After-Before Friday Week 42

Posted on by Stacy P. Fischer

Visual Venturing's After Before Friday post headerHighlighting the creative magic behind post-processed photos

Those who regularly post on ABFriday know Emilio Pasquale of Photos by Emilio.
Wednesday night, March 25, Emilio’s beloved grandfather passed away.
If you wish to send him condolences, you can visit his post, In Memoriam.

Just a reminder that there’s still time to participate in April’s One Photo Focus on April 3, where all participants submit their post-processed version of this image submitted by Cee Neuner of Cee’s Photography:

Cee Neuner April One Photo Focus

Check out After-Before Friday Week 41 to find out how. For all the details on ABFriday and One Photo Focus, visit the After-Before Friday Forum page.

Now, on to this week’s ABFriday galleries, with many thanks to all those participating!

My submission: You know how the sky darkens and colors become supersaturated before a storm breaks? Well, we got to experience such a view, from atop a quad biking trail in Basseterre, St. Kitts. Straight out of the camera, the original image was flat and dark. To recapture the beauty of the scene, I used a combination of Lightroom, Nik Dfine2, Nik Color Efex Pro 4, and Lightroom selective adjustment tools and presets. I’ll do my best to recreate the final project in the video, but I did go back and forth and use trial and error on this one, so what you see in the video may not end up quite the same. The tools used, however, will be.

Submitted by Robin Kent — PhotographybyKent

Robin says: The annual kite festival on the grounds of the Washington Monument will be held tomorrow, March 28 (weather permitting).  So my submission this week is from an earlier running of that event. This image represents a continuation of my experimentation with Photoshop’s Filter Gallery plus an extra twist from the Adjustment Layer list of special effects.  You can find the details here.

Submitted by Klara — Sliku svoju ljubim II

Visit Klara’s post here.

Submitted by Lynne Ayers — Beyond the Brush Photography

Lynne says: I was inspired by Cee’s abstract photography post.

Submitted by Nic Anderson — Photography by Nic

Nic says: This image was taken back in February when I was in LA walking my dog along The Strand.  Luckily, I had a fold-able diffuser in my bag to block out some of the harsh light.  First I made my RAW edits in UFRaw, then I went to GIMP and made a few more tweaks.  I decided that it was a little on the yellow side and made a split-tone of blue in the highlights and green in the shadows, which had the added effect of making the red stand out more.  Then I blurred the background a bit.  Finally, I added a vignette.  Please check out my post for a step-by-step tutorial in GIMP.

Submitted by Cee Neuner — Cee’s Photography

 Cee says: This photo was taken at Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm in Woodburn, Oregon.

Submitted by Katie Prior — Drawing with Light

Katie says: This week I have used some subtle changes with vignettes and radial filters to accentuate the point of interest in this image of a grassy bank full of crocuses.

 Submitted by Nancy Merrill – nancy merrill photography

Nancy says: This week, I went very simple. I thought the original had a lot of character and just needed some tweaking to bring out more color and contrast. For the settings I used in post-processing, visit my post.

Submitted by Michelle Lunato — Michelle Lunato Photography

Michelle says: For this week’s AB Friday, I decide to go with a portrait. No particular reason other than that is where my inspiration landed this hour. The raw file is from my portrait studio days. It was kind of flat so I wanted to see if I could touch it up…. 

Submitted by Mary Hone — Tales from the Backroad

Submitted by Benjamin Rowe — Aperture64

Ben says: This week with spring now getting started I head out to capture some spring macro shots I came across these bugs and took several shots and used focus stacking to increase the depth of field.

 Submitted by Anne-Cécile — UnClicUnePhoto

Anne-Cécile says: This is an old picture I took with a friend the last summer. We wanted to try to take a picture by blowing the “seeds ofdandelions”. But it did not work haha. But I always wanted to make this photo without expression : original, colorful and special. I do it ! And I call it “A few confettis and a good mood “. I’m glad to have been able to create the atmosphere that I wanted from the beginning ! 🙂

 Submitted by Loré Dombaj — Snow’s Fissures and Fractures

Loré says: I thought I wouldn’t make it, but Stacy was kind enough to accept my late entry. Another easy edit, it is funny how it becomes easier when you know what you want. I wanted to edit this image for a long time now, but I was not skilled enough to get what I want. Today, it was a piece of cake. 

 Submitted by Amy — The World Is a Book

Amy says:  1. Did the cropping and highlight, shadow, white, and black on the Lightroom basic panel.  2. Used the graduated filter for the sky and clouds. 3. Increased the clarity a little. 4. Exported to Color Efex. 5. Increased the blue for the sky and added the orange for the buildings 6. Saved onto Lightroom. Voila!

 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!

32 thoughts on “After-Before Friday Week 42”

    • Katie, I thought I had responded to your comment, but I’m finding quite a few popping up on a number of my posts where replies I thought I had typed aren’t showing. I’ve been using my iPad a lot, so perhaps that’s the issue?? Anyway, thanks for your kind comment. There really was a lot in this photo that was lost in the unprocessed image. It was fun working on it and appreciate that you think it is now much more interesting 🙂

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      • No worries Stacy, its an odd thing that the iPad interface seems harder to work with than the desktop or the smartphone.
        I’ve not been very good this week at keeping up with anything on the blogosphere, ABF included, sorry 😦 Looking forward to seeing the post though and hopefully back up to speed next week!
        Have a great weekend 🙂

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  7. Another great week of entries! Yours is very dynamic! What a great scene. I think it is interesting how the background scene kinda looks monochrome, which only enhances the color of the foreground. Great edits! 😀

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  10. Where did the week go? I missed getting my blog done in time! But I will find time to see everyone’s work. I learn so much from the other photographers. I did just post an after-before if you want to see it, it is up now…..

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  12. Pingback: Delft Potter at work; Jorrit Heinen Royal Gifts in Amsterdam; after-before Friday | jmeyersforeman photography
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  14. Thank you for showing the Efex process; the demo very clear, Stacy! There are so many presets in Efexto play with. Glad to see many varieties of ABF submissions! 🙂

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    • Amy, apparently replying to comments on my iPad has not worked very well lately, as I’m finding a number of replies I swore I had sent are not showing on my computer 😦 So, try, try again (and apologies if you thought I had ignored your comment!). So glad you enjoyed the video and, I know now, that you’ve been using the program, so that makes me happy 🙂

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