Highlighting the creative magic behind post-processed photos
Welcome to ABFriday’s monthly One Photo Focus! This month, 24 different photographers are sharing their post-processing interpretations of one “before” image submitted by Loré Dombaj of Snow’s Fissures and Fractures. Loré says “I took this picture on a beautiful Sunday morning, October 2006. I was visiting Salzburg and was just about to enter the lovely Mirabel gardens, a very beautiful place, when I spotted this cluster of tables in front of the cafe. The figure holding the plant captured my attention and I snapped it without much thought. Can’t wait to see the results. 😀”
We begin with Loré’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 April’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 Loré Dombaj — Snow’s Fissures and Fractures
Loré says: I knew there would be some great, crazy edits of my image, so I kept it simple. Few basic things, touch of color and a bit of Focal Soften. I was there and I remember how beautiful the day was, so I tried to bring it back from the corners of my memory.
Submitted by Stacy Fischer — Visual Venturing
When I first saw Loré’s image, I was absolutely stumped. I fiddled around in Lightroom to no avail. I imported into Color Efex Pro, my trusty sidekick, to no avail. So I decided to embark on a totally different post-processing workflow. I thought I’d take this lovely scene and transform it into a terrace overlooking some kind of scenic landscape. And with that, I ventured into layering in Photoshop. Now, this is not something I’m very adept at, but thanks to Loré, I have some much needed practice under my belt! For those who are wondering, the Salzburg cafe is now situated in Seattle 🙂
Submitted by Michelle Lunato — Michelle Lunato Photography
Submitted by Lynne Ayers — Beyond the Brush Photography
Lynne says: I chose to focus on the face of the statue with the flowers as a secondary focus. I decided not to crop or use a vignette because I didn’t want to crowd the subject.
Submitted by Robin Kent — PhotographybyKent
Robin says: I am excited to be participating again in the One Photo Focus “Show and Tell” after missing Number 2 last month (I had a good excuse. Really!) I must admit, however, that at first I was stumped by Loré’s image and it was only through a last-minute desperate act that I came up with something I liked. Whether anyone else does is a separate question.
Submitted by Janice Meyers Foreman — jmeyersforeman photography
Janice says: Over the last few months I have been following a couple of different blogs, photographers who are using phone cameras to take images and phone apps to process their images, typically referred to as iphonegraphy. I received the email with a link to the group challenge photo while visiting Chicxulub Mexico, there was no internet service at the apartment my parents had rented, so I decided to download the photo to my phone while sitting in a coffee shop. It was the perfect opportunity to try out a few of the apps I had been reading about and experimenting with.
Submitted by Katie Prior — Drawing with Light
Katie says: I really liked working with Loré’s image and it gave me a chance to try out a few new things.
Submitted by Cee Neuner — Cee’s Photography
Submitted by Nic Anderson — Photography by Nic
Nic says: Once I saw the statue in the photo I knew I wanted to focus in on that and do something artsy with it. I tried a few things, but in the end I liked the idea of making it look like it had been drawn and then shaded with greys.
Submitted by Stacey/Lensaddiction — Learning to See Light
Stacey says: With thanks to Loré for a challenging image I eventually saw that the lovely stone bowl and statue overflowing with flowers and foliage was the key to this image. What I then had to do was figure out how to get rid of all the “other” stuff around the edges. Details HERE.
Submitted by desleyjane — Musings of a Frequent Flying Scientist
Desley Jane says: I struggled a little with this one. I find the cherub’s face to be so sweet but a little hidden, so I tried to bring it out a little by vignetting the edges in the first two edits. I think the second edit with the closer landscape crop is my favourite, it seems to highlight the face. I also tried a square crop to focus on that cute face. Thanks to Stacy and Loré for this month’s challenge 🙂
Submitted by Jaime Perez — My Photolanguage
Jaime says: This week I enjoyed a lot post processing Loré’s beautiful picture. I did much more than I’m used to, just because I didn’t find what to do. Anyway, necessity is mother of invention so, I hope ABFriday’s community likes this version, and I’m looking forward to see what others did.
Submitted by Sara Poyfair — Sara Poyfair Photography
Submitted by Robyn — Captivate Me
Submitted by Mary Hone — Tales from the Backroad
Submitted by Nancy / dogear6 — Living the Seasons
Nancy says: As is my usual, I spent some time with Loré’s picture to evaluate what I saw and wanted to emphasize in it (thanks to Emilio for pointing out that’s how I do my pictures). The face of the cherub caught my attention and I decided that’s what my focus would be. I did some adjustments in Lightroom, then used the radial filters to lighten and darken specific areas. I cloned out the sign that was partially hidden behind the tree and cropped the picture to a square. I took the picture into Photoshop and applied several different Topaz filters to it as well as a border from OnOne.
Submitted by Nancy Merrill — nancy merrill photography
Visit Nancy’s post for information about what she did to Loré’s image.
Submitted by Amy — The World Is a Book
Amy says: For this one I explored the Efex and used the motion presetting.
First, I did some basic adjustments on the LR basic panel. Then, I moved the photo to the Efex Pro 2, clicked camera option and selected motion option. From there I played with the “zoom and rotate” a few times, clicked to apply these changes, and did a final re-touching — reducing the saturation and adding vignette, through LR. Voila!
Submitted by Marsha — Coolquilting
Marsha says: I noticed that there were lots of distractions in the background which could lead to endless editing grief. Luckily, I was really drawn to the face of the statue so the first edit I did was to do a severe crop to focus on the face(and thus eliminating any background distraction). I then took the cropped photo into Oggl and played with various combinations of lens and filters. I liked the effect with the Colaba pak……it gave a nice vintage look. My next step was with the app Scratchcam adding more filters, grain and scratches, to further age the photo. I liked it at this stage so I decided it was done. Please check out my blog post here: http://wp.me/pXgo5-1t4.
Submitted by Benjamin Rowe — Aperture64
Submitted by Max 510 — Max510’s Blog
Submitted by Raewyn — decocraftsdigicrafts
Submitted by Emilio Pasquale — Photos by Emilio
Emilio says: When I first saw Loré’s photo, I was stumped. I couldn’t add clouds to it! Then it came to me that it looks like a photo that would be hanging in a pizzeria. So after considerable processing I’ve come up with a faded representation of the original image- as if the colors have been faded with time, and by the result of the sun shining upon it day after day!
Submitted by Karen Chengelis — KCinAZ
Karen says :Thank you Loré Dombaj for sending us such a nice picture for One Photo Focus. I attempted to change it to Black & White and then recolorize the flower pot plants but still don’t have enough knowledge in Lightroom to do that. Probably should have brought it into Photoshop and done that there. Mainly I cropped the photo so that the boy’s eyes were at the bottom third line level. Then applied a few exposure changes plus white & black adjustments, added a beautiful sunlight 2 preset, and finally a vignette.
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 
What a great idea, to change the background. And it fits so well, it really looks like an original. Fabulous as ever, dear Stacy!
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Thanks for that Loré! Actually, though, it was kind of a cop out because I just couldn’t figure out how best to post-process the original 😉 Anyway, it was definitely a fun experiment and I loved seeing everyone’s creative edits!!
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I can’t believe how you pull this together and blog other things as well. THANK YOU SO MUCH. It’s fun and I love seeing what everyone else is doing. I agree with you that it’s going to take a while to visit everyone’s site and leave a comment. But that’s part of the fun too and a great way to learn some great techniques.
Although last month – I can’t remember who it was now – had straightened out their picture in Lightroom, whereas I did in Photoshop. When I asked how she did it, I had a big old DUH! slap to the forehead. I knew how to do that! I really did not think of it and did it the hard way instead.
Nancy
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You are so very welcome, Nancy 🙂 You are each so fun and supportive and that keeps me going! I get frustrated that I can’t reply to comments and visit everyone’s posts as quickly as I would like, but I know everyone understands that as well. As for the straightening, sometimes it’s the little tips – the ones we can use every day – that are the most helpful 🙂 I daresay you won’t forget using LR from here on out!
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Okay, everyone, it’s going to take me most of the weekend to get ’round to all of your wonderful entries! I loved seeing how each of you chose to treat Loré’s image and always find it fun to scroll through the gallery to watch the changes 🙂 Well done to all, especially to Lorè for sharing her quickly snapped photo with all of us! Another great 1PF!
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Let me start by saying thanks for all the work that you do to make this possible. I love the idea of editing, at least once in a while, someone else’s work. it is a little scary, but there is also a freedom of no preconceived idea of how it should look, or is suppose to look or how it looked with the photo was taken! We get to, if we want to experiment, try new things, which I did this week. I haven’t yet visited everyone’s edit, but I have visited a few, it is wonderful to see what photographers have done, and read about their choices. I learn so much, my mind’s eye is expanded with these blog posts, it is wonderful.
All that said I wanted to tell you I love the idea of putting in a new background, and your video showing how that is done is pretty good. I know it was late at night, and things did not go perfectly for you, but that is okay to. it is important for us to see how others resolve problems, and not to be afraid to get started. I work a lot with layers, and textures etc, but the copy and paste, masking one photo into another like you did for the background is something completely new, and I will have to give it a try…..
thanks again, janice
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Wow, I really showed you something new in PS Janice?? Well, that’s pretty awesome 🙂 I’m glad that, despite my bumbling, you could get a feel for the method. I still don’t know why the first attempt ended in that weird jpeg icon – perhaps it had something to do with the background layer that was created. It worked the first time like magic to make the selection, copy it, and then simply paste it onto the other image. So give THAT a try! Thanks for your unending support too – I truly do appreciate it!
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Wow, 24 participants! Very impressive gallery of interpretations. Today is the day to look them over more carefully. Thanks, Stacy for the hard work in organizing this and thanks to Loré for her image.
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Oh, and I also wanted to say that it was great to Jaime Perez in the mix again.
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Many thanks for that thought, my dear friend Robin ; it’s an entire pleasure for me!
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WOW so many people this time, awesome! And all different variations too 🙂 Stacy I love your replacement background, I considered doing that initially but was daunted by dealing with all the detail in the foliage so I covered it up instead 🙂
Thanks Lore for a challenging image and congrats everyone one so many unique images!
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I know, isn’t it great, Stacey, to have new people joining the fun??! As for my Photoshop efforts, I was pretty pleased with how well the brush captured most of the foliage, but the small image size certainly helps to conceal where I wasn’t as careful 😉
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LOL its all in the tricks of the trade, you did a great job 🙂
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Lots of neat ideas this week! 🙂 I love your ocean overlook. I feel like I’m sitting at a coffee shop looking out at the Seattle skyline. 😀
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Perfect, Nic – as that’s what I was going for 🙂 Hmm, I wonder if I can transplant it anywhere else? Might be kinda fun to see what I can come up with 😉
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my first visit here. this challenge is a fabulous idea. I love seeing all of the different ideas everyone came up with to edit the same photo. Can’t wait to join in on the next one!
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Can’t wait to have you, Sheila 😃👍 Thanks so much for stopping in to comment!
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Great job, everyone!!! It will take me a while to check out each one, but this is quite an impressive range of interpretations. Stacy, I love how you violated the laws of physics and transported this scene to Seattle. Great idea. Lore, thanks for the image.
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Never did understand physics, Robin 😉 And, yup, I second you on all!
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Stacy, what a great edit. Love the transplant into Seattle. Very cool.
Great to see everyone’s edits and have discovered some good blogs. Thanks again for hosting and organising!!
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Thanks, Desley! And you’re very welcome. Thanks right back to you for participating in 1PF! You’re the ones who are making this happen 🙂
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Hello Stacy and everyone!
.. firstly thanks to Lore for a challenging and lovely image.
Love seeing what everyone has done. Nice work – and I agree with another comment – such fun Stacy, taking your cafe to Seattle 😃
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Thanks, Robyn, on all accounts 🙂 So much fun creativity – just like that in your One-Four challenge!
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Yes indeed! Looking forward to the next one 😃
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Great job Stacy – you pulled it all together again for us. It’s endlessly interesting to see the varied interpretations and techniques.
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Thanks, Lynne! These posts certainly wouldn’t be possible without everyone’s ability (and more importantly willingness) to communicate back and forth. Thanks to all for that! 😀
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I totally agree with Emilio’s words; how not to remember those starting days and, now, more than twenty? Wonderfully beautiful. CONGRAT’S Stacy!!! And thanks to you all who keep working in this Forum, as well as those who every week join this group for the first time.
Regarding the submissions, I see that almost everyone had the same conflict and a similar solution; cropping and add some textures to give an ancient mood to the image. What really surprises me is the range of different techniques applied; now, congrat’s to you all.
Of course, I find yours is the most original version Stacy (in the sense of changing the concept by completely the). I’m definitely in love with your approach and final version. Marvelous!
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Thanks, Jaime, for all your kind words AND your continuing support of the forum! I love knowing that we get to “see” you every month here 🙂 I’m glad you like my edit – it is certainly my most out-of-the-box contribution to date!
Later today, as I visit each post, I am going to leave my thoughts on your edit here – hope that’s okay with you!
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Perfect, It’d be more than ok!
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Well, Jaime, so it’s taken me a few days longer to get around to everyone’s posts, but I’ve spent an enjoyable afternoon looking at everyone’s blogs and reading about their choices, and now I get to visit with you 🙂 It’s been really interesting to see all the different choices everyone has made to minimize the background distractions in Loré’s photo. Cropping, of course, was the hands-down winner. I love the close in crops that so many did, but I also really love the texture of the cobblestone street and the beautiful light and shadows that Loré captured, which you kept in with your choice of crop. And the soft tones you chose make me think of the waning hours of late afternoon, a favorite time of day for me, as it brings about the end of the work day and, perhaps, a chilled glass of wine 🙂 All in all, a fun, interesting challenge this month! Looking forward to “seeing” you in April 😀
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Woww !
Great job of everybody friends !
Ciao ciao
Max
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Agreed, Max!! 😀
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Lots of nice edits from everyone. Stacy’s idea of bringing in a new background was great. Loved the sleepy video too. Hope you got to sleep late. I like most will be looking at all the individuals a little later. But off to do my real job now.
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Hahaha, Karen, sleepy indeed! I haven’t gone back to listen to it and only hope it makes some kind of sense. Now you’ve all gotten to see the “real” video process – it typically takes me quite a number of different takes to get one put together. This time, you got to see one with all its warts – and I’m actually okay with that 😀
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So many different variations. I like that you placed yours in a different place, great idea.
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Thanks, Mary! As I said in my blurb, it was born out of not getting a decent result from my normal workflow 😉
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Well, Stacey, looks like you got your wish. Look how you’ve grown! Remember when there was maybe only six of us? I will be back today but just wanted you to know you did good!
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Seems we’ve (and that’s definitely the right pronoun!) hit on a magic formula for ABFriday, Emilio 🙂 Group effort from the beginning, so many thanks to each and every one – from those who’ve been with ABF from the beginning to our newest members 🙂
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I agree with Emilio. This is a lot of work for you, but it’s growing each month! I followed Cee over here. One of my followers is thinking of trying it next month. And so it grows.
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Great idea to change the background. I rarely if ever think of it and my photoshop skills aren’t quite that good. I like your version very much Stacy.
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Thanks so much, Cee 🙂 My Photoshop skills are nothing at all to brag about – more a shot in the dark kind of thing – but I was pleased I was able to do what I had in mind (though I’m sure there was an easier or more effective way to do it). I figured if Laura Macky could put a big orange moon in Manal’s photo, I could virtually move Loré’s cafe. 😉
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I about spit out my tea when I saw that background – what a great idea! Very bold too and it worked.
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Well this just made me laugh right out loud, Nancy – thanks for that fun visual (and of course your ringing endorsement!) 😃
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It was so unexpected! I agree though that after watching Laura do that moon, we’ll all be trying more things like that.
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wow- lots of interesting edits today. Now to spend the next few hours visiting all the blogs and getting closer looks!!!
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I’m about to do the same today, Marsha 😀
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Oh my, amazing! Every one of your submissions! I will be making my rounds later, just wanted to say – great job!
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I agree, Loré! Thanks for the fun 🙂
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Very nice!
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Thanks so much for commenting, Triet. Glad you liked what you saw!
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