Post Processing Challenge 27th May 2017

Hi, here's another photo looking for interpretation. Do with it what you want, please give a description of the steps taken (brief or long) and software used.

If anyone else would like to post a source photo next week please step forward.

Lyme Regis, Dorset.

Just basic cmyk curves for shadows/highlights in Photoshop plus adding little yellow in midtones, bit of saturation in lab curves, sharpening.

And just for fun red channel in darken mode in Photoshop.

I got trapped by the colors in the nets, and was using photoshop for the first time, so I couldn't resist seeing what it could do.

1. In Photoshop CC, perspective crop to isolate the nets and almost fill the frame
   
2. Liquify filter to finish filling the frame where needed and to push the recognizably-shaped objects back into their recognizable shapes
   
3. Transform—> distort to squish a selection of the righthand 1/8 so the distortion from step 1 wasn’t so evident.
   
4. Recropped, and sent to Lightroom (I tried ACR, but am too used to Lightroom to figure out how to translate my usual editing methods)
   
5. Adjusted white point, reduced highlights, reduced shadows, increased contrast and clarity
   
6. For color, I increased vibrance, warmed it slightly, and reduced the tint slightly.
   
7. Cloned around the edge of the upper right float to make it look sharper than it actually is (I would have done this a lot more effectively in PS if I’d thought about it when I was there). I figured that if the major item of interest over there looks tolerably sharp at a casual glance, people might not recognize how unsharp the rest of that side is after my extreme distortions.
   
8. Introduced a gradient from right to left to increase the sharpening and clarity on the right (masking out the float that I'd already fake-sharpened).
   

Thanks for a wonderful file to work with, properly exposed, perfect histogram, tack sharp, with perfect WB, near perfect horizon, interesting subject in nice light.

Here's my interpretation, done in DxO Optics Pro 11.4:

PN-ProcessingChallenge05272017_DxO by David Stephens, on Flickr

Started with 1 to 1 aspect ratio, focusing on the colorful left side of the image. I applied DxO's Clearview at a setting of +50. This added contrast and darkened the image, so I raised exposure about 3/4-stop to get the foreground brightness in line with what I expected from that sky. This blew out some highlights, but no really important details, so I did not lower highlights. In mainly impacted the orange flags and some other details that I didn't consider important. I raised MicroContrast 18-points to crispen things just a bit. Oh, I rotated the horizon a fraction of a degree, using a pole that I cropped out as my guide.

This reflects my philosophy that it's more important to get overall exposure levels correct rather than get overly worried about unimportant details getting blown out. In some quarters, this is sacrilege, but I think it's silly to look at blinkies and try to turn off every last one of them.

Initial steps in Lightroom 5.7, Cropped, slight exposure increase, highlight adjustment, remove a person and a canon with the spot removal (not the best tool for the job but the only choice in LR).

Transferred into Analog Efex which is a tool I have no experience with. Chose the Toy Camera 1 preset and increased the barrel distortion. I can't make my mind up about the result, but it's done now.

Initial steps in Lightroom 5.7, Cropped, slight exposure increase, highlight adjustment, remove a person and a canon with the spot removal (not the best tool for the job but the only choice in LR).

Transferred into Analog Efex which is a tool I have no experience with. Chose the Toy Camera 1 preset and increased the barrel distortion. I can't make my mind up about the result, but it's done now.

 

[ATTACH=full]1189664[/ATTACH]

Gerald, I'm curious whether you were after a particular look. Can you elaborate, please?

Gerald, I'm curious whether you were after a particular look. Can you elaborate, please?

Hi Michael, to answer your question I didn't have look in mind. I was looking for something a bit different from my norm when I started. The Nik Collection Software is installed on my computer but I only really use Silver Efex Pro 2 for B&W stuff. Anyway I had a look to see what Analog Efex Pro could offer and I found among the options several Toy Camera effects. These offer simulations of the result of using cheap plastic lenses with Barrel or Pin Cushion distortions. A few years ago I borrowed a Lensbaby and I thought I could see something akin to that effect. I was not really pleased with the result and maybe should not have posted it, but I saw it as just a bit of personal amusement.

Now before I try it again I must learn more about the software..............GC.

Hi Michael, to answer your question I didn't have look in mind. I was looking for something a bit different from my norm when I started. The Nik Collection Software is installed on my computer but I only really use Silver Efex Pro 2 for B&W stuff. Anyway I had a look to see what Analog Efex Pro could offer and I found among the options several Toy Camera effects. These offer simulations of the result of using cheap plastic lenses with Barrel or Pin Cushion distortions. A few years ago I borrowed a Lensbaby and I thought I could see something akin to that effect. I was not really pleased with the result and maybe should not have posted it, but I saw it as just a bit of personal amusement.

Now before I try it again I must learn more about the software..............GC.

GC, thanks for the response. I don't know anything about Lightroom, but - FYI - PSE15 has a filter called "correct camera distortion," which I used for just the opposite purpose, i.e., to create distortion.