Highlighting the creative magic behind post-processed photos
Happy December everyone! Welcome to our newest ABF participants: Sabina (Victim to Charm), Kaz G. (daysandmonths), Nic (Photography by Nic), and Michelle (Michelle Lunato Photography). And, of course, welcome back to our regulars. What wonderful after-before galleries you have all submitted!
While I took a break from hosting ABFriday last week to enjoy family time over the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, ABF is back in full force until December 19. After that, there will be another two-week hiatus for the Christmas holidays. (Be sure to check the ABFriday Forum page for all the dates and deadlines.) Keep your eyes open, though, for a special pre-scheduled post on Friday, December 26, announcing some fun new plans for ABF in 2015!
My submission: This week’s short and straightforward video demonstrates basic Lightroom 5 post-processing of a highly underexposed image. For those who watch the video, I’d be interested in finding out whether you prefer the landscape or the square crop.
Submitted by Robin Kent — PhotographybyKent
Robin says: This week I thought I would recycle an image that had been prepared a few weeks ago on the off chance there would be a stunning upset the ABFriday Week 26 Reader’s Poll. (That is, on the implausible possibility that my submitted image won the vote.) The vote went as I expected (even I voted for another one) but now the deadline approaches for Week 27 and I need to get something out. If you click on this link, you can find out what the object in the image actually is and what it does (or, sadly, what it used to do).
Submitted by Janice Meyers Foreman — jmeyersforeman photography
Janice says: Over the last couple of weeks, we have been visiting Christmas Markets in Europe, it seems most of the great images are taken at night. Before leaving home to see the markets we did quite a bit of reading, planning our trip, but I don’t remember reading about all the Ferris wheels, carrousels, and amusement rides. I think that has been my biggest surprise. That and the weather, it has been colder here than expected, everyone tells us it is colder than they are use to. It is not as cold here as it is at home in Calgary, but I get pretty cold when I am standing around outside taking photos. It seems when photographing the lights of the amusement rides we have a choice one fast enough to stop the movement or one slow enough to see the movement, this week I layered two photos. Let me know what you think, or if you have any suggestions regarding the process and improving the results.
Submitted by Sabina — Victim To Charm
Sabina says: This photo was taken at the waterfront in Portland, Oregon in August. I’ve recently been discovering the magic of S-curves on Photoshop, which made this photo really come together in post-processing.
Submitted by Kaz G. — daysandmonths
Karen says: I have always loved dandelion photos and finally had the opportunity to do one myself when I saw quite a few out in the garden the other day. It was quite a windy day so I had to photograph it indoors and used the natural light from outside. I don’t own a macro lens so used two extension tubes on my 18-200mm kit lens, which I thought did admirably well for what I needed. I post processed firstly in Photomatix Essentials then in Lightrom 5.2.
For more details go to my blog – daysandmonths.com – and click on the AB Friday post.
Submitted by Emilio Pasquale — Photos by Emilio
Emilio says: Searching my archives, I came up with this image that was shot on the one day my new bride finally allowed me to leave the bedroom for a bathroom break during our honeymoon in Paris (that’s a part of France for those who do not travel much). Actually, those who follow my blog might remember that my wife and I stopped at a Costco in Illinois (part of the United States) on our wedding day so, of course I am lying. This photo is actually a detail of the Paris Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas (part of Nevada), where we live….
Submitted by Loré Dombaj — Snow’s Fissures and Fractures
Loré says: I have no idea what happened here. I was looking through the images and stumbled upon this one. It just screamed at me: “Pick me! Pick me!” I started with no idea what to do and somehow ended with this Freaky Christmas Card. I mean, look at them. That is one freaky family. You can find more detailed explanation on my blog.
Submitted by Katie Prior — Drawing with Light
Katie says: Today has been a very cold and clear day here. I found this rhododendron bud covered in frost in our back garden and wanted to make it appear even more wintry. I reduced the temperature and saturation in Lightroom and had to learn a bit about chromatic aberration.
Submitted by Benjamin Rowe — Aperture64
Ben says: I spent last week freezing myself in the cold looking for an interesting place to photograph and came across this closed adventure/theme park. Processed in Color Efex so something different.
Submitted by Leanne Cole — Leanne Cole Photography
Leanne says: This is a photo that I took of a fountain in the city of Melbourne near Parliament House. I decided to make it monochrome because I thought the water would stand out more, which it does. The park behind it was too distracting. Once I turned it into black and white, and made the greens and yellows a lot darker, then the water started to be more prominent, the distractions gone.
Visit Leanne’s post on her art blog to read about her post-processing.
Submitted by Nic Anderson — Photography by Nic
Nic says: I thought it would be fun to have an after-before tutorial where I fix green eye… red eye for pets.
Submitted by Michelle Lunato — Michelle Lunato Photography
Michelle says: This picture was taken on NOV 16 in Atlanta while I was driving back to my military unit. I noticed the trains immediately but had to go to work. So, at lunch a drug a friend out with me and we ran over to the tracks so I could take some photographs. She pulled guard while I took pictures from different angles, LOL. Visit my post for all the post-processing details.
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 
I just watched the video… I’m a bit behind. Great tutorial, I mainly use Lightroom for it’s database properties, so it’s neat to see how to do the development side of the software. I think I liked the rectangle image better. 🙂
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Nic, LR is such a strong application for post-processing. So much so that it’s capabilities were finally brought into Photoshop as Adobe Camera Raw. In fact, I do most of my post-processing in LR and save the pixel-level editing for Photoshop. Thanks for watching and for your “vote.” Seems the rectangle won 🙂
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Ah that makes sense… I do a lot of work in camera raw, only the minute stuff do I actually do in photoshop. 🙂
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I finally sat down to watch the video. I love all the detail. I prefer the landscape crop. I think the empty/negative space give the stoneware some breathing room and make them stand out more.
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Hi, Michelle. Thanks so much for taking the time to watch it! It seems landscape has won out. I feel good about that. Sometimes it’s the simple edits that can stump us 🙂
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Thanks for the informative, as usual, video. Always interesting to see how its done. The shadows are great, no wonder you spent so long searching the house to get photos! I think the tone of the picture is just perfect, the neutral colours of the earthenware pots give it a sort of tinted monochrome look anyway. Of the two images, I prefer the square crop as it shows the shadows off so nicely, but if I’m really honest, I like the original aspect of the before photo as with it you get the shadows from the window and the negative space. I can see why you were so stuck deciding which crop to use! Altogether a great image! 🙂
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Thanks, Katie. I smiled as you went from the square crop to the rectangular – can’t tell you how many times I went back and forth. Thanks for your input. It seems the landscape crop is winning 🙂
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Hi Stacy, love the video, it really highlights (pun intended) the value of shooting RAW, some much more that can be done when we don’t get it perfect in camera! It is going to take me all week just to get to check out all the contributors. It looks like a great week of images, so I am sure there is lots to learn. I have been drawn to the square format recently, not sure why, but it reminds me of the old photos, does anyone else remember the 2 1/4 by 2 1/4 black and whites? Thanks for including with this find group of photographers.
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Thanks, Janice, and thanks for watching the video. I don’t know how you found the time to do that! And, yes, I do remember the square black and whites 🙂 So glad to have you here!
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Thanks for the video and the recommendation on the recording software! I liked the rectangle better. The square was good, but I liked having more visual / negative space around the objects.
Nancy
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You’re very welcome! And thanks for your input, Nancy. I liked the balance the negative space created too.
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OK, I was just able to watch your video but the people at work were very rude. I had to keep telling them to shut up! Anyway, I would have liked to have seen the image in black and white. I did prefer the landscape version rather than the square. And I loved your explanation. Wish I knew how to do a video like that. There were not very many steps in your tutorial this week but sometimes you don’t really need to do somersaults when you start with a great photo!
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Thanks for watching, Emilio. If I can do it, anyone can. I use a program called MyScreenRecorder (I have a PC). The only thing I don’t like about it is that I can’t edit it. So if I make a huge mistake far into it, I either have to start all over or simply keep it in. I think there’s a pro version that will accommodate editing, but of course there’s a fee (I can’t remember how much or even what, if anything, I paid for the program, but I did download it from online.)
I actually tried black and white while I was doing my initial post-processing, but I surprisingly didn’t like it as much as the final one with the decreased vibrance. Thanks for your input on the crop. I had so many versions (apart from the 1:1) that I found it difficult to ultimately choose!
Thank goodness for RAW (ok, I finally realized my spelling error….), otherwise the underexposure probably would have been difficult to rectify!
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Why doesn’t my pingback show up? I must be doing something wrong. Anyway, I haven’t looked at your video yet. Yours is always the last one I look at because I want to take my time with your lovely voice! (See? I can do compliments!) You asked how we felt about ABF. Well, I think it’s one of my most favorite blogs on the internet. (Second compliment!) I start my week wit Monochromia, and end it with ABF! What could be better?
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Hmm, I didn’t get notice of a ping back, Emilio. Strange.
As for the rest of your comment, consider yourself redeemed 😉
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I may have to do this challenge in the future. Thanks for sharing
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Would love to have you! And you’re so very welcome.
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I enjoyed the video. Good to learn about the ratio option. Thank you so much for the instruction, Stacy!
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Will try to remember to do one for the ABF next week 🙂
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Yay! 🙂
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🙂
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Thanks, Amy! Glad you found a useful tidbit in it 🙂
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I love the ABF !
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Ha, thanks, Meho! Someday you’ll have to join the fun 🙂
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