Postprocessing Challenge 6 July 2018

I'm subbing for GC this week. Please follow his guidelines in posting your versions, especially a description of the steps you took.

LR to adjust shadows / highlights and crop. NIK's Color Efex Pro 4 for Detail Extractor and Tonal Contrast.

This is a nice image to work with and I got some good practice. First I copied the image and pasted it into GIMP. Then I used a curves layer to increase the contrast. Then I used the clone tool to cloned out some of the frigidity. I then made a new layer and used the Unsharp Mask filter at .65 value. I then lowered the opacity to 50% and made a new layer from visible layers. Then I applied a luminosity mask so I could use Levels to capture some detail in the sky.

I cropped the image, burred the background, removed the graffiti, and enhanced one of the Welcome signs.

I liked the almost symmetry, so I decided to play with that. I wanted to increase the symmetry without leaving a whole lot of tracks, which basically translates to “no backwards writing.”

 

Lightroom: I did the usual basic adjustments to whites, highlights, shadows, clarity, and vibrance, then I leveled the image on the roof-top, duplicated the image, and flipped it horizontally. I exported both versions to Photoshop as layers.

 

Photoshop: I changed the blend mode to “difference” so I could align the layers over the center pillar, then changed blend mode back to normal once they were aligned. Then,

1. I created a transparent layer mask, and used an opaque brush to block out anything I didn’t want on the right side of the frame; that left the right side as an almost mirror image of the left
   
2. I created a new layer, and cloned in things like the clock face and some of the graffiti (after doing a bit of editing)
   
3. I then spent an inordinate amount of time with the clone tool, trying to get the iron fencing to look right (not entirely successfully, but I got hungry), and persuading the shadows to go more-or-less the right direction
   
4. I’d left the “…Admission…Right Field…” lettering where it was, but the tops of the fence posts now no longer lined up with the bottoms, so I used the content-aware move tool to shift the writing to the left, then stretched it slightly to make things more-or-less line up. The stretching slightly warped the lettering, which I should have cleaned up but didn’t.
   
5. I also used the content-aware move tool to center the blue baseball at the top. I then shipped it back to Lightroom.
   

Lightroom: At that point I thought I was finished, but when I stood back and looked at it I could tell there was something wrong, but it took me a while to figure out what. I hadn’t shaded the left side of the passageway and right-most stone pillar. So I used an adjustment brush to reduce highlights, reduce contrast, slightly reduce temperature, and reduce exposure in the places that needed to be in shadow.

B/W attempt using Topaz Studio's Simplicity and AI Remix:

 

Selected sky in Photoshop CS5, then selected inverse, copied, pasted on photo with clouds. Created mask for foreground and then removed various foreground elements by painting mask with black paint. Added birds on a wire. Used Vivitone Photo Styilizer in ColorEfex.

Hey, everyone! I finally got around to creating my version. Initial steps in Photoshop Elements 15: cropped from right side and top, leveled from bottom, adjusted tonality using levels. The rest in Silver Efex: converted to b&w, more tonal adjustments and added "structure".