Post-processing challenge February 29 2020

No-one's posted yet, so I thought I'd take the initiative this week. My apologies to anyone else who'd planned to post the thread!

 

There are no rules as to how you apply your post processing to this image; but, please let us know what you have done so we can all learn. If you would like to post a candidate image next week, please ensure it is of sufficiently high resolution for manipulation by the participants (3000px on the long side, 300dpi for example).

 

Most of all, let's have fun while we are learning or demonstrating how we use our post-processing software, imaginations and interpretations.

 

Mike

 

PS. The photo was taken in Ghent, Belgium

[ATTACH=full]1331656[/ATTACH]

Thanx Mike. Beautiful image!

No-one's posted yet, so I thought I'd take the initiative this week. My apologies to anyone else who'd planned to post the thread!

There are no rules as to how you apply your post processing to this image; but, please let us know what you have done so we can all learn. If you would like to post a candidate image next week, please ensure it is of sufficiently high resolution for manipulation by the participants (3000px on the long side, 300dpi for example).

Most of all, let's have fun while we are learning or demonstrating how we use our post-processing software, imaginations and interpretations.

Mike

PS. The photo was taken in Ghent, Belgium

Nice image to work with. I started with two duplicate layers in Photoshop CS5. I converted the top layer using the paintings settings in Topaz Simplify, and then blended the central portion of the image containing the boat and small building with the realistic background. I also cloned out the tower above the central background building.

Really nice image, Mike. Thanks for starting this off.

I did a little crop and minor straightening in LR then into SFX where I applied the Film Noir 1 preset, removed the borders, increased the grain to about 300 and minor adjustments to highlights (to add a little more detail in the sky) and v. minor to midtones. Put a little color in highlights and shadows using split toning back in LR. Went for a 'traditional' feel because the image felt very traditional, classic.

Thanks for the nice photo, Mike. I went through these steps:

--In Topaz Gigapixel AI I enlarged the image x 6.

--Then used PS to reduce image size back to OP size. (Sometimes those two steps increase resolution. I don’t know that it was needed here, but was experimenting.)

--Applied Topaz AI Sharpen using stabilize mode.

--Next sent to Lab mode in PS using the Dan Margulis Canyon Conundrum adjustment (a and b equal adjustments at all four curve end points toward the middle horizontally)

--Finally I sent the file to SNS-HDR for its default application.

Like I said, great photo Mike, and thanks for giving this tired horse something new to look at.

I really liked what was in the center of the image so I cropped to that.

I did 2 approaches using LR and PS.

In the first, I duplicated the cropped image, made it a smart object and then opened the camera raw filter and brought up the texture and clarity a bit. Then I used selective colour to increase the saturation (See the PiXimperfect tutorial on YouTube). I then put on a border. In LR, I applied a vignette.

In the second,I decided to goof around. I made 3 virtual copies in LR, selected them and chose to Merge to HDR Pro in PS. PS told me that the exposure was f/4 at 1/60th and ISO 100 (I have no idea if this is correct). HDR pro allowed me to adjust one copy to an exposure of 1/30th, leave one at 1/60th and then adjust the 3rd to an exposure of 1/125th. These were then merged. It seems to have brought out more detail and increased the saturation so I left that as it was. Then I added the border and then in LR applied the vignette.

I left both of these at higher res so you can click on them for larger views.

Kinda goofy, but I wanted to experiment.

I took the HDR version and added a curves adjustment to give more contrast.

This is the very first time I've hosted a weekly PP challenge and I'm delighted with all the creative versions up until now. and there's still a almost a week left for more PP versions! I've found it wonderful and rewarding to see so many PP versions that I myself would never of thought of! As @PuntaColorada pointed out, it's more challenging and more fun to experiment with PP versions of someone else's photos than it is to PP (once again) your own photos. See my post 'Who's interested in hosting weekly Post-Processing challenges?'

OK. down to business: I of of course well remember this summer scene and the friends who were there when I took the photo. Ghent has (like other cities) an 'old world' look. That's it's main charm. But I tried to imagine how the scene would have looked in winter. I tried (in an amateur way) to blend in some 'old world' winter scenes with the photo. Very rough around the edges and blending ,but I'm sure you get the idea. The foreground is (with thanks) taken from the public domain image 'Skating on the frozen Amstel river' by Adam van Breen.

My main PP steps were attempts to 'blend' the historical photo with my photo. I wanted to show this this scene might have looked in winter (rather than summer). Yes,the blend could have been much better.

Mike

Thanks for posting Mike. All adjustments in LR5. Cropped. B&W conversion with quite a lot of Dodge and Burn. Increased Contrast with Curves. Split Tone Tint added.

B/W painted version.

Superb image, Mike. In all honesty, as I was working on my version, I thought I was the first to try a b&w painterly version. Then after posting mine, I started at the beginning of the thread and noticed Tom's fine version. Oh well...

Initially, in PSE15, I changed the crop to square and resized the image slightly to expedite going from one step to the next. Then, I converted the image using Silver Efex. Back, in PSE, I used several of the filters in its artistic menu and then made slight tonal adjustments using levels. Finally, I added a bit of sharpening with Output Sharpener.

Like I said, great photo Mike, and thanks for giving this tired horse something new to look at.

 

I really liked what was in the center of the image so I cropped to that.

 

I did 2 approaches using LR and PS.

In the first, I duplicated the cropped image, made it a smart object and then opened the camera raw filter and brought up the texture and clarity a bit. Then I used selective colour to increase the saturation (See the PiXimperfect tutorial on YouTube). I then put on a border. In LR, I applied a vignette.

[ATTACH=full]1331749[/ATTACH]

 

In the second,I decided to goof around. I made 3 virtual copies in LR, selected them and chose to Merge to HDR Pro in PS. PS told me that the exposure was f/4 at 1/60th and ISO 100 (I have no idea if this is correct). HDR pro allowed me to adjust one copy to an exposure of 1/30th, leave one at 1/60th and then adjust the 3rd to an exposure of 1/125th. These were then merged. It seems to have brought out more detail and increased the saturation so I left that as it was. Then I added the border and then in LR applied the vignette.

[ATTACH=full]1331751[/ATTACH]

I left both of these at higher res so you can click on them for larger views.

 

Kinda goofy, but I wanted to experiment.

Punta, the use of HDR, really brought out the colors and detail in your versions. For me to catch up with you and other participants in technical proficiency, well . . . I'll just say that I'll probably be dead before that happens!

Punta, the use of HDR, really brought out the colors and detail in your versions. For me to catch up with you and other participants in technical proficiency, well . . . I'll just say that I'll probably be dead before that happens!

Actually, I think the HDR version is a bit over the top (lacks subtlety) but it was fun trying it.

A gradient map pretends an expired film.