Highlighting the creative magic behind post-processed photos

The 13th installment of ABFriday, but nothing unlucky about the forum this week! 1 video and 15 photos to view this week. Once again, many thanks to all who have submitted their work. For those thinking about participating, we’d love to have you! Guidelines are on the After-Before Friday Forum page.

My submission: This week, while I perform basic edits in Lightroom, I spend the second half of the video demonstrating the importance of cropping and post-crop vignetting in creating a more compelling final image.

I’d be interested to hear any thoughts, either on the photo itself or on the tutorial. Also, if there’s anything you’d like me to focus on in an upcoming tutorial, I’d be happy to try to oblige!

I’ve also included the after and before images.

Bonaparte (After), by Stacy Fischer, Visual Venturing

Bonaparte (Before), by Stacy Fischer, Visual Venturing

Submitted by Robin Kent — PhotographybyKent

(After), by Robin Kent, PhotographybyKent

(Before), by Robin Kent, PhotographybyKent

Robin says: This week’s submission to Stacy Fischer’s After-Before Friday Forum was taken at Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park. I arrived at the shoreline in the late afternoon hoping for a nice sunset image. While waiting, I noticed that as the sun dropped toward the horizon, the low angular light was having an increasingly dramatic effect on some boats stacked on top of a dock. But the RAW file that resulted (Before Image) failed to convey the intense colors I saw. The After image was produced with a number of adjustments in Adobe Camera RAW and some additional work in Photoshop. For those interested in the step-by-step process, please visit my post here.

Submitted by Loré Dombaj — Snow’s Fissures and Fractures

Watch (Before), Loré Dombaj, Snow’s Fissures and Fractures

Watch, Sunset (After), Loré Dombaj, Snow’s Fissures and Fractures

Watch, Night (After), Loré Dombaj, Snow’s Fissures and Fractures

Loré says: As you know, I am always in a pursuit of something different. I tried to recreate a different part of a day from the same photo. The original photo was taken in the morning, the first “after” is supposed to be at the sunset and the second “after” is supposed to be at the night. Images were post-processed in PicMonkey with the usual stuff – adjusting exposure and saturation, adding few effects. There will be a longer post with some screenshots on my blog.

Submitted by Karen Chengelis — KCinAZ

(After) Karen Chengelis, KCinAZ

(Before) Karen Chengelis, KCinAZ

Karen says: Visit my post for a description of my steps. You can definitely see a difference on this set!

Submitted by Jaime Perez — My Photolanguage

(After), Jaime Perez, My Photolanguage

(Before), Jaime Perez, My Photolanguage

Jaime says: As I’ve recently posted this image to the “Weekly Photo Challenge Texture,” I decided not to post it again. So, I hope you like the edition I made to have the final version and enjoy trying to discover what I did. Any comment, like or dislike, I’d appreciate you to make it directly in the original post here. Many thanks in advance!

Submitted by Benjamin Rowe — aperture64

(After), Benjamin Rowe, Aperture64

(Before), Benjamin Rowe, Aperture64

Ben says: I was riding my bike to the botanical gardens, I approached a park I had to ride through, I stopped and had to take a picture. It looked so picturesque and cinematic. When I was importing the shots to Lightroom and thought an infrared look would make it look even more fantastical.

Submitted by Emilio Pasquale — Photos by Emilio

Pine Barn (After), by Emilio Pasquale, Photos by Emilio

Pine Barn (Before), by Emilio Pasquale, Photos by Emilio

Emilio says: It was a lazy Saturday afternoon, the wife out of town, dishes piled in the sink, bed unmade. We had been to Pine Mountain UT two years earlier and I wanted to return to take some photos. Couldn’t believe Google Maps saying it was 3 and a half hours away. But I started out at 1:30 hoping to reach the area by golden hour. Guess they don’t know how I drive. I shaved a full hour off the total time and arrived long before golden hour, yet just in time for a torrential downpour. Thunder and lightning and gusty winds! Coming from sun drenched Nevada, suffering through a four year drought, I felt as if I were in heaven! I drove with the windows open along the final few miles to Pine Mountain getting soaked. Not one good photo came from there. But along the way, before the rains, I did stop along the side of the road to capture this image. When I opened it in Lightroom I was unsure how much I could push it. When viewed 1:1 there is some noise in the sky that I can think I can work on! I hope you enjoy!

 My inclusion of this second gallery of my photos is a workaround for the WordPress mobile Reader, which I discovered last week does not post my chosen featured image but seemingly the last image in the last gallery of the post. I don’t want to take credit for anyone else’s work, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this will work.

Bonaparte (Before), by Stacy Fischer, Visual Venturing

Bonaparte (After), by Stacy Fischer, Visual Venturing

 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!

So what do you think of the ABFriday forum?

Feel free to leave your thoughts and suggestions in the comment section. And don’t forget to view the guidelines if you want to participate. I’d love to have you onboard!