Weekly Post-Processing Challenge - Nov 30 2014

[Rick Bortnick]

<p>Howdy all,<br>

I know I'm a bit early, but I need to be gone long before the sun gets up tomorrow. As I said I would start the thread going I needed to do it early. <br>

I thought I would offer an image which for me is a tad different. Over all a decent image but one that could use tweaking. I have several I have done & thought it would be interesting to see your ideas for it.</p><div></div>

[Rick Bortnick]

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

[michaellinder]

<p>Good job, Rick. Waiting for dinner company, so I took a run at it.</p>

<p>First, using PSE 11, I rotated the image horizontally for purposes of composition. Then, I used the spot healing brush to eliminate the brown streak in the original's upper left and the object in the opposite corner. Then, I went to Color Efex Pro 4. I corrected the color cast and adjusted the contrasts using the Pro Contrast filter. Next was some tonal and detail adjustments using the Dark Contrasts filter. Finally, back to PSE11, I made final tonal adjustments using levels.</p><div></div>

[michaellinder]

<p>Smaller version . . .</p><div></div>

[Bill J Boyd]

<p>Rick, this is a great image. Bust since this is a "challenge" I wanted to give it a go. First I took it into LR 5.7 and did my normal adjustments, i.e., shadows, highlights, white, blacks, etc. Then took it to PS12 and used the Out-Of-Bounds tool I recently discovered in the Guided portion of that program. Seemed like a perfect situation to use this tool. </p><div></div>

[sarah_fox]

<p>Nice shot!</p>

<p>My usual inclination is to take a candid like this and go straight to monochrome. So that's why I'mengage in color for this exercise. :-) My goal was to balance out the light a tiny bit, kill some of the magenta tones in the face, and tighten the crop. I also cloned out distracting elements. Nothing fancy...</p><div></div>

[Sanford]

<p>I had the same idea Sarah...</p><div></div>

[sarah_fox]

<p>I still like B&W, though. ;)</p><div></div>

[michaellinder]

<p>Good call, Sarah! The B&W definitely was the way to go.</p>

[Sanford]

<p>Now throw in some "film grain" Sarah and I'll practically feal the music!</p>

[tombest]

<p>Simplified version with some of the background removed. Slight colorization as well. PSE 9 with some Topaz filters.</p>

<p>Tom</p><div></div>

[LineMartel]

<p>I adjusted lighting and white balance both in Camera raw and Color Efex. I also adjusted color and lighting in Color Efex and added a little bit of structure. I duplicate the image a few times and created a few circles from the tuba. I then applied a radial motion blur to the background. I added a few layers with gradients. I tweaked the color and highlights and shadows further more in PS. I created a B&W version and blended the luminosity in PS layers. Did local adjustments using layers and masks. Finally, cropped and framed.</p>

[LineMartel]

<p>Here is the image....</p>

<p> </p><div></div>

[LineMartel]

<p>I forgot to mention one step that might be useful to some:<br>

To remove reddish/magenta hues from the skin, I duplicate the layer, then add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. Select Red instead of the default Master. Boost saturation to 100% so you can see what will be affected. Reduce the color range to select only what is needed. Move the saturation back to 0 or a little on the negative side. Move the Hue towards yellow and adjust lightness if needed. This works wonder when you need to remove blotches and redness from skin. I then add a mask and remove anything that might have been affected where I did not want it.</p>

[jordan2240]

<p>I created a layer for shadows/highlights, and after doing some messing around, created a mask for it an applied some adjustment to the face only. Then I created a levels layer and blacked out what I could of the background, then used a painting layer to paint out the rest. I'm loving those layer masks, as they make it easy to make adjustments to only certain parts of the picture. Then I applied a layer for sharpening, and combined them all. Didn't do any messing around with artistic filters this time, though I can see where they might have fit quite nicely. All edits done in Photoshop Elements 13.</p><div></div>

[sarah_fox]

<p>Thanks, Line! I'll have to play with that technique! :-)</p>

[Rick Bortnick]

<p>Line - Wow!</p>

[panayotis_papadopoulos]

<p>Wow, beautiful versions, mine is a grainy BW. Burn & Dodge, selective contrast and brightness and add some grain, hope you like it. Cheers!</p><div></div>

[sunil_malkani]

<p>used cs6 to clone out brown loop,converted to BW with Nik HDR single image, created two layers each one with image on right and left merged the two layers to create mirror images to meet in the center.</p><div></div>

[archaeoImages]

<p>Another B&W version, variation on the "Dramatic Light" preset in Perfect BW8. Crop/resize in PS6.</p>

<div></div>

[gordonjb]

<p>Another B&W, Silver Efex Pro. Cloned out cable.</p><div></div>

[richard_]

<p>this image can really go a lot of ways; here though I try to emphasize the sunset backlighting as it falls behind over him. Just minor adj. in LR 4 with WB and exposure.</p><div></div>

[charles_h2]

<p>Just a little tweak here and there. Toned down the original colors, added a little blue, some sharpening, texture, and finally some blur.</p><div></div>

[charles_h2]

<p>#2</p><div></div>

[jordan2240]

<p>Good to see some new participants this week.</p>

<p>It's time for the 'weekly Wednesday solicitation' for a volunteer to post next week's challenge. Michael Linder will post if no one else wants to, but it would be nice to have someone new. Anyone?</p>