Highlighting the creative magic behind post-processed photos
The Anniversary Afters are here! This week, you get to see over a dozen different post-processing interpretations of one image: a scene of the Arno River in Florence, Italy taken by Karen Chengelis of KCinAZ. And, oh, what creativity there is. Opening the emails from each participant was like opening presents on Christmas!
It’s been a fun three weeks on ABFriday. To recap, back in Week 23, 11 photographers submitted unedited images and you, our loyal readers, then spent the next 10 days voting on which one you wanted to see post-processed by all of us. Last week, Week 25, we revealed Karen’s image the “winner.” And this week, Week 26, we celebrate After-Before Friday’s half-year anniversary with this very special post. All of us hope you enjoy it as much as we have enjoyed putting it together!
So, without further ado, here is Karen’s “before” image, followed by the “afters,” and at the end, a gallery of all so you can watch the changes as you scroll through. Be sure to click on the links to each participant’s blog – you’ll find their own posts “uncovering the magic” behind their “after” images!
Submitted by Karen Chengelis — KCinAZ
Submitted by Stacy Fischer — Visual Venturing
Okay, so I cheated a bit and submitted two images, but I just couldn’t decide which one I liked better. And I figure as the forum curator, I have a little leeway 🙂 Also, I wanted to have this post flow from one image to the next, so I’m breaking out of my ABF mold and will write a separate post on my post-processing steps.
Submitted by Emilio Pasquale — Photos by Emilio
Emilio says: Well, I’ve been having a lot of fun with being the runner-up to Karen’s winning submission! I wanted to wax philosophical about my loss and looked up a few quotes. They are, in no particular order:
“The biggest thing I learned from losing? Winning’s better.” Ted Turner
“Show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser.” Vince Lombardi
“Second place is just the first place loser.” Dale Earnhardt
“Just because I lost, doesn’t make me a loser!” Emilio Pasquale
Submitted by Robin Kent — PhotographybyKent
Submitted by Janice Meyers Foreman — jmeyersforeman photography
Janice says: I wanted to create something that was completely my own. I have in the past used a textured layer, to enhance and change images. When combining images with a textured layer, I have an an opportunity to expand the image from what I saw, to what I felt. By adding textures to the image along with other Photoshop processes, I can change the mood and convey the emotions I felt when witnessing what was before the camera. It was interesting that this image was chosen for the forum, as I had just a couple of weeks ago travelled to Florence and photographed the same river and bridge! I remember the feeling of wonder as I walked down the street viewing the artists sitting painting. I knew I wanted to create an image that reflected those beautiful watercolours as well as the scene before me.
Submitted by Loré Dombaj — Snow’s Fissures and Fractures
Loré says: Facing the challenge of editing the same image as the rest of our merry little band, made me think really hard. I guessed there would be some monochrome versions, some cropped versions and versions that would probably make my jaw drop in astonishment. So, I decided to go overboard and play to the fullest. When I figured out I wanted to turn the image into a painting-look-alike, the biggest thing was to crop it, so I coud get this long, streched composition mimicking the real canvas. When I converted it into oil painting through FotoSketcher, I played some more with colors and exposure. Voila!
Submitted by Shane Francescut — The Weekly Minute
Submitted by Katie Prior — Drawing with Light
Katie says: Congratulations to Stacy on her 6 month anniversary and thanks to her for organising it and Loré for sowing the seed of an idea that has grown into the post that is AfterBeforeFriday “The Reveal!”.
Submitted by Benjamin Rowe — aperture64
Submitted by Manal Ali — A Single Shutter
Submitted by Cee Neuner — Cee’s Photography
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!
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!
Visual Venturing 
Really great to see the variations in post processing, I love how creative everyone was and it was great participating in this! Also great to see where you could have improved in your own processing 🙂
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Absolutely, Manal – seeing what others had done was certainly educational – and most definitely fun! Thanks for being a part of it 🙂
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Wow, such a wonderful and varied gallery of this great photo.
Very inspiring 🙂
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Thanks, Robyn, and thanks for the shout-out on your One-Four Challenge!
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A pleasure Stacy 😊
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Oh I thought we would get to vote again. I was revving up for it. Haha! I thought it was so interesting to see all the different moods that were reflected in the various edits. After some pondering I think my fave is Emilio’s … the darkened clouds with the light sifting through provides a sense of foreboding, like something bad is about to happen – it almost needs mood music. Happy anniversary. Good work organising !
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LOL! Nope, voting’s over. But Emilio had so much fun, he wants to do this again 🙂 I’ll have to make sure he gets back here to read your comment – it will make him very happy, after all his angst over having the second most chosen image! Thanks for “playing”!
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Great job everybody! Love the color pallet represented in that wonderful gallery at the end. It’s so incredible the different visions of everyone on the picture. I like them all; inclusive Stacy’s monochrome, it looks so elegant!
Comment apart to Robin’s version because it’s quite different from the style we’re used to see from him; very innovating. And, also, to Ben and Emilio’s treatment of the sky, the hardest part of the image; amazing result!
But, what I would like to highlight the most is the aim of all the participants around the idea, and the reflected enthusiasm of the ABFriday community with this wonderful project.
So, congratulations to you all and, especially, to Stacy, for being the engine (and leader) that kept everything in order and working properly for the success of this first great event that was “Week 26th”!
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How fun it is to have you part of this, Jaime! Each image was instructive in its own right – I’m eager to finally get some time today to visit everyone’s posts to read about their processes. Glad you liked my monochrome – I got a “sorry, I didn’t really like that one” from my other half 😉 It was fun to have everyone working together to bring the project together, and everyone was good sports about promoting the challenge on their own blogs. All in all, a successful anniversary celebration, made even sweeter by you returning for the event!
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amazing afters!!! Enjoyed each one!!!
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So glad you did, dune mouse 🙂 Thanks for stopping in!
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Stacy.. sorry for the so late post on your image. I too like others really liked your black and white rendition. You have a great eye for showing off the b/w, but I also loved the pastel look of your second image. This was a lot of fun and a lot of hard work on your part to pull it off. Kudos to you for pulling it all together!
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Sorry for the late reply 😉 Thanks, Karen. As I said, I was torn – it’s been great to get feedback on what people like and why. Always great learning on ABFriday!
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out of your two I prefer the colour version, the black and white would work well in my opinion with out the water but the colour is overall stronger.
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Ben, that’s a great thought about the water. I’m going to crop it using a 16×9 ratio – and I think you’re right that it will become a much stronger image. Thanks for that! It was fun to try two totally different approaches 🙂
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How wonderful they all are. And, what a great collaboration. I’m just off to learn more processing skills but I shall be back – soon I hope.
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Thanks so much, sixpixx! We look forward to you joining us! Come at whatever level you’d like – we’re open to beginners as well as those very comfortable with post-processing. It’s all about the learning 🙂
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Thanks Stacy. That sounds welcoming. Maybe I shall try to get my head around it for the next round 🙂
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That’s the spirit 🙂 I don’t know where you are, but if you do, the deadline for submissions is midnight EST (New York City) time this Wednesday – but I know the person in charge is pretty flexible 😉 Be sure to visit the forum page for helpful tips. And if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask. It’s all about F.U.N. 🙂 (See how many smiley faces I’ve used?)
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🙂 https://visualventuring.com/after-before-friday-forum/
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Thanks – off to take a look now.
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About your two versions; I was headed towards a b & w version but then thought it was a disservice to the colorful buildings. I now see I was wrong. The texture of the paint on the buildings is now more obvious to me. I also like the slight tone you added. In your color version it looks like you might have played with the color in the water as well as adding a bit of highlighting on the buildings. It will be interesting to see what you actually did when you write your post!
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Oops, guess I really do need to get to that post 😉 Thanks, Emilio. You’re the third who has liked the B&W, and I say that because my hubby didn’t. I’ll just have to make sure he reads all these posts 🙂 You added beautiful highlights to yours, but I’m going to comment on your own blog about that!
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I really like this one! Congratulations, Stacy!
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Thanks, Amy 🙂 Congratulations to all of us – it was a group effort in so many ways, from ideas about how best to go about it to everyone being willing to deal with the different information that was needed on certain Fridays 🙂
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Great gallery 🙂
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Glad you enjoyed it, Sarah!
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It was great to be involved with the anniversary challenge. I loved seeing all the different variations on the Riverfront image and the many creative ideas.
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Thanks for supplying the image, Karen 🙂
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Congratulations, Stacy on organizing a great multi-participant post. And thanks go to Loré for coming up with the idea. I was amazed at the many different ways the image was interpreted. There is a wealth of talent in this group. Stacy, I like you monochrome interpretation a lot. It has a soft, dream-like mood that is perfect for the scene.
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Thanks, Robin! It was fun, wasn’t it? Emilio is so excited he wants to make it a recurring event! As for the monochrome, as I said to Janice, my husband told me he didn’t like that one … oh, well. Good thing we get along in spite of our artistic differences 🙂 I feel vindicated that a few of you DO like it!
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Hi Stacy, I love your monochrome, sometimes it is hard to choose, between colour and monochrome! this has been a wonderful challenge, great to see so many different types of processes, and get to know everyone! thanks for all your hard work, and thanks for including my images from week to week!
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You’re so very welcome, Janice. I’m glad you liked the monochrome. My husband didn’t 😉 To each his own, right? I wasn’t sure going in whether I could do justice to the colors in the original. I also liked the idea of giving it a line drawing effect, like a postcard. Anyway, it was fun to experiment 🙂
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Husbands can’t like everything we do! each to his own it helps to create the dynamic tension; the give and take of good composition, using a composition as a metaphor for marriage, or is a marriage as a metaphor for a good composition! 🙂
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Ha! Very well said 🙂
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Wow! I am blown away by the talent represented in this post and I believe this to be the most exciting challenge I have ever participated in. I think it should be a recurring event. Once a month wouldn’t be too often for my taste. I think you learn a lot more when you all work on the same image. I had problems with the sky and it was nice to read what Ben did- though I didn’t understand one word he was saying as I have never gone near Photoshop. I can’t wait to get to work today so I can comment to everyone (don’t tell my boss but yes, that’s where I do most of my commenting from). Stacy, if you don’t make this a recurring event I might just have to do it myself! Thank you for coming up with the idea (whose idea was it again?). I am still so excited by the results ! 🙂 🙂 🙂
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Emilio, I’m so enjoying your excitement over the challenge! Pardon my late response – I hope your enthusiasm hasn’t dwindled any 😉 It would be fun to do this again. Obviously, we wouldn’t need to do a poll. We could submit via rotation for those who want to do this. I’ll send an email out to all who participated here to gauge interest. And it was Loré’s idea 🙂
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Wow, what an excellent collection of processed images.
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They are great, Shane 🙂 So much creative talent!
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These are all great images. Looks like we have had a lot of fun with celebration your hosting this challenge. Thanks so much for hosting this effort. 🙂
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Thanks, Cee! After all the preparation and build up, it’s going to be a bit hard to return to the typical format, I think 😉
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You people really took this challenge seriously! I am blown away by what others did and a little bit diaspointed in my own work, I should have done more. To top it off, I sent Stacy a wrong image. 😀 No significant difference, just a little bit of angling and coloring.
Stacy, stunning editing job on both. There is a silver shade on your monochrome that makes the whole scene shine. And the colors on the other are too beatiful to put in words. Amazing work.
I’ll be visiting other participants and try to leave my impresions.
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Loré, disappointed??? I think not! I love how you chose the oil painting look – coupled with the way you cropped it, it works wonderfully! Now as for sending me the wrong image, please feel free to send me the one you intended. I’m happy to update — no unhappy posters here 😉
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No need for that, the changes are not significant. I will be posting the intended image on my blog, so you’ll see it’s not a big deal.
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Great post Stacy, well done for bringing it together for us! Nice to see Jaime again too. I like both your images, but the toned down colour image looks superb. I look forward to the post processing post to see how you did your sky, I’m intrigued! 🙂
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Thanks, Katie! You all made it so much fun 🙂 As for my post, I’m going to get to it over the weekend – thanks for noticing the sky, by the way. And it really wasn’t very hard, I say mysteriously 😉
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It’s interesting to see the different results. I’d like to join. Do I send you a photo or do you send me a photo that I’m supposed to edit?
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Cardinal, it would be wonderful to have you along! This week was special, with all of us post-processing the same image. The normal procedure is for you to choose your own image that you post-process. You submit both images to me that I include in my post. Here’s an explanation of how it works: After-Before Friday Forum/, with links to all the past posts so you can see an example. You can participate as often or as little as you wish. If you have any questions, let me know. I look forward to your participation!
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Very cool!
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Hey, Desleyjane! Thanks for taking a look 🙂
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