Before & After (Game)

[Hype]

Before & After.

This game will be for everyone, It really does not matter if you are skilled at post processing or just trying to learn. This is only for fun so join in :)

Here is what will happen, Someone will post an image taken straight from the camera. By this I mean with no post processing. You can post any image even if its used in other games.

Everyone else will edit the photo. They can do things from simply adjusting levels, Maybe even a crop of the image or full blown edits including adding things to the image or if they so wish taking things away.

NOTE: Only ONE entry per person per game.

Once they have edited the image to where they are happy they can then post it along with some details about the process of what they have done to the image. This way people can learn from others work.

The game will last for 1 Week after the original image is posted.

After the above time frame the person that posted the original unedited image will then have 48 hours to judge all entries.

The judge can pick the winner purely on what they like and then announce the winner here.

The winner will then post an unedited image and the game starts again.

If the Judge does not reach a decision with in the above time frame then someone else can step in as a guest judge but can NOT pick their own edit.

RULES:
By posting in this thread you are giving permission for others to edit and repost your images.

Only post images that you have taken or have full rights to use. Do not steal other peoples images and post them here as your own.

Do not discuss anything posted here within this thread, That way we can keep it easy to follow.

If you wish to discuss it then please use the Before & After discussion thread. :)


If the rules are not quite clear enough and you wish to ask questions then please send me a pm and I will answer your questions.

Here is the first image :)
______________________________________________

Click here for full size image. (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2770/4032411858_495c0696b8_o.jpg)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2770/4032411858_9a7f4aa2b1_b.jpg

[sorted]

Ok Hi Steve not had much practice at editing but here we go !!!
I know this will look awfull to many people but Sorry i like it.:mad: Just took it out to greyscale and spot filled it with colour ????
Elaine

[verikos]

This game sounds great! Here's my attempt:

Apart from the obvious crop, I.....

1. darkened the highlights
2. slightly increased the saturation
3. increased the blacks
4. decreased clarity
5. increased the contrast

using a mixture of PS Elements and Lightroom.

[coffee]

1. Made three copies of original EC of -3/0/+2.
2. Created a HDR with very light effects.
3. Brought into PS and cleaned up noise.
4. Cloned out distracting spots, and far right paper next to tree trunk.
5. Adjusted the big three. levels/curves/saturation.
6. Burned some areas to bring out some colorful branches.
7. Applied the Orton Affect. A very light layer. Didn't want to take too much away from the nicely sharpened shot.
8. Cropped to better composition in wider format.

[DoctorJazz]

I'll give it a try.
Cropped and decreased exposure -0.25
Increased blacks +25, Contrast +28, Clarity +48, Vibrance +13
Red: Increased saturation +27 and Luminance +29
Orange: Decreased hue -10, Saturation -6, and Luminance -13
Blue: added piece of blue sky: Increased saturation +100,
Decreased hue -8, and Luminance -25

Shadows: created pink shade, increased Saturation +19
No change in sharpening or anything else.

All in Lightroom2.

[Kaye]

I will have to give it a quick try as I enjoy these games, thanks to Steve.

Adjusted Levels
Adjusted hue slightly for more Autumn affect
Darkened reds thru Selective colour
Brightness -5 Contrast +4
Exposure +.2, offset -.01
Cloned out the white "thing" under the tree on right and also a small white thing on left.
Used burn tool on chair to darken a little.
When nearly complete, was not happy, so:
Used Shadow/Highlight and adjusted accordingly.

3358

[Hype]

Before & After #1

And the winner is . . . . Joseph.

Congratulations!

I just loved your edit. Loved your colours and the crop worked very well.

As for the rest. Thanks guys for taking part I loved all your edits. Just Joseph's one stood out the most to me.

Now. Over to you Joseph :)

[coffee]

Thanks Hype for giving me the ball. Here is an out of camera shot of a Indian Head sculpture at one of our parks in Minneapolis. Contest will end this time on Tuesday afternoon. And remember, ANY edit is allowed as long as it meets PP's criteria on image content. Go crazy.

http://www.proudphotography.com/gallery/watermark.php?file=11574&size=1

[Hype]

Haha, Sorry Joseph, I think I ruined your photo but it was great fun :D

I was just editing away then got carried away :D

Its a shame I never had an image of someone with more native clothes on.

Photoshop CS4
Duplicated layer so never to work on original.
I used auto tone,colour and contrast.
Opened a photo of my uncle.
Copied it and pasted to a new layer in your image.
Removed background with a simple eraser.
Duplicated layer 2 times and resized and positioned to give total of 3 people.

Removed face with paint brush and used burn tool to darken.

I repeated process to copy mask.

Cheated slightly and used a free action I got from the internet, not sure where from but the action is called Colored_VintagePhoto by JennyW. Maybe a google search will bring up the action.

Used dodge and burn in a few spots.

Here is the image.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2730/4044527998_5de3d40a11_o.jpg

[DoctorJazz]

A Face in the Woods.

Happy Halloween.

Combination of Painting effects and Lightroom2.

[verikos]

Ok, here goes:
adjusted tonal range using curves
created a layer mask and applied a zoom blur
brushed out the face to bring back the sharpness and streaked the blur (I decided that there was too much zoom blur)

Thought it needed something different at this stage so:
used Ink Outline (under Brush Strokes filter) in Elements using
1, 9 ,4 in the options
added lighting effect (spotlight).

I'm no expert at this, but I love playing around in Photoshop!!

[coffee]

I like all the edits of the head sculpture, thanks everyone for posting. The winner is............Denise. I love the affect you put on the image. Ok Denise, your turn to post up. Congrats.

[verikos]

Thank you so much Joseph, I'm glad you liked it! So now it's my turn to post eh......

The following picture was taken in the summer, on the west coast of Greece. It's supposed to be a 'sunset' shot but I have obviously over exposed it. Hopefully someone out there can inject some creativity into it. I look forward to your edits.:) BTW, does everyone agree on the 48 hours turnaround or should it be extended?? Maybe I should bring this up in the 'discussion' thread.
Click here for large image (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3486/4055099673_43f6860e5a_b.jpg)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3486/4055099673_43f6860e5a.jpg

[DoctorJazz]

Help......can't find Denise's image.

[verikos]

Can you see it now DJ?

[DoctorJazz]

Thanks Denise....this should be fun!

[DoctorJazz]

Brought out the color and drama in the sky with the Recovery and Fill Light
modes in Lightroom 2 and just tweaked the color tones to bring out the blue
boat. I think the colors add to the overall stormy atmosphere.

[eyerkish]

Nicely done, DoctorJazz, I like what you did with it. Here's my edit, Denise.

I isolated the sky and did an auto level and auto color modification. I adjusted the curves along slightly tweaking the shadows and highlights. Finally, I went with a manual color balance to bring out hopefully a more dramatic look. I then inverted my selection and adjusted the highlights in the water and did a manual color balance to bring out a bit more green in the water.

[Kaye]

Just to be a little different.... my version of an "Arctic storm"

- I selected the sky and then Auto Levels
- Then "inverted" the sky
- Selected remainder of pic - "inverted"
- Used "shadow/highlight" to bring out the texture of the rocks a little
- Altered contrast / brightness slightly
- Enhanced the red in the boat thru "Selective Colour"
- Used dodge tool to brighten waves slightly and a touch on the rocks
- Slightly smudged the horizon a little to cover a few marks and also to add a sort of "infinity" affect.

3427

[dkippen]

Here's my version:

Adjusted Hue/Saturation/Lightness
Added Canvas Texture

[verikos]

Thanks for all your edits, it was difficult to choose, I loved all of them. But there must be only one winner. Congratulations to .......... Kaye! I loved your edit - really creative and totally different to how I remember the scene. A real 'arctic' feel!

Over to you Kaye!

[Kaye]

Thanks so much Denise. I enjoy editing to learn, but did not expect this!! OK, my turn.....

Below is a shot taken on the mid north coast, New South Wales, Australia. At the end of this long long jetty, one can find the beach.... It is a long walk !

http://www.proudphotography.com/gallery/watermark.php?file=11597&size=1

[DoctorJazz]

First I edited in Lightroom2 by increasing the contrast, clarity, and detail.
I tweaked colors and thought they were pretty, but the Sepia effect added
an ageless/timeless quality which I can see in the beauty of the area.

So here it is.

[verikos]

Ok, I thought I would give a few tweaks here and there!

I didn't make too many changes, only adjusted exposure, tonal range, contrast. Cropped the image so that the person would hit the spot for 'rule of thirds', and added a gradient to the sky.

Is nobody else playing???????????????

[Hype]

Lightroom 2.5
Created 5 exposures
Merged all 5 with Lightroom plugin Enfuse
Added some fill light.

Photoshop CS4
Run the image through photomatix plugin.
Then through Topaz Adjust.

Kind of found it hard not too sure if its just a low quality image posted or something I did wrong :(

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2686/4071707556_d2c84272f0_o.jpg

[Kaye]

Thanks guys for your entries. I do like them all, but must choose one. I am choosing DoctorJazz for the edit which is most different to my original scene, with the sepia affect.

Over to you now doctor Jazz.

[DoctorJazz]

Thanks Kaye! I'm honored to be picked! Here's mine.....I would love to see
versions of this photo.......talk to you in a week.....

[coffee]

Re: Before & After (Game)

[Hype]

Cropped
Curves
Levels
Saturation
Cloned out white flower heads by horses legs
couple of other little things but forget what :)

[verikos]

1. Cropped
2. Played around in Dynamic Photo and used one of the presets to alter the colouring. (I did play around in LR for a while but just didn't get the effect that I was looking for - so I cheated!!)

[DoctorJazz]

OK the week is up........Thank you everyone for the edits. I loved all the versions.
I'm picking Hype for the emphasis on the backlight which is one of my favorite things about the photo (aside from the horse of course)....your edit does such a
nice job of enhancing that aspect. I tend to like the uncropped version, but
still really like what you've done.

Many Thanks! You're on Steve!

[Hype]

Well, Thank you very much, Never expected that.

Here is another for you all. (My Nephew)

Click HERE (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2779/4109394863_5d48a80393_o.jpg) for large Image

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2779/4109394863_d3e2442bba_b.jpg

[MelGarratt91]

I'm new at using PS.. really want to learn how to use it properly and as well as you all are. But thought i'd give it a stab anyway, got to start somewhere..

Thought the bright colours in this are great, so wanted to bring them out, and of course your nephew and his lovely smile.

Erm, can't remember fully what i did, because i undid and redid so many things trying to figure it all out - but changed contrast/vibrance.. used the sponge tool.. ermm, i'm sorry i can't remember much! i'm sure you all already know more about how i did it than i probably do.

[DoctorJazz]

Great photo.....just cropped a bit to get rid of sky.
Brightened red, yellow and blues a bit.
Increased contrast a little. Toned down the fence in the background, and the label
on the bench up front.
Decreased the clarity of those rocks(?) in the back, and the last swing.

Love the smile and the expression in his eyes.....nothing to change there!

[Kaye]

READY FOR TAKE OFF.... in my new bubble space rocket, with the help of my co-pilot, who is currently have a nap....

I did this over a couple of days, and will now describe as best as I remember, as I tried many things. (This is a good way to learn PS).

- Blurred background a touch with Guassian blur.
- Selected your son with Magic Lassoo Tool.
- Then altered background layer - Filter - Distort - Spherize - Plastic Wrap.
- Layer (with your son selected - Filter - distort - Shear(I think) to get him to the right hand side, as his arm was thru the ropes which looked strange in my version. I did not really expect to come up with another little version of your son in bubble wrap, but that is what I got.
So I settled for that after some time researching some of the different PS features in "Filter".

3573

[Hype]

Thanks for the entries, Some great work done here as usual.

@Kaye
Congratulations, Your the winner. I liked what you did though I think would of been a touch better if the bigger copy of my nephew was kept in perspective.

Again, Thank you all for the great work you ALL put in to your versions.

Over to you Kaye.

[Kaye]

Thank you so much Steve. I really was not expecting this as I went a bit crazy just trying out new things on Photoshop, particularly in "Filter".
I agree with your comment about the bigger copy of your nephew would have been better in perspective to your nephew behind, but trying to alter things from the point I arrived at became difficult and I decided it was too hard!!

For those who have not played this game, it is honestly the best practice to learn things about your post-editing software, whether it be Photoshop or similar. Just give it a go and have fun and let your ideas go crazy.....

I will attach my photo which I think is a poor quality original, lacking saturation, contrast, poor exposure, etc. There are so many things that you could do to this, even if abstract, just have a go. It is fun.

3600

[Hype]

Lightroom
Created 3 exposures
Blended all 3 together using Lightroom plugin Enfuse.

Photoshop
Curves
Levels
Saturation
Added sky
Slight Dodge & Burn in places
then used my Pic_in_Pic Action (If anyone wants this action there is a download for it on these forums).

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2792/4130918360_7ce86664f8_o.jpg

[DoctorJazz]

Played with exposure and color, cropped right side to remove foliage in foreground
there......not sure of all that happened........I'm sure someone knowledgeable
could clean it up much more. Maybe I shouldn't, but I'll post it.

[Kaye]

Well another week has gone, BUT... we only had 2 entrants!

Thanks so much DocJazz and Steve for participating.

Steve, you are the winner....I do love what you did with the shot itself and especially the border (which I am still trying to work out).

SPECIAL NOTE FROM ME:
I would like to suggest, even though I have chosen Steve (Hype) as the winner; he and I have both had a couple of goes at this, and I would really like to see someone else come forward WHO IS REALLY KEEN TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS GAME, to put forward one of their original shots, as it can be quite fun to see what others can do with your shot, and also, you are the judge and jury at the end. What a great game.


If Steve is happy to relinquish his win and second my suggestion, then I say that the first post received will be THE ONE.
(FINAL DECISION UP TO YOU STEVE as you are still the current winner).

[sorted]

Hi Kaye

That is a really nice suggestion to let people submit a photo:)
If it is Ok with you i would like to submit this Fun Picture that i took in Greece about 5 years ago it is certainly un-edited and was taken in a hurry with my old Digital camera with no knowledge that I have learnt since joining the Forum, It is as you can see a cat helping it self from a Bike with a bag of Fish !!!! and yes he did get one - two before being spotted.:D

Hi Hype
I also noticed that you are in full support of Kaye in her decision to accept another person's photo.:)

If all is Ok with both I have submitted and if not have no problem with removal Xx
You will see everything possible was wrong with the photo Lighting Shadows , background etc so be great to see what could be done with it.

[sorted]

Hi Luiz

Any Editing tools you have that can improve the Photo:)
Hope that is what you meant ??

[DoctorJazz]

Hi sorted,
Can you post a bigger size image? This one is too small. Thanks.

[sorted]

Hi Sorry

Is this any better ?:o

[sorted]

Hi All

Sorry but this is the largest i can get this Old Photo if it is not big enough i will remove and let someone else have a go?

[Kaye]

Hi Elaine and other members,

Firstly, it is better that most discussions in this game be held in Before and After Game (Discussions) to keep the game simple, just showing photo edits.

Elaine. I personally don't believe it matters on the size of the photo for this game, as everyone will be editing the same shot. You were the first to post when this thread was left open to the first Member to post: So you should just leave your photo there, and await some members to do their edits. I will also try to do one if I have time.

I THINK IT WOULD BE GOOD IF MEMBERS EDIT YOUR LAST PIC POSTED BEING THE LATEST & LARGER ONE JUST TO MAKE IT CLEAR. I HAVE POSTED IT AGAIN JUST BELOW.

SO COME ON MEMBERS, START EDITING FOR FUN!

3668

[Hype]

Ok, Wasn't sure where to go with this one so just went for a bit of fun.

Usual curves and levels then just pasted in a new cat.

Hope it puts a smile on your face :)

[sorted]

Hi Hype

Great that is brill love it that is about correct for the photo :) i know it is a bad pic :mad::mad:

[eyerkish]

I wasn't sure what to do with this, either. I had a thought similar to Steve's but decided to play with it a little bit. I apologize that it is not very good.

[Kaye]

I thought I should have a quick go, and hope a few more members follow suit. Here is my version.

I just did the basics: Contrast, Exposure, Saturation, then Sharpen edges, then Sharpen more...
Added quick border to try to accentuate the sharpness. (Please don't look at the "noise"!)

3674

[DoctorJazz]

Here's my attempt- Desaturated, increased blacks and contrast, and cropped
the large bright reflection off the right side. I was going for more of a
silhouette look.

[verikos]

Did the basics first i.e Levels, contrast, darkened shadows, sharpened image. Then applied two actions gratefully rec'd from this forum! Orton effect and pic in pic.

[Pat]

A mirrored mosaic manip.

[StephenK]

An Alfred Hitchcock moment... :^)

[sorted]

Hi Everyone:)

A huge thank you to all.
For a Bad photo I think it has got the fun element in it which I believe is nice for a change.
The winner is going to be so hard to choose as they all have brillant effects and Comedy in some !!love it:)

I also apologise if this has ended a day early only not sure if i will be home in time tomorrow to be on here?.

Ok the Winner is Pat I love the Mosaic Effect and the look of 4 cats :)
Well done So now over to you Pat ;)

Thank you all Once again Xx

[Pat]

Why, thank-you, Elaine.
I'd like to take this opportunity to also thank the Academy, my producer, director and co-stars, mom and dad, various gods and goddesses, and last but certainly not least, my dog, Tarshe and my cats, Binou and Suey.
With little further ado, aside from this aside, on with the proceedings. I have selected, for my entry for your editing pleasure, this portrait of a rather swarthy individual I met one day on the beach. Ok, I actually took him to the beach and just pretended we met there.

[Hype]

Great Shot.

Not really too much to do in terms of processing so I tried some cross processing and then gave it a vignette.

I used a curves adjustment layer to mess about with each colour channel.

I have made the cross processing process an action as I like the outcome. If anyone is interested I'll make another download for it.

Anyways, Here is the picture :)

[DoctorJazz]

I desaturated Captain Morgan (sorry!) and found some highlights in the bottle
to go with the beautiful sky. Tried to bring back some of the detail on the beach, although not quite there. Thanks for the challenge Pat!

[StephenK]

I Loved your bike picture Pat!!

This one was challenging but I finally found an angle I could live with! :^)

[Pat]

Good stuff, Steve. I like a retro look in photos. Nice colour, Sandy. Desaturated is perfectly acceptable. Denatured...not so much. :).
It was a macro shot on the bottle, thus the totally unfocused background.
I should add that I'm hoping for some radical alterations. Add some elements; make it your own; make it tell a story; let your imagination run roughshod. Make it a poster. (This one I won't vote for. ;))

[Pat]

Good one, Stephan. Just what I was talking about. Got a chuckle out of it, too.

[Pat]

OK, just had a look back at the rules. One entry per person.

[Pat]

And without further ardure, the winner is StephanK. Congratulations, Stephan. I liked the show of imagination.
For those of you who haven't delved into the method, it's easy and fun, and here are some tutoarials ( http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=photoshop+montage+techniques&meta=&aq=1&oq=photoshop+montage).
Though they are Photoshop specific, the method should be roughly similar to other Photoshop compatible editors.
Again, congrats, Stephan. What have you got for us?

[StephenK]

Thank you Pat..! :) And I really liked the edit that you did with your picture as well.... it captured the
swashbuckling potential within the image very nicely!!

This photo I'm submitting is among my more favorites of images. It was a quick candid, taken in my backyard as the
buck was raiding the bird-feeders.. The doe stood-by as look-out. The image is raw and unedited, except for sizing.

I love the photo, but the background is busy with superfluous stuff that wouldn't hurt to have removed or
blended-in in some way....

..hence, the challenge begins... tally-ho :^)

[Pat]

Nice deer shot. We have a healthy (relatively speaking) deer population here, too. Small herds of 10 - 12 periodically wander by about 50 ft. from the kitchen window. Unfortunately it's always at night and just inside the periphery of the bush. Thinking of putting out a salt lick to bring them in during daylight when the coyotes aren't kicking up a rumpous.
I thought you were right in that there lay a great pic but for the busy, unasthetic background.
Sooo...
I cloned out the lounge/chair, the poles, and the second feeder.
Went to "Image" - "Adjust Shadows and Highlights" and did just that.
Went to the top of the screen and clicked on "Layer" - "New" - "Layer" and in the options box that appears I named the layer "dodge and burn", selected the soft light mode and clicked on the box for "fill with soft light neautral color. Click "OK".
Dodge and burn on the "dodge and burn" layer with a soft brush, 100% opacity, 7 - 10% flow, spray paint option on. I burned the background bush and dodged the white/light areas on the deer.
Slightly oversharpened a duplicate layer, reduced opacity to about 70% and merged the two layers.
Added a litle saturation, cropped, boosted contrast, and saved.

Somewhere along there I also blurred the background bush.

[DoctorJazz]

I don't know if I can trace my steps on this.....but here it is!

[Kaye]

This is my try:

3834

- Cloned out the chair, the other feeder and poles.
- Selected background in 3 sections.
- Added around 3.2 gaussian blur to each layer of background for DOF, (and also to cover some of the background, as I thought it was too "busy").
- Adjusted layers, brightness, exposure on the deer "my background layer".
- Added my altered version of pic in pic border for some depth - 3D.

[StephenK]

Hmmmmm.... time to decide....:eek:

It would seem the "best" is elusive since all three are wonderful!! So I'm forced to look for a mitigating
quality that would help to break this stubborn three-way tie....

Since this is a "personal" choice on the part of the judge then I have to pick something that appeals to
to my particular neurosis.... I love a good Frame...! And Kaye did a color-balanced version that's darn-near obscene...!!

So I'm going with Kaye on that basis.... otherwise I'd be stuck here scratching my head for a very long time! :^)

So Kaye is the Winner! And is now warmly charged with providing the next image for the next game that's afoot!

Wonderfully done Pat and Sandy!!

Over to you Kaye! :^)

And P.S. Have a Very Merry Christmas!! and may your New Years be most Scrumptious as well!!

[Kaye]

Stephen,

I hope you had a scrumptious Christmas Day! Mine was very pleasant and quiet with some family visiting..
Thank you for choosing me, but often I have a go at these not hoping to win, but just for the practice. I have learned so much from trying edits of others' shots.

I agree with you that the other edits were great.
I am glad you liked my border - I have found so much fun with the Pic_in_Pic action for my shots, that I spend too much time on it at present, but sometimes it adds heaps to a shot, and sometimes not.

OK, time for me to submit an image.

3891

I am not sure I like being the judge, but will try to choose a winner one week from date of this post, and would really love to see a few edits.
Having checked out the calendar, judgement date happens on 1st January, 2010. I think I will override this till the next day. Hence..........

EDITS TO BE SUBMITTED BY: 2nd January, 2010 - midnight.

[StephenK]

Wonderful Image Kaye! :^)

And I fully agree about not liking being the judge thing! Each of us who love doing this stuff are great within
the context of our current experience and creative drive. The push forward against the learn-curve is the only
thing that truly counts! :^)

I'm submitting two images with this... with the first being the finished version, while the second for instructional reasons.

I wanted to show the difference between using a Channels mask and the same effect applied without it.

In this image I went with the Dry Brush filter (Filter>Artistic>Dry Brush) after prepping the image through
Photoshop's Camera Raw, and then adjustments within photoshop itself. But before applying the Dry Brush filter

I created a composite layer of everything done so far
(select the top layer then hold down Control-Alt-Shift and the letter E)

I then went to the Channels panel
Control-Clicked on the RGB layer (this gave me the luminance map, outlined by the marching ants)
Then went back and applied that map to the composite layer
(just click on the create-a-mask button below)

Now apply the filter.... the second image is what I would have gotten without the mask while the first is with.

Such a simple thing, but the result-difference is huge!

Wanted to pass this little tidbit along, as well as my entry for this challenge. :^)

[Pat]

Hi Kaye. Nice pic to work with. I thought I'd go with the Spirit O' Christmas and do up a snowy scene.

Select sky, boost contrast into the stratosphere, remove some noise.
Inverse selection to ground area, slight boost in contrast and sharpness.
Deselect. Fill Paint Bucket with white and touch down here and there in the trees and on the ground. Apply a light gaussian blur (0.7).
Added snowfall on it's own layer. I have a free plug-in that generates snowfall. (http://www.vanderlee.com/plugins_snowflakes.html) Alternatively here's a list of snowfall tuts (tutorials). (http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=snowfall+photoshop&meta=&aq=f&oq=)
Added horse and sleigh, slight gaus blur, slight darken.

[DoctorJazz]

Hi Kaye,

Here's a version with minimal change......just brought out colors in foliage and water, heightened contrast in certain areas (bridge and edges of water),
increased saturation of foreground by 25%, and decreased clarity of grass for
smoothing. Cloned out tower in background although I did this mostly for practice, as I don't find the tower very distracting to the overall photo. I love the
winter versions presented! Fun photo to work with....Thanks!

[Kaye]

Thank you for all your great edits and all help you have offered. (I just hate choosing)...

In Sydney, we don't have snow, so I would like to choose Pat's lovely snow version. Very well done Pat.I have visited the location of the shot I took several times, but to imagine it with snow would be amazing.

Up to you now Pat...

[Pat]

Thank you, Kaye. So sorry to hear of your lack of snow. To help alleviate your circumstance, here's another snow pic. The view out my front door.

[eyerkish]

I only made some minor adjustments to this.

* Auto color adjustment
* Adjusted curves to 149 (input)/109 (output)
* Attempted a clone and heal on the larger spots to the right of the tree tops
* Slight Gaussian blur
* Adjusted brightness just a touch

Thanks for the opportunity.

[StephenK]

What a wonderful view you have outside your door Pat!!
(seriously... I love your country setting! :^)

[sorted]

Here is my version
Hue, Saturation, layers more layers then got lost and ended up with this through 3 differant programes. (Photoshop Elements, Gimp & Photoplay):)
Sorry still learning on Edits.

[Hype]

Photoshop

Cropped.
Played with curves.
Resized canvas with white background to give polaroid look.
Resized image to 1024 longest edge. (Just the size I like :))
gave bevel to image layer and bevel to background level.

[DoctorJazz]

played with color and contrast in Lightroom, then applied mirror image effect.....

[Pat]

And the winna is → → → DocJazz. I loved yours to pieces, Elaine, but I'm a sucker for the blues.
What's up, Doc?

[DoctorJazz]

This is quite the surprise Pat! Thanks! And now for the next challenge......you
might think it's an odd one to pick, and it probably is but I have had a lot of fun
with it, and would love to see what others come up with.....this is straight from the camera, RAW mode....a photo of a reflection.....I was looking through a window
at the shed roof, and in the glass I could see my horse in her paddock behind me,
watching to see what I was doing......as I edited this, it became harder to tell the
difference between reflection and non-reflection......Have fun!

[StephenK]

Hi Sandy :^)

Before you change this I thought I'd throw the kitchen sink at it and see what I'd come up with.... (for some reason I didn't get email notification of your original post of this image)

[sorted]

Sorry i posted it on the wrong page at 1st:mad:
Not to good at this but here we are :)

[Pat]

You're getting better all the time, Elaine.

[Hype]

Ok, I shall try remember what I did.

I cropped in to get the horse.
Cloned out remainder of roof
Used selection tool to select horse and fence then copied selection to its own layer.
Used levels to darken the selected layer
Used Color Efex Pro to add gradient to give impression of coloured sky. Could of done this other ways but was scrolling from effects and liked that one :)
Added some lens flare to give slight impression of sun in sky.
I then used pic in pic action to create its own frame and then played with it a little to look a little different to normal.

Think that pretty much covers it all.

[sandrac]

I am new
but thought would try
did not do much
just a charcoal filter
and then made it just a tad bit darker
I also then cropped it a bit
SandraC

[Kaye]

Sandy, I thought this was a great shot to edit, but I tried too many things and then left it for a day or so.

I eventually deleted most of what I had done and tried to do a little on it in "Virtual Studio" to try something different.... which I downloaded thanks to one of Pat's posts.

- Levels on PS
- Gradient map on PS
- then I tried colours, saturation, etc. on Virtual Studio.
- Frame from Virtual Studio.
- Used burn on PS to dull the frame.

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[sarahsunshine]

This is my first attempt at editing, and with PSE. What a picture to start with!

*cropped image
*cloned out what roof
*altered the saturation
*slightly darkened the white reflection lines

C:\Users\temp\Pictures\before&after_edited-1 copy.jpg

[sarahsunshine]

Let's try this again...:confused:

[DoctorJazz]

Oh no...it's time!

I hope you all had as much fun as I did watching the versions unfold.
I absolutely loved all the creative twists. Thanks everybody. It is very tough to pick. I am going with Kaye's edit for the patterns and contrast there.....and the frame!
It is a great example of how different the final image can be from the RAW one.

On to the next challenge .......Kaye it's yours!

[Kaye]

Thank you Sandy. I found your shot a very interesting one to edit; tried many versions and nearly gave up, but decided to put in my last try without too much thought.

Anyway, here is my shot - a basic scenery. I'd love to see many varied versions!

END OF EDITS: TUES 26.1.10 MIDDAY.

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[DoctorJazz]

Hi Kaye,

I had fun looking at colors, filters, dark and light and finally settled on this one.
Can't wait to see more versions. Thanks for the opportunity.....what a beautiful
scenario.

[StephenK]

Out-world colonization anyone? :^)

[sorted]

Black & White with Lot's of edits lost where? what? how i done it but this is the finished item:mad:

[Pat]

Okay Kaye...
Cloned out elements from sky area (pole, tree bits).
Adjusted shadows and highlights.
Applied dark chamomile colour filter.
Mirrored the image.
Applied Flaming Pear "Flood" plugin to create new water.
Made a moon with Flaming Pear's "Lunar Cell" plug.
Rendered lighting effects - Blue Omni - full frame.
Receding bird effect created with repeated diminishing applications of these bird brushes (http://www.brushesstock.com/birds-brushes.html).

[Kaye]

Hi guys,

Thank you all for these great edits.

This is probably my most difficult decision yet. I love them all. The different effect in Sandy's... Living in the Out-World by Stephen.... The eerie B&W effect from Elaine as if some other planet was partially blocking our light............................................. ......

BUT, the birds and colour won me over. Over to you now Pat.

[Pat]

Thank you muchly, Kaye.
Alas and alack, I'll have to pass the torch on to someone else as my internet connection seems to have taken a beating. For some reason, I can only connect at extremely slow speeds (16k) and currently have images and animations turned off so that I can hopefully handle a bit of text (I'm hoping this goes through). Hoping I'll be back in a week or so after installing Windows7.
So, could you please pick another, with my apologies.

[Kaye]

Sorry to hear this Pat. I was also slowed down only end of last month to some very slow speed due to my son using his mobile phone thru the wireless modem to my computer. I also could not load images.

OK, I must choose again!! This is now not fun..............

ELAINE, I am choosing you, as I thoroughly enjoyed the "spooky effect" you achieved in your B&W.

Leave it up to you Elaine.

[sorted]

Hi Kaye

Thank you very much it was a shame Pat could not put a Photo up, hope you are up and running soon.
Hope this photo proves to be OK to edit quite a few things going on in this one which should not.

End Date 2nd Feb 2010 at 16.30 GMT:)

[DoctorJazz]

Hi Elaine,

Here's my edit from Lightroom2.....I reversed the darks and lights, boosted the contrast and clarity 100%, decreased the vibrance and saturation of overall image, then boosted individual color tones (orange +50, blue +88, green +25).
Then I chose pale yellow highlights and shadows and chose an accent color for a thin border.

Looks like this was a hot, humid, hazy day.....I couldn't think of anything to change that, so the sky is what it is!

This was very fun to work on.....Thanks !

[sorted]

Hi Sandy

Congratulations you are the winner the game is handed over to you :D

[DoctorJazz]

Thanks Elaine,

Here's one I was wondering what to do with. Edit away!

[eyerkish]

Hi Sandy,

I was trying a few things in PS and can't remember exactly what I did, but here are two edits.

[coffee]

here is my go at it.

[sandrac]

ok I did a couple of layers
one with a waming filter
and then I did and artistic layer
then I took out the color except for the center

Sorry did not write down what I did at each step
i will do that next time
sandrac

[sandrad600]

I was just playing around with it. A warming filter, then some painting of layers.

[DoctorJazz]

Thanks all for these edits.....I love all the looks Eddie, Joseph, Sandrad and Sandrac.
I'm picking Joseph's version for the complete makeover in composition.....
Joseph- I love the way you redirected the water in places and changed the shape of the image, not to mention the overall soft look to the effects.....beautifully done!

Over to you Joseph!

[coffee]

Thanks all for these edits.....I love all the looks Eddie, Joseph, Sandrad and Sandrac.
I'm picking Joseph's version for the complete makeover in composition.....
Joseph- I love the way you redirected the water in places and changed the shape of the image, not to mention the overall soft look to the effects.....beautifully done!

Over to you Joseph!

Thanks Sandy and to all those who participated. It was a challenging image. Next up is this image. See ya in a week and good luck.

[DoctorJazz]

Thanks for giving us this blast of color to work on!
Being stuck inside in the midst of a snowstorm, this has been especially fun.
So it is probably way early to post, but here's my version.

[Kaye]

Here's my try.

Obviously used the Orton affect, but with 3 different layers. Varied opacity largely after completion of affect on two of the layers.

4374

[sorted]

Well here is my go:mad:
Got carried away with this one :mad:
Lovely photo before .
After ? ( sorry just had hours of fun and learnt things i never knew)

Cropped Rock out
Smart Blur then surface Blur, reduced noise embossed, added a border and frame then the mouse, then got lost where i was:) swopped it around a little then came up with this which I would like to Name

Coffee in Joseph's Rubik Jurrasic Garden :)

Brill photo to edit. Done about 12 so far but quite like this as it's wacky:)Mad:)& Fun:)

[sandrac]

I really like Elaine's but wanted to try
did not keep track of what I did
cropped things out
used a couple artistic filters
I'm learning just by watching all of you

[mrdoug]

Use of brush tool, pen tool, layers, and paths. More fun than anything.

[janine]

ok here is my attempt - this is very exciting!! (dont remember the steps...too much of hurry - being called to bed)

[coffee]

Thanks everyone for entering a version of my image. It was a very hard choice this time because there were many nice edits. In the end, I picked Sandra's edit. I just love that painting/canvas looks. I also like the way this edit takes a lot of detail away, softens it up, and makes the most important part of the image really stand out with less busy highlights and shadows. Thanks again everyone, and well done Sandra. Over to you.

[sandrac]

Thanks and here is the picture
for the week I picked
Have Fun!
Sandra

[janine]

not very inspired tonight...a bit tired! but here we go

[DoctorJazz]

Here's mine. Cropped and converted to B + W keeping the orange to bring more
attention to the girl's beautiful red hair, matching the leaf in the foreground.....
(love that part of this image!).....Fun pic to work on.....the details in the house
are very cool.

[Kaye]

My quick try - maybe a bit crazy, but I had a "haunted house" in mind.


4495

[sorted]

Added some sun rays,
Flipped photo,
Made it 4 frames
added frame and border.
Adjust colour, Hue, Saturation.
:eek:
Had fun:)

[sandrac]

Hello thanks for the work each did on my picture. I have no idea who the kids are we were traveling and taking pictures and so was this young family. I enjoyed the haunted house effects that Janine and Kaye did and I enjoyed the sunshine in Elaine put in her rendition. I am picking Sandy's due to the matching of the little girl's hair to the leaf. I never noticed that before good idea. Thanks again and Sandy will pick our next picture.

[mrdoug]

LATE ENTRY: I thought there was more time. Oh well... thought I would post this
anyway. Had too much fun editing not to post. LOL

[sandrac]

Oh I like it !!!!!!! i amsuppose to be packing to leave tomorrow morn for DC a CHristmas gift from our Daughter we will see the Capital Steps. I cannot wait anyway I thought I would ot have time to get on tonight. Thanks for posting the picture anyway.

[DoctorJazz]

Thanks for picking me Sandrac! However, I am on a borrowed computer due to technical difficulties/snowstorm related and my
computer is down so can't submit an image.....can someone fill in
for me? Thanks!!

[DoctorJazz]

OK....I'm back online so if it's not too late, I'll upload this image for your editing
pleasure! Have fun!

[sandrad600]

I gave it a try. Adjusted color....Did a little colorizing, then gave it a plastic wrap!

[Hype]

Thought I would have a try.

Levels, Curves cropped.
Unsharp mask
outlined frog and copied background to its own layer.
Guassian blur on the copied layer.

Pretty simple stuff just first edit I done since new computer :)

[Kaye]

Felt the need to do something a little crazy...

Altered: levels, contrast, saturation.
Then Filter, Distort and Polar Coordinates. Then a little bit of touching up to align. (Did this whilst still 3 layers open).

4562

[Pat]

cropped
saturation boost
sharpened
blurred foreground and background to create artificial dof

[sandrac]

Here is my try
I first enhanced the color
Then I made a new layer and converted it to black and white
Then I erased everything one the color layer except the frog
I then took the black and white layer and used the cut out filter forgot the numbers though
That may not be everything but Close anyway

[DoctorJazz]

The time has come to choose! It is not easy, I love each of the edits.
from Sandrad with the plastic wrap idea which is very fun with this image,
to Hype's version making the frog really jump out at me, to Kaye's wild and fun
twist, to Pat's marked improvement of my photography skills with the DOF aspect,
to SandraC's interpretation.......what to do?

Thanks everyone. I am picking SandraC. I love the way you have the frog peering
out of the darkness....it somehow seems to go with the time of year we are in
and has an eery quality that I love.

All yours SandraC!

[sandrac]

Thank you so much
I have one here I took two yrs ago when I went to the Maple Festival in VA.
Hope you enjoy it and I will judge next Sat night
THANKS and have a good week!!

[DoctorJazz]

I love the scenery here! I was drawn to the smoke, and the sheep on the hillside
with those pretty windows overlooking the view which gave me the idea of
looking back at it through a window.

First edited for color saturation, contrast, clarity.
Then picked 3 panels for my window, and kept a blurred background layer.
Framed, and used a filter in CS4 for glass to give the panes a slightly distorted
look.

[eyerkish]

Sandy,

Can you share how you converted the image into the three sections? I have been trying to figure out how to do it lately with no luck. Thanks!

[DoctorJazz]

Eddie,

I'll post this answer in the B + A discussion category. See you there!

[sandrac]

Sandy
where do I find the B+A discussion
I have looked but have not found it
thanks

[DoctorJazz]

Hi Sandra,
Go to the Forums page, click on Fun and Games.
The Before and After Discussion category is 3 threads below this one.

[Kaye]

Nice shot SandraC.

Here is my version driving past the property whilst taking the shot... hehe!

4646

[Pat]

Ignore this. I don't know what I'm doing. Too early in the morn...not enough coffee...

[sorted]

Hi

Here is my After Shot:eek:

[sandrad600]

Not much done here. Just some lightroom presets

[eyerkish]

Here's mine.

[sandrac]

Hello there
So sorry this is late but I had to go to IN and see my Grandpa who is 90 and not doing well. As always, they are all good from the windowpane to the drive by and Sandra and Elaine’s would both look nice hanging on the wall. I am choosing Eddies this time. I just liked it. Thanks for be patient with me

[eyerkish]

Thanks, Elaine. I'm sorry to hear that your Grandfather is not doing well. I hope he gets well soon.

Here is a picture I took out in the desert a few weeks ago. I made a few edits to this shot as I had some work to do on the sky, among other things, but I have included the original here. I am anxious to see what you come up with! The winner will be decided in one week.

[sorted]

Hi Eddie

This photo is a lovely one I just adjusted the lighting, colour, usm, and got lost kept playing and came up with this.

[DoctorJazz]

Great photo Eddie,
Played with contrast and colors in Lightroom, then had fun exploring the sky.
What gorgeous scenery, esp. the colors in the rocks. I was wondering if I could get the sky to resemble those colors.....used color and pattern overlays, then used the
"Aged Photo" action on the sky.

I can see how easy it would be to miss the turn in the road out there.

[Pat]

straightened and cropped
shadows and highlights
saturation
dodged grasses and flowers

[Kaye]

Sorry Eddie for what I have done to your lovely shot!
I was trying to achieve the feeling of "speeding away into the distance...."

http://http://www.proudphotography.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4701&stc=1&d=1269014781

[simon]

Hi all

Thought I would join in with this great dramatic scene.

Lightened with curves masking sky.

Levels layer to increase contrast on mountains and blue sky

Levels layer to darken under cloud.

Painted bright blue soft light layer,30% opacity to put some colour in sky.

Painted green soft light layer at similar opacity at base of mountains and shrubs.

Red/Brown soft light similar opacity sampled from bottom left to add colour to the track.

Hue and Sat to up yellows and darken greens

Hue and Sat layer mask to reduce reds bottom left.

A tiny amount of cropping and sharpening.

Great photo to work on. Such a change from the dreary English landscapes I have been working on. Many thanks

Simon

[sandrac]

I did not keepp track what I did
used layers to change volors and light
and used a couple of filters

[eyerkish]

The time has come to select a winner. Wow, so many fantastic entries, this is a really tough choice. I really liked the lighting and color adjustment that Elaine did along with Sandy’s and Kaye’s creativity. I was intrigued by Pat’s ability to dodge the grasses and flowers. I don’t have much experience with that and will use Pat’s example to try and duplicate his results. With all that being said, I am picking Simon’s entry as the winner. I really liked all the detailed steps he took and the photo still seemed natural. Over to you, Simon!

[simon]

Hey,nice little buzz to win something.
Thanks very much, very honoured.
Now to choose one of my pics to offer up.
On the hop as I'm away tomorrow for 3 weeks. Should be able to judge next week but no editing till I'm back unfortunately.
Here is a shadowy tree shot I took a few weeks back.
Look forward to seeing what happens to it.

Simon

[StephenK]

That is a gorgeous picture Simon! It was a pleasure to spend time with! :^)

[DoctorJazz]

I agree with Stephen!

[Pat]

Let's see....brought up the histogram, then a curves adjustment layer to fix the histo a bit. Duped the sky/branch area, pasted it in, flipped it horizontally, overlay mode. Merged layers.

High pass sharpen.

Merged layers. duped, zoom blur upper layer, overlay mode. Did this a couple of times.

Dodged upper grass area.

[sorted]

All the normal adjust lighting, hue, saturation, and then thought i would try to make it a panorama and then adjust the shape to a Circle effect. Never Done this before so not sure if there is an easier way to achieve this effect.:confused:
Love the shadow of the tree in your photo and the branches and wanted to bring them out.:)

[StephenK]

Thank you for the idea and encouragement Elaine! :^)

[simon]

And the winner is ...............
Decisions decisions.
Stephen´s glorius moon. Sandy´s return of winter. Pat`s edgy added mystery and Elaine´s colourful psychodelic panorama.All fabulous interpretations. But the one I would stick on the wall would be Stephen´s panorama for it´s touch of the surreal.
Thanks for all entries, most enjoyable. Look forward to checking in and seeing where the game goes and joining in on my return.
Happy editing!

To you Stephen.

Simon

[StephenK]

Thank You Simon! The picture you posted to work with was incredible! Very nicely done on your part! :^)

This entry is warmly dog-centric. It's a picture of our companion in both living and travels (part Cairn Terrier, and Scottie). It's also a picture of
what "very spoiled" looks like! Since our two kids have grown and moved out Mattie has been heavily showered with our remaining,
well-developed, sense of maternal instincts.... :^)

This was taken at very close range with a 10mm-17mm adjustable lens... (at the 10mm setting) The lens is a bit costly but an
incredible investment once one learns how to use it!

... and thus begins this weeks enjoyable exchange of ideas (competition :^) ! Have fun! :)

[Pat]

This one looked like a high key treatment might work. Added a bit of tint after increasing the exposure.

[DoctorJazz]

Mattie At The Wheel

Sorry to do this to your dog Stephen, but like you say, sometimes you just get started in no particular direction and you see something and go with it.

So just did Polar Coordinates and rotated image 90 degrees clockwise, and I
saw the transformation take place. All you have to do is imagine the steering wheel and the shades.

[StephenK]

OMG! That's great Sandy! Not only do I not mind it but I love the effect! Mattie looks right smart at the wheel! :^)

[Kaye]

Stphen, this is my version. I am hoping it is a girl dog!!

- Used program called Tint to keep just pink colours.
- Added bow
- Brush tool in a new layer in black and some pink to cover parts of background
- Then G/blur in the brush tool layer.
- Then altered levels slightly and touch of contrast.

4880

[StephenK]

That's simply precious Kaye! :) And yes, a most sweet girl she is..!

I'll have to be careful in showing my wife Wendy these edits... she'll be wanting me to print and frame all of them! :^)

[Kaye]

Thanks Stephen, I guess now the kids are gone, you could allocate a whole wall to Mattie!

[sandrac]

here is my try

[verikos]

Mattie felt a little dehydrated and stopped for some refreshments!

[StephenK]

I guess I better get the judging underway... I'm traveling a lot now so computer time is limited!

In the Absolutely Adorable category, both Kaye and Denise share the honors of a superb portrait of endearingly cute!

In the Artistically Dexterous handling of the image, both Pat and Sandra came through wonderfully, with an imaginative control over unique variables!

But in picking the overall winner I'm leaning toward the image that was totally out-of-the-box. In fact so out of the
box that it threatened to spill-out onto the carpet!

For the act of bending reality, in order to re-purpose an image, the winner would have to be Sandy, for her most imaginative and uniquely
unexpected twist! ....it still makes me laugh! :^)

I am now passing the torch over to you Sandy! .... Nicely done! :^)

[DoctorJazz]

Stephen,

I am honored to be chosen, as I just loved all the other edits.
Thank you and Mattie!

OK, here's one for you much in need of some edits.....Can't wait to see them!
Have fun!

[StephenK]

I love turkeys Sandy! My wife and I stumble across groupings of them every now and then, on our walks in
the woods behind our home!

I went very old-school on this one... nothing fancy, (still used channels masks though :^) ...just a deepening of colors and a sharpening of an already
perfect photo! :^)

[Pat]

Hey Sandy. I removed the near post by copying and pasting rail sections in place then cloning the vegetation in between the rails. Went through the standard photo tuning methods.
I then applied a 100% mask to the turkeys, the fence and the bottom of the pic (the near foreground), 60% mask between the bottom two rails of the fence, 30% between the top two rails, leaving the top clear of masking.. I then used Gaussian blur to create a pseudo depth of field look in order to help the turkeys stand out a bit more. Finished with a wee touch of sharpening, I believe (did this a few days ago, posted it, but it didn't go through.)

[Kaye]

Here is my quick attempt.

Did a bit of the norm - contrast, levels, etc. on original.
Then roughly selected turkeys in a different layer.
OVERDID the sharpness on the turkeys!!
Did Orton affect on background layer. (Perhaps a bit overdone also)...
Used Eraser tool to erase the useless leftovers of my "quick" selection of the turkeys.


5036

[DoctorJazz]

It's been a week now, so I must choose an edit on the turkeys.
Pat, I like the changes you made removing the post in the foreground and the use of the masks to create a DOF. And I also like Kaye's Orton effect on the background layer. Stephen, I am won over by the color you brought out in the turkey's feathers.....so that is my choice....it's back to you Stephen!

Thanks for your great work all three!

[StephenK]

Thank you Sandy! I just got in from several days of traveling and since it's so late I'll have to pick a picture to post tomorrow. Thanks again and I'll return ASAP! :^)

[StephenK]

Now this one could prove to be a bit tricky. I've been fascinated by this photo since the moment I took it.
My wife was pointing out at the time that flowers like this in the ocean was likely placed there by a loved-one who
was morning a recent loss. So with that in mind, the photo both lends itself to either a straight edit or
imaginative add-ons. Of course, either angle is fair-game for this challenge.... :^)

[Pat]

Ok, here we go. A bit mauldlin, perhaps, but what's a clown to do.
I just darkened it, copied the roses, stretched the stems and wobblied them a bit, outer glows here and there.

[DoctorJazz]

What a beautiful photo Stephen,

Here is one version of many I tried .....a color gradient and a Distortion filter (Glass) on the water bestowing mystical powers to the roses,or vice versa.

[MasterPpv]

Here's mine. First, I adjusted the color curves of the sky, then the curves of the water, and then for the sand on the right side of the flowers. The left side was really tricky because I wanted to clean it up yet still make it look natural. I still don't know if I did that well enough. I had to clone stamp and re-synthesize my way through it veeeeeerrrrryyy slowly. I also did some adjustments of the hue, lightness, and saturation of the flowers and their stems, and removed some of the little islands and things on the horizon that weren't noticeable in the original picture, but much more so once the curves of the things surrounding them had been modified. Now I was ready for the next part. I got a stock image off the internet of a blacked-out angel and his wings on a beach, with birds in the air behind him and clouds and the sun and stuff. It was originally in JPEG format, too. So I went and painstakingly removed everything but the angel and his wings - not cropping them out or anything, but erasing them completely while keeping the image size the same. I had added an alpha channel to the image before starting this, so everything that I erased was replaced by transparency. And no, I didn't accidentally erase part of the guy's hip - that was a shirt that I'm assuming the model was wearing in the blacked-out stock image. After I had nothing but my angel and his wings in one window with transparency surrounding him, I saved that image as a PNG format image, which keeps the alpha transparency whereas JPEG would simply make it white. I then pasted this image over my unfinished product, rotated, moved, and enlarged it to make it fit over the area the flowers were, made it opaque / transparent enough to allow one to see through it, and anchored it down. Now I had my angel shadow, but like any shadow would, it had darkened the flowers considerably. Since I wanted the shadow to be a presence that didn't truly exist, I had to once again mess around with the hue, saturation, and lightness of the flowers and their stems while trying to preserve as much detail as possible. I'm reasonably happy with the result.

[Kaye]

Here is my try Stephen...

5213

[verikos]

Ok, here's my version...

[MasterPpv]

Very nice edits, everybody! :)

[StephenK]

These were all magnificent edits! I was enjoying each one as they were posted over this last week!

Any one of these would be deserving the first place prize...!! so as a tie-breaker I was looking for something specifically usual to help make this
job of judging a little easier for it's presence...

I managed to find this difference, not so much in the edit itself, but in the magnificent novella that accompanied MasterPpv's post!

I love a good story and MasterPpv carried us each along, down the river, through the raw rapids... floating us gently out onto the ocean of accomplishment,
as thought this alteration was a journey of shared editing joy...

So in light of your added verbal textures, I pass the baton over to you MasterPpv!

And I eagerly want to complement Everyone! who joined-in, for this past weeks wonderful entrainment through your contributions!! Thank you! :^)

[MasterPpv]

These were all magnificent edits! I was enjoying each one as they were posted over this last week!

Any one of these would be deserving the first place prize...!! so as a tie-breaker I was looking for something specifically usual to help make this
job of judging a little easier for it's presence...

I managed to find this difference, not so much in the edit itself, but in the magnificent novella that accompanied MasterPpv's post!

I love a good story and MasterPpv carried us each along, down the river, through the raw rapids... floating us gently out onto the ocean of accomplishment,
as thought this alteration was a journey of shared editing joy...

So in light of your added verbal textures, I pass the baton over to you MasterPpv!

And I eagerly want to complement Everyone! who joined-in, for this past weeks wonderful entrainment through your contributions!! Thank you! :^)

:eek: Whoa, thank you so much! I seriously wasn't expecting to win with all of those beautiful entries! I'm so honored by this! :o

I guess I did go a bit over the top with my post, but I wanted to share what I did in case anyone wanted to recreate the effect, or just wanted to know how I did a particular part of the image... I'm glad it helped! Once again, thank you kindly!

Here's a new one for you all. I was acquainting myself with manual focus at 200mm on my school's front lawn, and I managed to get this. I'll probably crop it a bit and upload it here later, but I thought I'd let you guys have a go at it before that. :)

P.S. How's my focusing? :p

[DoctorJazz]

OK, I started out seeing what it would look like if I selected a few flowers out, and changed the rest to B+W. Faded the B+W and set blending mode to "Difference".
Then selected the space above the flowers and used Multiply blending mode. Did that a couple of times. Then decided that area might be neat as a reflective wall of
some type, so copy/pasted some groups of flowers, rotated them vertically, blurred
them a bit, and reduced opacity to 37%. Then had fun putting some artistic filters on that space.....used the "Underpainting" filter and a Glass distortion filter on top
of that. Very fun although probably not what you were looking for!! Thanks for the opportunity.

[Kaye]

Hi MasterPpv,

Here's my try - a little bit quick, but altered mainly the saturation, especially in the greens. Used Shadow/Highlight, and added more blur to background.

5286

[Pat]

Photoshop plug Topaz Detail-Desat Blush
Auto FX Mystical Lighting-Angled bar lighting down
Took that layer over the original and converted it to Linear Burn blend mode
Merged layers
Curves-Dragged top right corner slightly to the left to brighten
Nik Colour Efex-Bi Colour filter, blue/brown
Filter-Texture-Texturizer-Sandstone
Auto FX Dreamsuite-Photo Border

[kjgregor]

Okay how about this pic? I was taking a picture of clouds when by chance the bird flew by... I had to crop a wire out of it so its a bit fuzzy... OKay I just read the rules, sorry I should of read before posting...

[MasterPpv]

Okay how about this pic? I was taking a picture of clouds when by chance the bird flew by... I had to crop a wire out of it so its a bit fuzzy... OKay I just read the rules, sorry I should of read before posting...

It's not a problem. We're actually in the middle of one contest already, but if you enter it and win you can post yours as the image to be manipulated for the next one ;)

For this one, read my previous post containing the original shot of the flowers, and make an edit of it. Even if you don't win, if you try hard every time, you'll start to improve in editing and before you know it, you'll win one of these. After that happens, you can post your shot and we'll all try to manipulate it. Then you'll get to decide the winner, and once they post their picture, the game will start all over again! :)

[sandrac]

here is my try

[sorted]

Hi

This is my version

Hue, light , saturation, then page curl, then tried to make it look like more of a old faded photo? then lost the plot as my head is still in holiday mode sorry and did not concentrate just kept playing :mad::eek::o:)

[MasterPpv]

Hey everybody, sorry I'm a bit late, but for some reason, all of my posts seem to need a moderator's approval... I don't know why that's happened or what I did, but if you have any idea what might be happening, please let me know via a private message or visitor message on my profile. Thank you in advance.

Anyway, all of the entries were great! It was really hard to pick, but I've finally decided. And the winner is...

*Drumroll please*

Elaine! This entry stood out above the rest as the most unique, and I loved the effects used on it, especially the page curl and old, faded look. Congratulations! :)

[sorted]

Hi Master Ppv

Thank you for picking my edit of your photo it was fun to do.

OK here is a new one which has had no editing at all and I have not played with yet either so be great to see what will done with this photo.

Closing Date Saturday 8th May 14.00 (GMT)

Looking forward to it:)

[hfyffe@sky.com]

I have only just joined proud photography and starting lesson 1. This game sounds great fun and cannot wait until I know enough to join in, meantime I am enjoying looking at the different outcomes of the same photo amazing. Thanks guys.

Hazel

[Pat]

Hey MasterP, nice pic. And hi Hazel...find a free editor online to start with, download it, learn the basics of adjusting brightness, hue, saturation and contrast...and you're off to the races.
OK, MasterP, here's how I mangled your lovely photo...


Opened in photoshop, duplicated the image (never work on an original).
Duplicated the background layer (I also save the background layer as original).
Cloned out the Palm trees.
Selected the sky with the Quick Select tool.
Made very slight adjustments to the sky's brightness, sat, contrast.
Deselected the sky.
Added a light blue and cyan cast overall.
Used the History brush to bring back the warmer tones in the buildings and boats.
Topaz Adjust (plugin) - Smooth and Flat.
Topaz Adjust - Spicify.
Auto FX Mystical Lighting (plugin) - Rainbow.
Noise Ninja on sky.
Topaz Adjust - Equalize (a smooth lightening effect).
Saved as jpeg at image size 800X500 pixels. (Not the original ratio) This gives it a bit of a wide angle look. And the smaller size allows me to save at a high quality setting while keeping it under the pixel count limit.


Of course, looking at it after the fact, I should have added a light reflection of the rainbow in the water.

Addendum: Just came back, had breakfast, went for a walk, mowed lawn and, most importantly, have consumed copious quantities of caffeine and have been alerted by Kaye that I have misattributed the authorship of the above pic. Please accept my most humble, abject apologies, Elaine, And MasterP. I have no excuse except early morning coffee deprivational stupidity. I am now retiring to auto-flagellate.

[DoctorJazz]

Hi Elaine,

Here's my try:
Duplicated original image.
Used Multiply blending mode on whole image.
Added gold gradient map, reduced to 90% opacity.
Selected out non-sky and used a layer mask and switched Blending Mode to Soft Light. Cloned out palm trees.
Selected sky out and used Transform: Warp command to move the bird in the top layer, creating effect of another bird.

[eyerkish]

Hi Elaine,

Here's mine:

Duplicated the layer so I did not work on the original
Auto tone adjustment
Used burn tool at 11% to color in sky
Duplicated the layer and changed the blending option to hard light at 95% opacity
Added a layer and changed the blending option to screen
Merged the two layers
Added a new layer and applied a Gaussian blur at 17
Applied a canvas texture

[sandrac]

Increased contrast
Darkened just a bit
Highlighted bird in a separate layer and darkened him just a bit so would stand out
Then flattened the layers
Then High circled the rainbows and tried to enhance their colors a little on a separate layer
Flattened image again and cropped

[sorted]

Hi Everyone

Loved all the Edits on my photo :D
But the one that stood out for me as it looked very much the same as saw by the eye is ..........

Pat's version Congratulations Pat
Over to you:eek:

[MasterPpv]

Congratulations Pat! :)

[Pat]

Thank you, Elaine. This one's straight out of the cam. All I did was downsize it a bit. Unleash your creativity...

[DoctorJazz]

"The Problem With GPS Devices"

[sorted]

Hi Pat

Adj light, hue ,saturation, then solarized.:eek:

[StephenK]

It was morning, that most magical moment before the sun fully set-sail, that I happened to glance back at the house. :^)

[Pat]

Tough choice this week, but I'm going to go with the good doctor. Congrats, Sandy

[DoctorJazz]

Pat....Thank you!! I had such fun with the edit.....for me the biggest dilemma was
wondering who would be pulling into the driveway and why.....it was obvious that nobody was home, and it just reminded me of those experiences where you arrive at the supposed destination and say "This can't be right!"......which got me thinking about GPS devices and how the directions are sometimes done "as the crow flies",
or, in this case, the swan and the goose.

Not that you wanted to know this.....OK here's a pic for anyone's interpretation.

[StephenK]

Add caption here: "_________ " :^)

[sorted]

Hi Sandy

Just back form a weekend jaunt so not sure on the deadline for this one so a quick edit and would like to call it ???

WHEN THE BOAT COME'S IN ?????

[Pat]

Blow me down and shiver me timbers. Swing the lead, Blackjack an'guzzle yer grog. Here be the Old Sea Dog hisself an' in 'is scuppers. Ye'll be stowing yer duffle in Davy Jone's locker should ye be not pickin' this fine visage. The plank awaits ye.

[sandrac]

here is my try:

[simon]

Most amused by waterfalls sinkings and pirates. Had some fun cut,pasting and transforming. A bit of sharpening and level tweaking of the background and some blurring and dodging of the added elements to blend them in. Plus too much time making a convincing bubble.:)

Bonzo's big day out?

[DoctorJazz]

What a fun week watching these scenarios develop.....all of them excellent....
I have yet to recover from the near encounter with disaster.....so it's your game StephenK! My only regret is that I don't know the folks in the photo, as I would
love for them to know what fate was awaiting them!

Thank you everybody for your incredible works....and now, the plank awaits me.

[StephenK]

Thank You Sandy! :^)

Rumor has it that falls photo was a picture taken at a movie set and that the actors were never in any real danger. In the movie
they were all rescued (at the last moment of course) by a flying saucer piloted by a cute little alien and its
funny-but-lovable droid side-kick. No release date for the movie yet that I know of.... :^)

Here's a picture that I just took a few days ago while traveling from the western side of Washington State to where
I'm at now in Spokane. They've been adding an ever-growing number of these windmills in the central part of the state
over the last couple of years. Recently they've been springing-up in large numbers quickly!! I'm wanting to spend a day in the
area and do a serious photo shoot of these behemoths!

[DoctorJazz]

Hi Stephen,

In Memory of:

[sorted]

Hi Stephen

Wind Power Makes the World Go Round just a little distortion and that is about it sorry but it is 28 degree here in the UK and wow to nice to hang around inside oh so rare:)

[simon]

Nice shot Stephen.
I am sure there are plenty more in "them there mills".
Thought a kiddies windmill would make a nice contrast.
Gave me some other ideas for pics when I get near some wind turbines.

-Cloned out one turbine and some lines in the landscape.
-Pushed up the yellow red and blues in the original with Hue and Sat.
-Slightly tighter crop and a little rotation to level the mid horizon.
-Pasted the windmill and left it as it was as it stood out well.
-Slightly sharpened the main pic.
-Sat back and thought I am quite pleased with that.

[Hype]

Hiya,

Thought I would have a go at this one.

Auto Tone,Contrast,Colour.

Curves.

Then went over the whole thing the mixer brush (CS5) and what I think was the round fan brush though could be wrong.

[StephenK]

My goodness, judge not less ye be judged.... works for me... everybody wins!!! :^)

Not that easy I guess.... hummmmm......

Again... each one is great!!

Steve, your new edit is really cool because I've been checking out the same brushs as you've experimented with from CS5 (I just upgraded as well... kinda
like having a new set of toys to play with!! Have you checked-out the Puppet tool yet!? Incredible! :^)

Simon, your addition of the pinwheel is genius! I hadn't thought of that and can clearly see it as a "natural" for this photo!! Wind power with
pinwheels...what a magical world that would be!

I love what you did with the clouds and the landscape Elaine! I was taken by the clouds when I first took the picture
and your edit is a visual treat that highly complements their intensity!

The reason I'm going with Sandy on this is the almost mystical way in which she combined such a warmly painted edit with
a sophisticated enticement to view more at the show. My first reaction upon seeing her edit was: "I want to go"... I'm
hoping the exhibition was been well attended!!

It's up to you again Sandy! And thanks all for playing! I really enjoyed each of your edits! :^)

[DoctorJazz]

Hi Stephen,

Once again, I'm amazed at the power of PS! I had no idea that your windpower photo was going to become an invitation to a VanGogh exhibit, but once I started
seeing the painting effects, I started making the connection......so glad you liked it!

I'm really interested to see what you , Steve (Hype), and others are saying about CS5!

Here's a photo for everyone.....I took this yesterday on my "Morning on the River" shoot. This one is right out of the camera. I gave up on editing it. Have fun!!!

[StephenK]

Hi Sandy :^) CS5 is a decent upgrade, but it's not a huge leap, the Puppet Tool is perhaps the coolest addition! I'll be
happy to go into more of CS5 as I look further under the hood!

As to your image...
I went a little retro with this one! :^)

[sandrac]

OK I started off ok but ended up going with
thought of a magic pipe
then
making wishes and then
the fact that sometimes
what we wish for is not what we really want

[DoctorJazz]

OK, I'm late on judging....hmmmmm only two entries this time....I am picking
SandraC's Magic Pipe over Stephen's Jaws 18. They both made me laugh for days,
and still when I come back and look I get laughing all over again.

I made my decision for SandraC's use of the whole photo.
Stephen, I didn't realize until after I posted this last photo how I was repeating myself with the water/boat theme, but I couldn't resist seeing what you all would do with this one, and I was very entertained.

Great job you two. Thanks for making me laugh!!

[sandrac]

Thank Sandy
Here is one from last yr
I really like birds and feed them in the back yard and keep areas for them to hide in

[Pat]

Lovely pic, Sandra. nice bokeh. I boosted the saturation, sharpened, quick masked the bird and a few of the branches then added a gaussian blur to the remainder.

[sorted]

What a lovely little bird.
I just cropped him out and added blur and wanted to see him more so this is it sorry.:eek:

[DoctorJazz]

Love the photo SandraC.....

Here's my version:

Cropped, cloned twigs, sharpened bird a little, changed blending mode of background to "Pinlight", added border.

[Kaye]

Sandra, this is such a pretty shot, I just had to give it a try. Here is my version:

5990

[StephenK]

Wonderful image Sandra! :^)

When I first saw the picture I thought that it needed a castle in the background (haven't a clue why I would think that! :^) So
my homework then for this image was to see if a castle could be tactfully added without looking too hokey, or overly out-of-place.

Played with Calculations in photoshop, looking for various channels mask that would seem to fit the bill. Used the
Dry brush filter, in-league with a luminance channels mask, in order to work-in a bit of the painted look on the twigs and leaves.

And then lots of little stuff...mostly lighting related in order to balance and add drama to the image. Also cloned-out the branch
in front of the birdy. (Very nice job on your cloning as well Sandy!!!)

[sandrac]

Ok it is Monday
This is a little hard
I really liked the castle Stephen
And Kaye, Pat and Elaine did a great job with the background as well
I have to admit though my biggest frustration was the twig that cut the bird into
Why I never thought of getting rid of it
So I think I will choose Sandy
A very hard choice this week
your next Sandy!!

[DoctorJazz]

Wow Sandra, I'm delighted to be chosen! Thanks!

Here's one from this p.m.....any ideas welcome on this!!

[StephenK]

Beautiful evening shot Sandy! I was curious to see if I could make this into early morning... with a bit of an artistic twist, of course.. :^)

[Pat]

Congrats, Sandy.
For your's I selected the sky via colour select and applied Flaming Pear's Glitterato filter (stars, nebulae), followed by Flaming Pears Lunar Cell (moon, planets). I then a applied a bi-colour ( dark purple-blue to pale gold) filter to the sky.

[coffee]

Here's my go. Nice edits Pat and Steven.

[murielb]

I am a newbie here so thought I would give this a try.

Here is my try..
Used a couple of filters on backgroung picture.
Duplicate original picture and used a mask to reveal the
trees without the filter.


THank you! Sandy I got it up

[DoctorJazz]

Hi Muriel,
When you post your reply, make sure you scroll down to the part that says "Manage Attachments" and click on that to find way to upload your image.
Hope that helps....keep trying.

[sandrac]

Ok here is my make over
I made a black and white layer and then just kinda played with it a bit

[StephenK]

Great edits everyone!! :^)

[DoctorJazz]

Decision day!

These edits are fantastic, thanks everyone.
Love Both your versions Stephen, esp. the Astro version....very cool.
Pat's Flaming Pears version is gorgeous!
Then Joseph's twist with the "Midnight goblins" won me over, esp. the grinning
teeth in the lower right.....Great touch Joseph!
Love the colors in Muriel's, and the effect in SandraC's.....

Joseph take it away!

[coffee]

Thanks Sandy. Man what great edits this time around. I thought they were all very well done. Congrats to everyone.

This time around, I think the imagination will have the front seat instead of just global editing ability. This image is very plane Jane so just changing the looks of the stock image probably won't be enough. What I hope to see with this image are some additions in the way of subject matter by using some cloning or other techniques. This dock is very lonely without something added to it. I KNOW there ware going to be some very cool looking edits. Good luck.

[StephenK]

I like the possibilities with this image Joseph! I stumbled across something cool, as I was poking around looking for an angle of this
edit, and thought I'd give it a whirl.

I added a blank white layer, and started rolling through the blending modes and watched it turn purple as I hit the Difference option.
For some reason I thought Geisha, so worked off that angle.

I'm very curious to get comments on this image in the discussion area, because I kinda like it, but my wife totally panned it.
(she's the 4 year commercial and fine arts grad so I tend to take her opinion quite seriously! :^) But I'm also heavy into fantasy, and she
can't stand the genre, hence the conundrum.

I'm already acclimated to being panned on this image so please feel free to do so if so driven... but if anyone actaully likes
it please let me know that as well....! :^)

[StephenK]

Even Dragons need a day of to go fishing....

(This one's a little more traditional... :^)

[DoctorJazz]

Here's my abstract try: Dock City

[Pat]

Well, first I went back to page one and reviewed the rules just because some of us who've been around the Proud Photography block a time or two might begin to take them for granted thinking we know them whilst in actual fact flaunting them (gasp) in the face of that fine Proud Photography tradition of fair play and assisting your elders.
I then created a new water layer adding some blue-ish streaks (via Flaming Pear's "flood" filter, one of my faves). Let's see, also darkened overall, increased contrast, jacked the colour all over the map til I think I settled on a slight desat in the trees, don't quote me here, tho.
And, of course, added a bird, 'cause everybody knows, about the bird. B-b-b-b-b-b-b-bird, bird, bird. Bir-bird's the word.
Now, the piece-d'resistance. The reflection of the gull in the water. Had the upper gull on it's own layer, copied it via "control-click" on it's frame in the layer pallette, pasted it in on a new layer, moved it into position, flipped and reversed it via the "transform" menu commands, and reduced opacity a touch. Drew a selection box around it and opened it in the liquify filter where I enlarged the selection with the magnify tool. I then took a small brush and created the zigs by dragging out from the body.
OK, so the Mona Lisa it's not, had to try to make the reflection water realistic tho. I think I might have gotten within spitting distance.

[sandrac]

Here is my try
I really went out of my comfort zone with this one
I first went through my fishing pictures
And found one thought I could use
I cut out the mother and her son fishing
Placing them on the bridge I
Then removed the parts of the bodies that would be covered by the deck
Then I copied the layer
Turned it upside down
Lightened it to 86%
Put just a small blur on it and then
I was done

although after looking I think I should of pt them mirror opposite if I can figure out how
might try it again
if i have time

[coffee]

Thank you all for giving this one a shot. I love seeing edits of the same image and seeing the creativity people have.

Stephen, I love your edits, especially the oriental woman and fan.

Sandy, your abstract is very cool and original.

Jack, I love your edit. Fantastic color arrangement.

Pat, great edit. I love the realistic reflections.

Sandra, thanks for giving this one a go. Fun imagination.

But there can only be one winner, and it is Stephen. One reason I choose this edit is for the additional subject and global changes. This is a great edit because if you didn't know the woman was an addition to the image, you probably wouldn't know it. The reflection blend is well done too. Congrats Stephen, I turn it over to you.

[sandrac]

I know I am late but wanted to fix my post
llike I said I knew it was not right rt after i posted
so when got up I discovered how to mirrir the image and redid it
hope you don't mind I repost
I had fun with my learning
Thanks for being patient
now to work
Looking forward to Stephens picture!

[StephenK]

Thank you Joseph! Yours was a wonderful image to practice reflections on! :^)

This next challenge was a challenge in itself to capture. It was taken inside a lighthouse, looking up, and without a tripod,
at around a 15th of a second. I didn't want to use a flash in order to avoid that flash-splash of light in the foreground.
Out of 14 exposures there was only this one non-blurred success. :^)

[DoctorJazz]

Great photo Stephen.....the more you look at it , the more it looks right back!
So I went with some design transformation and selected out the "eyes" and put a pattern overlay on the rest for the "mask".

[coffee]

Here's my silly try.

[Pat]

Holy guacamole, Bathead. Good stuff, guys. I had thrown in a little spinnerama and a diddly-doo here and there but you sent me back to the drawing board.
You will see the spinnerama via distort-twirl I applied to enhance the inherant spin. Added a couple of opposite colour dots to the centers for that yin-yang ambience. Used Alien Skin's Bokeh on the latter two in receding diameters to create the circular fading blur (You could accompish much the same using a circular selection with a big feather with gaussian or your fave blur.)
Created the frames from diamond plate stock I've had for years so I don't recall where I got them, To them I added drop shadows (in and out)and a bevel via layer styles, and a colour overlay on the two. The rusty background I pieced together from metal stock at http://www.mayang.com/textures/ . I boosted the sat and contrast and sharpened the finished plate.

[Pat]

Using another's photo without permission is not kosher under any circumstances, jaz. And I would not permit a photo of my niece to be manipulated, no matter how benign. Rules can be found on the first page of each game.