ABFriday Week 31: One Photo Focus

Posted on by Stacy P. Fischer

Highlighting the creative magic behind post-processed photos

Welcome to the launch of ABFriday’s One Photo Focus! This week, 21 different photographers are sharing their post-processing interpretations of one “before” image submitted by our beloved, talented, and witty Emilio Pasquale of Photos by Emilio. I am so excited to share these wonderful images with all of you!

We begin with Emilio’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 the links to each participant’s blog as many have written posts “uncovering the magic” behind their “after” images. And if you would like to participate in February’s One Photo Focus and/or ABFriday in general, you’ll find all the details on the After-Before Friday Forum page. Come along and join this zany bunch – we’d love to have you!

Submitted by Emilio Pasquale — Photos by Emilio

Emilio says: I’m in a very privileged position this week- or at least I feel like I am. Not because this is one of my own images but because I, alone, know the story behind it. My wife and I spotted these trucks on the side of the 15 freeway in Northern Utah. We were …

Submitted by Stacy Fischer — Visual Venturing

Stacy Fischer After 31

When I saw Emilio’s trucks, I immediately thought of the movie “Cars” and the old television show “The Waltons” (yeah, I know I’m dating myself badly with this one).  Using the “Cars” approach, I could create an oversaturated cartoony look; using “The Waltons” as inspiration, I could create an old-time photo reminiscent of the era of the Great Depression, the time period in which the show was set. I guess you know what my choice was. While I normally put together a video of my post-processing steps, I’m still trying to find a user-friendly screen capture program to use with my new computer. Stay tuned to next week’s ABFriday, as my plan is to post my video there of this week’s post-processing efforts.

Thanks, Emilio, for getting One Photo Focus off to a great start!

Submitted by Robin Kent — PhotographybyKent

Robin says: Thanks go to Emilio Pasquale for submitting an interesting challenge on our first running of One Photo Focus, ™ an exclusive feature on the AfterBefore Friday Forum.  My first thought when I saw the image was that it was a photograph of the set for the night-time drag race scene in the movie “Rebel Without a Cause.”   I can’t wait to see what other interpretations will be unveiled today.  Details on the evolution from the original to my final version can be found here.

 Submitted by Stacey/Lensaddiction — Learning to See Light Photography Blog


Stacey says: Summary of post processing – the before image had basic processing in LR  – changed to daylight white balance, tweaked highlights, contrast, vibrance, and clarity a bit.

Jumping over to PS, the after image has the cars processed in Nik Color Efex with a Bleach Bypass and added detail and then a sepia toning added.  The US map layer was colour adjusted to the same sepia tone and the map layer brushed through around the edges of the car.  Finally a grunge texture added to age the whole image added in and blended with overlay mode and opacity toned down a bit.

Its my first go at the AB Challenge and I am a bit nervous seeing as I recently enrolled in the Photoshop Artistry Fine Art Grunge course and this is my first REAL go at actually using the techniques.  A month ago I didn’t know how to do ANY of these techniques and I wanted a way of portraying both the age of the old trucks and their unique US heritage. I hope you enjoy 🙂

Submitted by Max 510 — Max510’s Blog

Max 510 screenshot 2
Max says: Here is my work with the Emilio shot. I send you also two screenshots of first regulation in LR.  I made first simple regulation in LR with temperature, light, shadow, etc, then completed with Color Efex set on “detail extractor.” Hope you enjoy!

Submitted by Laura Macky — Laura Macky Photography

Laura Macky After 31

Image courtesy of Emilio Pasquale

 Submitted by Karen Chengelis — KCinAZ

Karen says: Thanks Emilio for sharing with us such a fantastic image of vintage trucks for us to work on.  I just bought a new book, my first on Lightroom and actually read through it as I edited the picture.  Mostly in Lightroom I stepped through the right-side panels and tried out a few different settings which enhance the color, hue and saturation plus a few others.  Hopefully not overdone.  Next, the image was cropped and straightened a slight bit.  In Photoshop I used the bandaid to remove the rope/hose from the right side and to take a few spots out of the yellow truck window.  Lastly, in Photoshop the patch tool was used to remove a couple of rocks and the piece of wood.  This was a fun learning image for me and can’t wait to see how everyone else approached it.  Thanks, Stacy, for all your hard work to get this off the ground.  I really enjoyed working on Emilio’s image.

 Submitted by Max — Cardinal Guzman

Submitted by desleyjane — Musings of a Frequent Flying Scientist

Submitted by Robyn Gosby — Captivate Me

Submitted by Mary Hone — Tales from the Backroad

Submitted by Loré Dombaj — Snow’s Fissures and Fractures

Loré says: I must say I really liked Emilio’s image, it was a good experience trying different editing choices. First thing I did was to crop the image, so I lost parts of the image that I didn’t like. Again, I flipped the image and I really think it works better this way. Usual stuff followed – adjusting exposure and colors, the colors worked great on those old trucks, that part really surprised me. In the end I was looking for the way to deal with the blurriness of the image and used a little trick I learned. The effect is called FocalSoften and it focuses on one particular part of the image, while everything else becomes more soft. It is an optical illusion, the soft background makes the focal part more clear.

Submitted by Janice Meyers Foreman — jmeyersforeman photography

Janice says: I knew exactly what I wanted to do with his image the minute I opened the file, for me it was begging for a happy face on the front of the yellow truck! Photoshop has some interesting Blur tools in the Blur Gallery that I have been playing with. I am not sure I want to use them all the time, but here they help to separate the first truck from the others, giving the image a stronger center of interest.

Submitted by Michelle Lunato — Michelle Lunato Photography

Submitted by Shane Francescut — The Weekly Minute

Submitted by Benjamin Rowe — aperture64

Submitted by Katie Prior — Drawing with Light

Katie Prior, Drawing with Light

Submitted by Cee Neuner — Cee’s Photography

Cee Neuner After 31

Submitted by Jaime Perez — My Photolanguage

Emilio's Trucks

Jaime says: As this beautiful image from Emilio evokes old times, due to the trucks models, I decided turning the photo into B&W, as well as a bit of sepia tone. Finally, I added a frame and tried to simulate the photo stuck to a familiar photo album. I hope you enjoy it.

Congratulations to you all for this wonderful event at ABFriday!

Submitted by Manal Ali — A Single Shutter

Emilio's Trucks

Submitted by Nancy / dogear6— Living the Seasons

Emilio's Cars

 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!

85 thoughts on “ABFriday Week 31: One Photo Focus”

  1. Pingback: One Photo Focus 2 | musings of a frequent flying scientist
  2. Pingback: ABFriday Week 33/February One Photo Focus Reveal | Visual Venturing

  3. Here I am, at last. I just calculated, between all the challenges I do every week, I make some 150 visits to different blogs, leaving comments on most of them. That is crazy, I’ll need to do something about that.
    I like what you did with the image, it is so light and still it works so well. It really reminds me of the old comic books.
    Overall, I am so happy with the success of the One Photo Focus. So many participants, new and returning, it is a great testament to you as our very gracious host. I remember when I first started to participate, there were maybe 5 other people, but I felt so welcomed and comfortable, that I never considered giving up.

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    • Hi, Loré! If you figure it out, please let me know. From the beginning of blogging, I have always felt that commenting was so very important. I still feel that way, but I have to admit that I am now entering the dark side and beginning to use the “like” button alone. With ABFriday, I want to take the time to comment because each of you are putting yourselves out there for the benefit of the challenge (and, heck, I really like you all 😉). And I like to keep up with those who comment on my posts. But somedays just getting to the reader is difficult. It’s a conundrum…

      Anyway, thanks much for your especially kind comment. I love having you aboard – you always add a fun, new twist to your photos. As for One Photo Focus, it definitely seems to spark peoples’ interest. It will be interesting to see if/how it grows.

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  4. I echo the comments above – thank you Stacy for letting me participate and to Emilio for providing such a great photo. I loved seeing how everyone did it – such great results!

    Nancy

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  6. Wow, 21 participants! Thanks so much Stacy for hosting this extravaganza. And thanks to every who participated. It is fascinating to see all of the different approaches. I wonder whether this can be topped next time.

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    • Hi, Carol! Thanks so much for your comment. Please know newbies and “oldies” alike are welcome! Even seemingly small, simple changes can take an image in a new direction. So feel free to share your learning here. We’re also great at answering questions and giving constructive feedback when asked 🙂

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  11. Fun fun fun Stacey!!
    I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working on the same image as everyone else and the results are fantastic, as is the variety.
    Love your Cars version.
    Thanks to you for hosting and to Emilio for providing the image and inspiration.
    Great first round for One Photo Focus!! 😀

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  13. Pingback: One Photo Focus 1 | musings of a frequent flying scientist

  15. What, no video? How disappointing. I love what you did but I want more. So you went with the animated “Cars” version, I see. Good choice.

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    • Ha! It’s coming, I promise. Guess it’s true that you can’t teach old dogs new tricks, or something like that, cuz this new video stuff is giving my brain a workout! But I WILL prevail (she says emphatically). Yeah, really love the “Cars” version, though I think Ben might have stolen my idea 😉

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  16. This post went up at 2am my time, so apologies for the delay in saying THANKYOU to Stacy for hosting this extra fun challenge, and to Emilio for providing such a versatile image. I am really excited to see all the different variations, and will be visiting everyones sites later today (haven’t had breakfast yet!) to see the big versions and learn what techniques you used. Lots to learn from!

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    • No apologies necessary, Stacey 🙂 Synchronized timing can be a bit tricky at first (I’ve put a time zone converter on the ABF Forum page, FYI, to help.) I’ve learned so many things from what others have done since ABF first began – and what’s great is that I can always revisit their posts if I ever need to. Have fun visiting. I’m just beginning that fun adventure today!

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  17. Thanks Stacy for being the perfect hostess, and thanks to Emilio for such a great image that has produced some very different and amazing results. So many participants this time too! Great image Stacy, funny, I thought of the Waltons when I saw it too!

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  18. Bravo, good synchronization between all !! the result is excellent !! treatments are more or less happy !! j ‘appreciate the HDR effect and concersion in black and white! thank you for your sharing Stacy !!

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