Post Processing Challenge 3rd June 2017

Another week another challenge. I hope this file has enough information for you to use. remember there are no rules you can do with it what you want. If you could give us information about steps taken and software used to add interest.

Maybe someone could step forward and post a challenge for next week or any other week. I will be unavailable to post next week. Regards.............GC.

I wanted to accentuate the crypts, so I made a duplicate layer and mask of the image in Photoshop CS5, and then adjusted one layer for the crypts and the other layer for everything else. I sharpened and increased the tonal contrast of the layer for the crypts and decreased the contrast and saturation of the other layer, and then combined the layers and cropped the result. .

The scene suggested an Impressionistic feel, so I enhanced that. Increased the middle parts of the curves to heighten the fog/haze in the background and also to make the church seem a little more off in the distance. There was already some barrel distortion, which I kind of liked for the content, so I increased that (brought the file back into my RAW converter which has pretty good distortion options). That helped bring the crypts forward without increasing their contrast. Added a little vignetting around the edges of the photo to further add to the sense of barrel distortion and make the sides recede a bit. Played with color saturation adjustments to keep the colors nice and light and mainly in the subtle greens and reds.

Edited June 3, 2017 by Norma Desmond

Interesting file.

 

All Saints Church - PN Processing Exercise by David Stephens, on Flickr

 

I processed my interpretation with DxO Optics Pro 11.4.

 

It was a booger to level. Neither vault is level, so I used the church to get a "true" horizon. It still looks strange because of all the conflicting horizons.

I chose a 5:4 aspect ratio to get rid of some uninteresting stuff on the left.

I reduced fog, using DxO's Clearview, which adds Contrast, darkening things overall. I liked that and darkened things a little further.

I pulled the Greens down some and raise Micro-contrast to +22. I raised Blacks to +6.

 

Now that I see it on Chrome, the Reds look a touch to strong to me. Not much. I'm too lazy to adjust it again. ;-)

Used LR for shadows, highlights, cropping, etc. Then used Silver Efex Pro 2 to get the antique vintage look.

Photoshop: Partial perspective correction via Adaptive Wide Angle filter; Crop; Convert to B&W; Zone dodge & burn; Blue overly for background. On1: Amazing Detail Finder on crypts; Big Softy vignette; Darken background.

since there are no rules...

 

An attempted change of mood. All adjustment made in Lightroom 5. Auto adjust verticals, crop, graduated filter for sky reduced exposure and added blue with white balance, grad filter from both sides to lower exposure, several adjustment brushes used for selective exposure adjustment up and down around photo, overall clarity adjustment.

Started with graduated fog,graduated density, toning down warmth in Color Efex. In PSE15 - adjusted levels, used variety of tools for selective adjustments

I know it's not a contest, but I think that Bill Boyd's interpretation best evokes a feel for the time when these crypts were likely first put to use.

I know it's not a contest, but I think that Bill Boyd's interpretation best evokes a feel for the time when these crypts were likely first put to use.

 

David, I totally agree. Bill's own description for the post work he did on the image (i.e., "antique") confirms your evaluation.

[/img] http://i1053.photobucket.com/albums/s464/kjonbz/ceme_zpshxs5fk9i.jpg

 

1. 2.39:1 Cinematic Crop

2. Desaturated with Adjustment Layer

3. Applied Black/Teal/Orange Gradient Map - Soft Light Blend

4. Curves to gray out blacks

5. ColorLookup Adjustment Layer to set FoggyNight at 40%

6. Layer Stamp to Combine

7. Created long lens blur with two layers, one sharpened, one with tilt shift blur, with coffins masked out to be sharp.

8. Added Ghostly Woman slightly blurred with Color Dodge Blend at 50%

9. Added black to transparent Gradient to darken left side

10. Used Curves, and Apply image to make mask to dodge light parts of coffins

GC, I'll have some new grist for the mill after this weekend. Traveling . . .

I think that I like GC's interpretation the best. It looks like Dracula is about to open the lid from the inside of one of the crypts.

I know it's not a contest

I agree. I'm just glad a bunch of folks are participating and coming up with creative ideas each week. That's what makes it fun.

In Color Efex Pro, Pro contrast, Indian Summer, Graduated user defined (blue for sky), skylight filter. then I didn't like the orange everywhere, so I changed back some of the green.

 

Some weird colors with curves, bit of shadows/highlights, selective colors to get rid of yellows.

 

Since I liked GC's image, here is my own nighttime version with a few bats thrown in for effect. Starting with my initial version, I used Topaz Simplify as well as NIK ColorEfex, plus curves and dodging and burning. It's a fun image to play with.

Wow! Great participation and wide variety of interpretation.

Layers! Layers! Always messin with the layers!