Before and After 333

This game is to help those of us who are trying to learn new editing tricks.

Here's the breakdown of the game. I will post a picture, re-sized to exactly 1000 pixels maximum on the long side. Outside of being re-sized 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 4 Days (96 hrs) 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 #334".

This game will end at 7:00pm GMT Thursday December, 30th. Have fun and enjoy.

Here is a link to a larger sized file :- http://www.flickr.com …/35528148@N00/5​292976030/

LR2 - crop, several graduated filters (colored/exposure/clar​ity), exposure brush
CS2 - Gamma on water, USM on house, saturation sponge in various areas

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Tried to learn dynamic lighting and fancy cloud ray effects, but got frustrated. Ended up doing some basic dodging burning, exposure, and sky replacement

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Rotated, selected uper half, desaturation, turned upside down, blur od bw, rotate vertical 180 degrees.

I'll play!
Here's my go at it:
Adjusted levels and brightened the photo little
straightened
bumped the sharpness and clarity
added a blue sky and added blue to the reflection so it matched
warmed up the image overall to match the sunny sky
did some selective saturation to make the greens pop a little more

tried to give the image a kinda early morning sunrise look complete with a little fog

- straightened image and cloned in some of the edge areas so I didn't loose too much of the original image

- punched up the sky a little with a orange gradient and added a sun flare to the right side of the sky

- sharpened the main house and parts of the bridge

- added some contrast to the image and masked in some fog

I always start by duplicating the original
USM to sharpen
curves adjustment
used "black" and a cloud brush to create clouds on a new layer
copied cloud layer and created 2nd cloud layer
I then flipped the 2nd cloud layer to have cloud image in the water
erased parts that did not need a cloud (ie: on the building, trees)
I then painted sky and water with a blue at about 50% opacity on a new layer
cleaned up with eraser tool the blue layer
merged and duplicated pic, changed duplicate layer to multiply to darken sky
merged and duplicated pic, changed layer to screen at 15% opacity
merged, used dodge/burn tool to burn some trees
created layer for black border, flattened, saved.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/21905076@N04/5​301381131/

Leveled horizon.
Cropped image to 16x9 format.
Utilized Topaz Adjust "Mansion" (custom developed) preset
Adjusted levels.
Applied NIK Efex "Glamor Glow" to break the pixelation in the sky.

HOSTED PHOTO
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Well not bad considering the festivities - thanks for all those that joined in.

Lore: Pretty much how I ended up with it but would have cropped the excess greenery from the RH side.
xHassassin: Certainly more dramatic - sky looks better.
surgeonhawkeye: Prefer the orientation from the left. Quite moody this with the desaturation - not sure about completely desaturating the shadow/lake though.
FamilyJules: Natural edit with a better sky than I had on the day.
Palladium: Nice attempt at early morning
jb2u: Very strong drama going on here, perhaps just a tad too much but like it.
Woolburr: Nicely straightened. Sky doesn't match the reflection unfortunately and some of the colour seems a bit muted.

My winner this week for the best natural edit goes to FamilyJules with close second jb2u.

Over to you FamilyJules.

Congratulations FamilyJules

Awesome! Thanks so much
I am actually going to be away for the next 2 days... I'm packing now and will be out in the mornin'.... any way that I can pass this one on to the runner up?
I'm so sorry. I didn't time this one right, haha

FamilyJules wrote in post #11545489
Awesome! Thanks so much
I am actually going to be away for the next 2 days... I'm packing now and will be out in the mornin'.... any way that I can pass this one on to the runner up?
I'm so sorry. I didn't time this one right, haha

OK - have a good break.

jb2u - can you take over as runner up please.

334 is up. have fun!!