Photoshop Challenge #2 - 2010 - Before and After

[Patti Edens]

I really appreciate the opportunity to set up the next challenge.
It starts today and ends in two weeks on February 7th.

Instead of posting a photo for all to work on, I would prefer to see what everyone can do with their own photos. The best way to learn something new is to see the Before and After with a brief description of how it was achieved.

So, that is the challenge!

Post one of your own photos straight out of the camera (SOOC) and then show us what you have done to improve it. Remember to let us know how you did it so we can all learn and improve our skills.

Here are some examples:

Before:
The lighthouse at Bolivar - cropped but otherwise SOOC


After using DAP Cezanne and converting to Black and White and lighting up the light (They don't light up the Bolivar lighthouse anymore)


Before:


After cloning her open eyes from another photo and adding the flower and cleaning up the background as well as the usual post processing for sharpness, etc.


Before:


After adding some sepia toning and elements to make it appear to be Asian Art. I did this for a challenge in another forum.


Before:


After some pretty radical sillhouette work - selected the bird and took all the way to black and then selected the background and did a sunset gradient.


Have fun!

[ChristopherCoy]

Tag... Looking forward to this one.

[RandySmith]

To keep the current challenge alive ...

Here's a before and after of a project I'm currently working on. I'm not totally finished with the edit, but wanted to show current status of work-in-progress.

Basically, I cropped in photoshop, changed levels a little. Edited & improved the eyes, and cleaned up the background with some editing tools. After the editing was completed I imported the file into Corel Paint and painted the coat of the Shelties hair, and touched up the white on the nose a little, also did some "painting" in the background a little as well.

[Patti Edens]

Wow Randy! Beautiful work. The eyes really stand out, but all of the work is really well done.

Thanks for keeping it alive. I guess this wasn't such a good choice for a challenge topic.

[Kali]

here's mine...

[ChristopherCoy]

Originally Posted by RandySmith

After the editing was completed I imported the file into Corel Paint and painted the coat of the Shelties hair, and touched up the white on the nose a little, also did some "painting" in the background a little as well.

THAT is flippin AWESOME!!!!

[Patti Edens]

Gary,

Thanks for playing!

I love what you have done with this photo - especially the conversion which really evens out the skin tones and the crop which focuses in on the baby. Cool shot and really nice PP work!

Patti

[Some Idiot]

SOOC



POST

sharpen, removed hair on forehead, added texture to background, worked over eyes...... I think that's it :-)

[Patti Edens]

Originally Posted by Some Idiot

SOOC



POST

sharpen, removed hair on forehead, added texture to background, worked over eyes...... I think that's it :-)

Very nicely done. Your work is very subtle, but makes a difference especially in the eyes.

Patti

[Patti Edens]

Randy, Gary and RF,

Thanks for participating in this challenge. I'm sorry if I chose a challenge that was not very intereting. Since I really enjoy seeing what people can do and learning from these challenges, hopefully there will be more participation next time. Maybe some advertising in other forums would have been in order and acceptable as per forum rules.

Since Randy did the last challenge, he sent a PM asking me not to choose him, so that leaves Gary and RF's images. They are both really nicely done, so it is hard to decide.

It came down to how much improvement there was from the original and I thought that Gary's shot of the baby did that.

First Place: Gary - The conversion was a really nice tonal adjustment that helped the final shot. You get to set up the next challenge!

Second Place: RF - Unless you are just going for something radical, I think the key to good Photoshopping is subtely and you have mastered that.

Patti

[rab3rd]

Before...



after....

[abril1127]

I reluctantly show you this one. I loved the pose & the way the light came in from the tree's but really it needed a lot of work....so I did and made it the vision I dreamed of when I took it.

Duplicated layer, cut out bride and groom, blurred back layer, cloned around bride and groom on blurred layer to prevent ghosting, cloned in trees to fill in all the dead & bright spots, created brightness layer to bring grooms skin colors to a more true to life tone, I may of done a glam blur to give it a neat effect but did some sharpening to bring it back to crisp.

[c6cowboy]

April -

Very nice pp work. You saved an otherwise way too busy image and turned it into something that really pops!

[hue-e]

ah man, I just did a few before/afters that turned out pretty decent... to bad this has ended.

[Arcusmedia]

I will Play Along :)

Before


After


I added some Punch, Sharpened, Skin Toning With Portraiture, Glow and drop shadow and Clone Spot Healing :).