Weekly Post-Processing Challenge 3 May 15

<p>We'll see if the thread has run its course. This week a seascape from Cape May.</p><div></div>

<p>Larger version</p><div></div>

<p>Nice image to work with Rick. I started by adjusting levels to give a full tonal range, then converted to black and white in Nik Silver Efex, then played with various crops to accentuate the spray. Finally, I added a bit of selenium toning to give it a cool tone.</p><div></div>

<p>I also used Nik, but Color Effects, Pro Contrast and Bi-Color Filter to bright bright the mood, and Viveza, maintaining the composition.</p><div></div>

<p>I like the vertical motion of the spray so I focused on that:</p>

<p>Vertical crop, red filter, increase contrast, convert to gray scale, and brighten foreground rocks.</p><div></div>

<p>Imported into Lightroom increased Clarity, Vibrance, Saturation, and used auto exposure cropped to 8x10 portrait. I opened in PS5 and duped layer and set to Color burn layer style, created mask to lighten some areas.</p><div></div>

<p>I like the picture and didn't want to spoil the mood and the composition of the original image with too much post processing. So this is my offer.</p>

<p> <img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/18016738-md.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="510" /></p>

<p>Felt the image needed a crop from the left, exposure correction by +2EV in ACR, adjusted shadows, highlights, blacks, clarity, vibrance and saturation. Used Color Efex to increase local contrast, the did some work in Perfect Effects to darken the sky, brighten the overall image, and enhance separation between sky and spray.</p><div></div>

<p>I used viveza for dodge and burn. I like green and big wave splashes so that was important to me and that is why I cropped. In terms of what I like, the rest was superfluous. I duplicated the image and applied 'clarity" to the wave portion only.</p><div></div>

<p>I too went the way of monochrome. Basic adjustments in PSE11: slight crop from left and top, resizing, and levels. Conversion in Silver Efex, which included accenting structure in high and low tones. Further tonal adjustments in Color Efex using pro contrast and reflector efex filters.</p>

<p>Happy Ides of May, everyone.</p><div></div>

<p>These are great, I like the contrast better in the earlier ones.</p>

<p>The Birds<br>

Adjustments in Lightroom, resize in Elements</p><div></div>

<p>Interesting takes ... I had gone for a starker image when I did this. Anyone game for next time?</p><div></div>

<p>Adjusted color and lighting in Color Efex. Created a B&W version in Silver Efex and blended luminosity. Added an image of a bird I took on a trip to the Texas coast. Masked manually using Wacom tablet.</p><div></div>

<p>Amazing stuff.</p>

 

<p>Rick, it looks like I'm it again. Nice playing tag with you.</p>