Highlighting the creative magic behind post-processed photos
1 video and 5 photo galleries from 5 photographers. If you’d like to participate, guidelines are on the After-Before Friday Forum page. NOTE: For those viewing the post in the Reader, if the slideshows don’t load, please visit the original post.
My submission: This week, I’m post-processing a photo that I could have, but did not, post as part of Weekly Photo Challenge: Contrasts. I’ll be showcasing post-processing steps using adjustments in the Basic, Tone Curve, HSL, Detail, and Effects Panels. I’d love to have any input, yay or nay, on my editing choices!
I’ve also included the after and before images.
Submitted by Loré Dombaj — Snow’s Fissures and Fractures
Loré says: This is a photo I took years ago in Versailles gardens. It was shot with analog camera and the original photo is scanned. I wanted to use one of the poorer images to see how it can be improved with the use of more advanced tools.
The original image was processed through Picmonkey online photo editor. A little bit of cropping, tinkering with exposure and sharpness, a few additional effects, and I think I ended up with an interesting final image.
Submitted by Benjamin Rowe — aperture64
Ben says: This week I am simply using Lightroom because not all images need to be HDRs.
See Ben’s post for his discussion of his post-processing.
Submitted by Robin Kent — PhotographybyKent
Robin says: This image was taken last year along the Oregon Coast during a road trip down the Pacific Highway. The scene depicts Cape Lookout, about 60-70 miles south of the Columbia River. We stopped at the Cape Lookout State Park for a picnic lunch and this was the scene from a table that, amazingly, was not already taken. As usual with a beach scene, there was a problem with contrasting light. But the clouds over the water and Cape Lookout in the distance combined with the yellow flowers in the foreground made it irresistible.
The “Before” version below is the original RAW image with no adjustments. The “After” image includes the adjustments made in Raw plus some adjustment layers (Curves and Hue/Saturation) in Photoshop CC. Details on the process can be found at my post.
Submitted by Jaime Perez — My Photolanguage
Please click on the links of those who contributed this week, to read about their post-processing steps and/or to see what other treasures they have on their blogs. They’d love to have you visit!
Visual Venturing 
Wonderful afters and befores! I like the video too. Very helpful.
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What a great idea, it isn’t very often that you get to see the before shot.
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Thanks, Leanne! It is so much fun to see and learn about the creative decisions others make. I’m really happy that others are enjoying and participating in the forum! Perhaps we might see a before-after from you at some point 😉
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Thanks, Jaime! And your question is a great one. The photographer who taught me his workflow in Lightroom always begins by editing tone, before color, suggesting that better decisions about color can be made when the tone is correctly rendered. When I get the opportunity, I will try and recreate this edit and begin with color before tone and see if it makes any difference both in the degree of other adjustments and in the final image. Does anyone have any input to offer on Jaime’s question?
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Excellent submissions this week Stacy, congratulations!
As for yours, I consider the warm color tones add a lot to the visual attractive of the image, I like that! Regarding the process steps, I would ask you if wouldn’t it be better (or more practical) to make that adjustment at the beginning of the edition process and, after that, apply the rest of the basic process steps you made? I’m asking because when color adjustments are made, all over the image, the complete scale is being affected, even shadows and brighter areas. What do you think? any specific purpose for doing it other way that I don’t see or know?
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Thanks for organizing the forum Stacy, also I enjoyed your video showing how you edited your image.
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Thanks for participating, Ben! I’m really enjoying seeing your submissions each week!
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This is so fun to do, thank you Stacy for hosting this challenge. Great images by other participants.
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So glad you are enjoying the forum, Loré! Really loved what you did with your image – testing the power of current technologies! I’m looking forward to seeing more photos from you in future ABFridays 🙂
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I already prepared photos for the next week. As I said, I have so much fun with this. 🙂
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Yay 🙂
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Quite a diverse set of examples here, Stacy. Very instructive. Thanks again for organizing this forum.
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Thanks for helping me get it going, Robin! I really love the insight into others’ creative decisions – so much fun, and as you say, so instructive.
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