Highlighting the creative magic behind post-processed photos
Welcome to ABFriday’s monthly One Photo Focus! This month, 23 photographers share their post-processing interpretations of one “before” image submitted by Shane Francescut of The Weekly Minute.
We begin with Shane’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 June’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 us – we’d love to have you!
Submitted by Shane Francescut — The Weekly Minute
Submitted by Stacy Fischer — Visual Venturing
When I first saw Shane’s image, I really had no idea what direction to take. Did I want to highlight the teeter-totter? Or perhaps the beautiful glass dome? Did I want to crop out the overhanging tree? Or leave the line of the wooden border that leads to the stairs? I played and played and played. I can’t tell you how many different versions I had. And then I stepped away for a week. With fresh eyes, and because I’ve been doing a lot of late afternoon shooting this week, I ultimately decided I wanted to bring a richer golden hour look to Shane’s photo, emphasizing the light and long shadows.
I began in LR 5, applying a preset called La Dolce Vita. I then exported the image into Color Efex Pro, where I added a total of seven different filters. Back in LR 5, I applied four radial filters to bring detail and focus to the greenhouse/domed roof and the teeter-totter. Along the way, I tweaked temperature, exposure, and clarity. You can see some of these changes in the gallery, below.
Many thanks, Shane, for sharing your image with us. It made me think a lot about composition, light, and shadows, and I was definitely challenged by how to best post-process this scene!
Submitted by Robin Kent — PhotographybyKent
Robin says: As soon as I saw it, I knew Shane’s image was going to be a challenge, so I decided to do something extreme. But it only took two minutes. Details can be found on my post here.
Submitted by Helen Chen — HHC Blog
Helen says: I cropped the photo, straightened it out, darkened the two buildings behind the green house, lightened the greenhouse and tree and the seesaw, sharpened the entire photo, and then applied watercolor filter.
Submitted by Laura Macky — Laura Macky Photography
Laura says: One of the first things I do with an image for this challenge is decide on the vision I want for the image which, in this case, was to create a nighttime image (with my own twist of course). I hope I succeeded. Details of how I achieved this look are in my post. Hope to see you there!
Submitted by Raewyn — decocraftsdigicrafts
Raewyn says: Cropped and edited with the preset filters in Photoshop.
Submitted by Chris — sv-takeiteasy
Chris says: For my first ever participation in the One Photo Focus challenge, this wasn’t the easiest image to work with, particularly for a newbie to Photoshop. But it was fun and I learnt a lot. I loved the old glasshouse and dome standing proud through years of history. I wanted to emphasise them and the passage of time. No more ugly constructions, just the graceful glasshouse and a ‘big sky’. For details of what I did, check out my post here.
Submitted by Cee Neuner — Cee’s Photography
Cee says: I did a major crop. I think it can now be called Playtime in the City or something like that. I really liked the teeter totter.
Submitted by Klara — Sliku svoju ljubim II
Klara says: Oh boy, I kept adding and adding and adding filters….
Submitted by Amy — The World Is a Book
Submitted by Marsha — CoolQuilting
Marsha says: I edited this month’s excellent photo completely with the app Snapseed on my iPad…starting with cropping (I seem to be favoring panoramas recently!) and continuing with 4 steps to spot repair, tune image, vintage and HDR.
Submitted by Benjamin Rowe — Aperture64
Ben says: When I saw Shane’s image I knew I wanted to create an After human shot. My post will be live here.
Submitted by Sheila — Offshoots12
Sheila says: All I did was crop in on the right side of the front building and adjust the color levels in GIMP. Easy-peasy!
Submitted by Nic Anderson — Photography by Nic
Nic says: When I first looked at the photo I wanted to know what was in the shadowy area. I pushed the colors and details, then brightened the image overall. What I found in the shadow was a cute little set of stairs that led to the greenhouse. I cropped the image to make the greenhouse and set of stairs my subject.
Submitted by Lynne Ayers — Beyond the Brush Photography
Lynne says: More playing with fog and mist.
Submitted by Kaz G. — daysandmonths
Kaz says: I have finally taken the time to stop and play around with one of the AB photos. I keep meaning to and then the month flies by and I’ve missed it. I have to admit I didn’t take long to do this one and was reasonably happy but I will be very interested in everyone else’s photos. I usually get quite inspired by the others’ creations.
Submitted by Robyn Gosby– Captivate Me
Submitted by Sara Poyfair— Sara Poyfair Photography
Submitted by Emilio Pasquale — Photos by Emilio
Emilio says: You know, I’ve been thinking about charging for my secrets! I mean, how many doctors will operate for free? How many lawyers do pro-bono? How many photographers just give their secrets away? But since I haven’t paid for any tutorials (I’m a bit cheap, I admit) I guess that wouldn’t be fair. A lot of photographers DO give their secrets away. And I am forever indebted to them…
Submitted by Jaime Perez — My Photolanguage
Submitted by Mary Hone — Tales from the Backroad
Submitted by Nancy / dogear6— Living the Seasons
Nancy says: Thanks to Stacy and Shane for another great challenge!
Submitted by Katie Prior — Drawing with Light
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 
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