2336x3504 img - http://www.eideticmemo​ries.com/ba227lg.jpg

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Photoshop CS4

Healing Brush over few skin blemishes
Copy Layer x2
Set top layer to Screen
Merged down
Copy Layer again
Gaussian Blur
Set Layer to Multiply

Light Room 2.5
Adjustment Brush -Exposure on the dress just to bring some detail back

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Duplicated background. Used threshold for black white and grey point and adjusted levels. LAB mode colour boost. New layer, fill 50% grey and selectively darken and lighten eyes, teeth and dress
Crop
High pass filter to sharpen. Flatten and post

Camera RAW: recover highlights, adjust skin tones, vignetting
PS:
select background to new layer: gaussian blur
select head and arms to new layer: heal skin imperfections
copy layer: recover skin shadows
copy layer: gaussian blur; mask with picture itself, tweak mask with curves and then with dodge and burn to retain details.
on the whole picture: desaturate greens

HOSTED PHOTO
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Opened in Camera Raw 5.4
Temperature +2, Tint -8 (adjustment to minimize blown highlights on dress)
Recovery 76, Fill 35, Vibrance +12
Opened in CS4
Some dodging and burning.
Selected and adjusted background for hue, saturation.
Copied background layer, Fliter - Blur - Gaussian Blur, layer mask, selected bride, applied at about 30% opacity.
A little Liquify filter and some healing brush applied to the underarm area.

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I hate saying what I did to the image; it makes it sound like I have any clue what I'm doing.
But, here goes:

Curves adjustment layer
Solid color adjustment layer light tan/yellow, lowered opacity
SCAL, dark blue, lowered opacity
Curves again
Burn dress to attempt to recover blown highlights (largely unsuccessful), other burning on flowers and elsewhere
Dodge face and some shadows
SCAL for contrast enhancement: black, soft light, lower opacity
Skin smoothing and re-touching, see here: http://www.christyschu​ler.com/retouching.swf
A few other things I tried; some were rejected and some kept, not sure which. Definitely burned the BG some.
Vignette
Re-size
Sharpen slightly.

ACR - wb, exposure and highlights reduction
CS3 - crop, usm 20,60,0, clone stamp texture into blown out areas on chest, blur/clone tool on white background, duplicate layer + blur + mask.

HOSTED PHOTO
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Here's my version:
Healing Brush & Clone tool on face
Dupe layer & dodge eyes, dodge/burn/saturate eyes, add catch light, then mask to show only eyes
Dodging shadowy areas on face
Shadow/Highlight, then apply image with soft light w/mask to recover highlights
Whiten teeth with selective color
Soften facial skin with dupe layer, high pass, invert, overlay, then mask off for facial skin only
Glow effect: dupe layer, gauss 20, overlay, curves to tone up shadows and tone down highlights
Soft focus effect: Dupe original layer, gauss 20, reduce opacity to 30%, mask to remove effect from eyes, nose, mouth
Sharpen (self-made action) too many steps to list, but basically masking edges and using unsharp mask.
Vignette using lasso tool, feather, dupe, color burn

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GIMP:
Duplicated layer twice, screen mode on upper, merge down
Duplicated this, multiply mode, Gaussian blur radius 100, merge down
Duplicated again(!), played with channel mixer to greyscale
Masked out flowers on B+W layer
Blurred layer beneath, set to colour mode
Vignette, 20% opacity
Resized to 1024px

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Sorry for the delay, had to rake the leaves ... I'm exausted... so... sorry for the lack of individual lore c&c I have 10 mins to relax and drink water before I have to go pick up my kiddos from school....

marcoj70 takes this round - you best took care of what I found what most took away from this photo & that was the heavy shadows in her eyes... live & learn... pay attention to that sun I also even like the desaturated background & over all look... my husband said she looked plastic... I personally didnt think so...

Anywho, great job everyone... I look forward to 228 marco, take it away

marcoj70 wrote in post #8845021
Camera RAW: recover highlights, adjust skin tones, vignetting
PS:
select background to new layer: gaussian blur
select head and arms to new layer: heal skin imperfections
copy layer: recover skin shadows
copy layer: gaussian blur; mask with picture itself, tweak mask with curves and then with dodge and burn to retain details.
on the whole picture: desaturate greens

Nice job marcoj70. Good work everyone.

Data - great minds think alike... inspiration from Digital Photography School?

Congratulations marcoj70. Nice job!

spitfire23bc, I got the idea from another forum though was not Digital Photography School. Just the way recent discussions there have gone.

Everyone, Nice entries, Well done all

Nice edit marcoj70. Good job everyone.

Congrats marco!!

Well done everybody!

Marco - great job and congrats! Super entries everyone.

I totally got hung up on this one (for no reason at all), as I really wanted to remove the shadow under her nose. I tried EVERY TRICK I knew (spot healing, cloning, patching) to try and remove that shadow and just couldn't pull it off. Every time, I'd end up with something that just didn't look natural - but I'd be curious to see how a professional would tackle that task (if they would even try at all).

It's a great shot Lore, and you did a nice save even with bright mid-day sun to work with.

Here's the "shadow mustache" I couldn't get rid of