Highlighting the creative magic behind post-processed photos
Before we get to the after-before galleries, just a reminder that today’s post reveals the July ABFriday One Photo Focus photo! What is One Photo Focus? It’s the first ABFriday of each month when all participants edit the same photo. Fun? You betcha! Check out June’s 1PF!
In a nutshell, here’s how it works:
- The photo to be edited is revealed in the ABF post two weeks in advance.
- If you’d like to join in, email me at visualventuring@gmail.com. I will send you links to the full-sized RAW and jpeg files. Download the one you wish.
- Email me your “after” image no later than midnight EST Wednesday, July 1, two days prior to the post.
A time zone converter and all the important submission details are on the After-Before Friday Forum page, as are the details for participating in “regular” ABFriday posts. Come along and join us in one or the other (or both) – we’re a fun-loving group!
July’s One Photo Focus Photo!
Submitted by Robin Kent — PhotographybyKent
Now back to our regularly scheduled ABFriday post with all the creative after-before photos submitted this week!
My submission: This rather uninspired image of the front entrance of The Plaza Hotel in New York City sorely needed some playtime with Lightroom CC and a few of the Nik Efex programs! While I typically try to keep “reality” in my post-processed images, I decided this one would benefit from a high-key approach. While the video is long (apologies in advance), I discuss LR’s lens correction and camera calibration panels, graduated neutral density filters, and black and white conversion. If you watch the whole thing, you’re the bomb 😀 And don’t hold back with your opinion if you hate what I’ve done or if you like any of the intermediate versions you see in the video more than the final one I’ve chosen!
Submitted by Robin Kent — PhotographybyKent
Robin says: I ventured into new territory this past week and tried my hand at Backyard Wildlife Photography. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be Before I began. But After I made some adjustments in the shooting strategy, things got somewhat better.
Submitted by Klara — Sliku svoju ljubim II
Submitted by Rajiv Chopra — rajivchopra
Submitted by Cee Neuner — Cee’s Photography
Cee says: Red to me is one of the hardest colors to photograph outdoors. Red tones usually turns out to be a burnt out magenta with a hint of red that is if the the object is in the sun. It took me many years of trying to get a perfect balance of shade and sun. And then it was results were rarely consistent, it really depends on the tone of the red (light or dark). Then I finally discovered how to fix it in my post processing.
Submitted by Lynne Ayers — Beyond the Brush Photography
Lynne says: I like strong perspective shots but my original was definitely lacking impact. My mission was to emphasize the perspective.
Submitted by Nic Anderson — Photography by Nic
Nic says: There is a photographic technique called Focus Stacking that I became aware of early last week, and have since then spent quite a bit of time learning how to use the software. There was a really big learning curve and I think that I’ve become a better Macro Photographer in the process. Some subjects are much harder to stack than others and I have had to make some artistic decisions. The most important part is that I have been having whole lot of fun.
Check out my post to find out how I was able to create this After, using 10 images stacked.
Submitted by Katie Prior — Drawing with Light
Katie says: This month I have been attempting to understand curves in Photoshop, I use them to bring back some of the early morning warm light in this image. Click on the link to find out more.
Submitted by Emilio Pasquale — Photos by Emilio
Submitted by Mary Hone — Tales from the Backroad
Submitted by Amy — The World Is a Book
Submitted by Benjamin Rowe — Aperture64
Submitted by Loré Dombaj — Snow’s Fissures and Fractures
Loré says: I managed to sneak up on my cousin, but not on Berta. Just a little fun with this family memento.
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 
An 18 minute video? What got into you? Didn’t you ever hear that maxim “less is more”? It only took me a week but I finally made it through. And what a transformation! I actually love it. You’ve really focused the eye on the family with your final edit. As you said, the original was just too busy, not allowing the viewer’s eye to settle anywhere. Now I’m not sure you had any clear cut idea of how to salvage this but you certainly pulled it off. Just an all around great job. And I was never once bored through your long-winded explanation! 🙂
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Emilio, I don’t know how I missed your comment, but I did 😦 I’m trying to play catch-up and failing miserably … Thanks, once again, for watching my video, sticking it out, AND liking the final result. You’re the bomb (am I dating myself here?)! And, nope, I really didn’t have any idea when I started what I was going to do with it, but that’s the fun of post sometimes. Just like Forrest’s box of chocolates 🙂
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Just watched your video, very impressive how-to. 🙂 I really like how the cropping and the antique/vignette focused your viewers attention on the flags. The removal of the building shadow on the family was amazing. I still like your finished image best. Great job. 😀
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Thanks for watching, Nic! Gotta love the software! Glad to hear you like the final the best. Sometimes you get so invested in an image that you lose objectivity 😀
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Another great set of submissions this week. I learned a number of new things (as usual) and enjoyed reading the posts. Your video was very helpful, Stacy. You covered a lot of ground in a relatively short timeframe.
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So much creativity! 😀 As for my video, I didn’t realize how much time I had taken once done, but there was no turning back 😉 Thanks for watching it, Robin.
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For me you picture Stacy is somewhere between black and white and sketch with the high contrast. Nice image and Editing.
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Thanks, Ben, I think you’re right. My husband called it a pencil sketch (which he then promptly said he didn’t like – oh, well, he’s entitled to his opinion). I appreciate that you like it 😀
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I love your editing process here. It is such an interesting final image.
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Thanks, Raewyn. It’s always rewarding to turn a not-so-great image into a so-much-better image 😀
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Another week of everyone bringing their A-game! Such great submissions this week! I will have to make the rounds. I haven’t watched your video yet, but I plan to, I’ll probably comment again after I watch it. So far, I’m really liking your high-key, but I curious now to see the intermediate stages. 🙂
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You’re right, Nic – great, fun submissions 🙂 There’s an intermediate color version that is okay; the more I come back to the high-key version though, the more I like it. As I said to Cee, I just wish I could remove the family in the front as I would like to make it into a notecard cover. Any magic with gimp?? 😉
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I think the content-aware fill in Photoshop is really good, have you tried that?
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I’ve been thinking about it, and even though you might be able to get something decent from PS’s content-aware fill, the area around those people is really busy and it would be difficult.
If you were willing to put in quite a bit of time, I would suggest something like I did here or here , where I used a duplicate layer and a mask to make a sort of clone of a different part of the image to cover up the parts I didn’t want. I like to do it this way as apposed to the clone stamp because sometimes the clone stamp leaves a circular-ness to the area. By creating a mask and moving your duplicate layer you can make any shape you want. I hope that makes sense, and hopefully gives you some ideas. 😀
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did my links get lost? perhaps because I put them in arrow brackets… here’s the links again just in case:
pink flower from ABF 30 – http://photography-by-nic.com/2014/12/19/ab-friday-forum-week-30/
sand castle family from ABF 36 – http://photography-by-nic.com/2015/02/13/ab-friday-forum-week-36/
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Got ’em, Nic! Thanks 😀
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Nic, thanks for the great suggestion! You’re right about the clone stamp. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn’t do such a great job. I’m definitely going to try what you suggested (and will revisit your posts – thanks for resenting the links!) I’ll let you know how it turns out 😀
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Very informative video, Stacy. Great job on that and I really like your result.
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Thanks, Lynne, and for watching the video 🙂
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Oh.. Nice”
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Thanks, Rajiv 🙂
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Stacy, you final result is amazing. I really like what you did with that hotel. 😀
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Thanks, Cee 🙂 I quite like the pencil-drawing effect the more I look at it. It would be a fun cover for notecards except for the family in the foreground … Wonder if I could easily remove them??
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Your process is so awesome! I love the final result. Hope I’ll have a chance to practice. 🙂 Thank you so much, Stacy!
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You’re always so kind, Amy. Thanks for that. I hope you got a few new tips from that very long-winded video 🙂
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You have shown the details of the process in only 18 min. Great tutorial, Stacy! 🙂
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LOL. So, from your comment, I take it your a “glass is half full” kinda gal, Amy! Love that 😀
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Interesting end result. It’s always fun to try new things and see what happens.
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Certainly not my usual method, Mary, but I think it salvaged a photo that I otherwise would have moved to my trash bin 🙂
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Interesting video Stacy, you managed to get the tone nice and even, which seemed almost impossible! With the high contrast/antique look you used it has really brought out the family and the flags as focal points and made a much better image. Nice work! 🙂
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Wow, Katie, thanks for actually watching the video! And thanks for validating that my choice does what I was hoping it would do 🙂
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Don’t put yourself down Stacy! your videos are very informative and its very interesting to see your process. Its a different image, but I really like it. Thanks for keeping up the ABF momentum 🙂
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Thank you for a very informative tutorial… I had never thought about taking what is going to be a black and white photo into Color Efex… I love the final image…. the tones and composition are spectacular. And I love how your eye is drawn to the entrance and flags.
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Bren, I’m so sorry I missed seeing your comment until now. I hate when that happens! As for the workflow I follow, I learned somewhere (and it makes sense to me) to have the strongest color image you can prior to converting. So that’s why I take it into ColorEfex first. It seems to work well 🙂 Thanks so much for viewing the video and for leaving your comment! Let me know if you try out this approach and if you like it (or don’t, for that matter). I’m always interested to learn what others think!
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