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Highlighting the creative magic behind post-processed photos

Welcome to ABFriday’s monthly One Photo Focus! This month, 27 photographers share their post-processing interpretations of one “before” image submitted by Helen Chen of HHC Blog.

We begin with Helen’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 December’s One Photo Focus, you’ll find all the details on the After-Before Friday Forum page.

Note: Don’t forget to check out After-Before Friday, hosted by Benjamin Rowe on Aperture 64. There you can share the magic “after” of your own “before” image, every Friday except the first Friday of each month (when One Photo Focus runs)!

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BEFORE PHOTO

Anping Treehouse, Tainan, Taiwan

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Submitted by Helen Chen — HHC Blog

Helen is traveling internationally and, sadly, was unable to submit her own post-processed version. But she’s very excited to see what we’ve all come up with! Hope you like what you see, Helen, and safe travels!

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Submitted by Stacy Fischer — Visual Venturing

So, one of the benefits of being the hostess of this challenge is that I get to post as many iterations as I want. 😉 Actually, I’m posting the first image because it is the one I used as a base for the other two. I used a combination of Lightroom and ColorEfex Pro for post-processing Helen’s original image. I could have stopped with this edit, but I wanted to play around with a new program I have (Topaz Expressions) to see what else I could come up with.

For the second image, I used Abstraction I, blend normal, and added a vignette. Back in Lightroom, I boosted the color a bit. That’s it.

For the third image, I delved into the Impressionistic filters and chose Swirly Strokes II. I tweaked a number of the sliders to get the effect I wanted, and then back in Lightroom, I did more tweaking – of the contrast and shadows. It makes me think a little bit of a cartoon.

Between the first and the second, I’m not sure which I like better, but it was fun to learn some of the ins and outs of Topaz Expression. So thanks, Helen, for letting us all play with your image. I must admit, it was a tough one, but it allowed me to turn loose my inner painter!

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Submitted by George McCane — Photoman401

George says: I made this a 3 exposure (-2, 0, +2), then blended the photos in Photomatix Pro.  I took it back to Lightroom CC and did the “Wow Tango”, did a curves adjustment for contrast and used the Luminance sliders to enhance the colors, then some sharpening and noise reduction.  The frame was made in Photoshop.

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Submitted by Laura Macky — Laura Macky Photography

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 Submitted by Michelle Lunato — Michelle Lunato Photography

Michelle says: This month, I tried to pretend I was an artist. Since I can’t draw, I figured I would try to make Helen Chen’s photo look like a colorful sketch. It was pretty fun and I like the result. I just may have learned something new too.

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Submitted by Bren Ryan — RyanPhotography

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Submitted by Chris — sv-takeiteasy

Chris says: With all the lines and deep shadows, Helen’s image was a challenge to work with.  I decided to crop the photo into a portrait, focusing on the aerial roots of the banyan tree on the right, and to emphasize the passage of time by giving the image an aged look.  For details of what I did, check out my post here.

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Submitted by Robin Kent — PhotographybyKent

Robin says: I really liked the creepy nature of Helen’s image and I could see lots of possibilities. I started out by  going for a Halloween motif, since it was that time of year.  I prowled the internet for some spooky items to blend in such as spiders, a vampire, and werewolf.  I even toyed with the idea of borrowing Richard Avedon’s classic “Nastassja Kinski with Serpent,” but none of this was working very well.  So I shifted gears and using Photoshop CC converted the image to Black and White.  Then I applied the “Find Edges” tool, added a curves adjustment layer and darkened the entire image, and finally added a hue/saturation adjustment layer and increased the overall saturation.

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Submitted by Jessika Gosen — Jessika Gosen

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Submitted by Shannon Hart — Shannon’s Creative Work

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Submitted by Emilio Pasquale — Photos by Emilio

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Submitted by Ashleigh Pienaar — Through the Viewfinder

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Submitted by Karen Migliaccio — Karen Migliaccio

Karen says:  It might be that I edited this image on Halloween, so all I could envision was a haunted house, glowing from within.  Here are the main processing and edits:

Small crop and cloning to eliminate light spots on the wall.

Used On 1 Perfect Effects:
Infrared filter switched the lights and darks for a nighttime effect
Photo filter “urban sickness” gave a bluish green cast
Added a rough border and used a glow on the inside of the door frame

In Photoshop:
Brushed in bats and used Liquify filter to give pointy wings
In lighting effects, used the spotlight to light the interior and a little lighting on the exterior
Render – added a lens flare

This was fun, gave me a chance to try some new things in PS.

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Submitted by Ted Griffith — Ted Griffith’s Photo Art Studio

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Submitted by Marie — The Syllabub Sea

 

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Submitted by Amy — The World Is a Book

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Submitted by Joanne Ritchie — Coffee Fuels My Photography!

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 Submitted by Mary Hone — Tales from the Backroad

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Submitted by Julie Powell — Julie Powell Photography

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Submitted by Yan Balczewski — From Hiding to Blogging

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 Submitted by Raewyn — decocraftsdigicrafts

Raewyn says: Edited in the Nik Collection and Lightroom.

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 Submitted by Marsha Leith — CoolQuilting

Marsha says: Modified with a mixture of platforms and programs this month: Lightroom, Brushstroke iPad app and Photoshop Elements.

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Submitted by Cee Neuner — Cee’s Photography

Cee says: I found Helen’s photo tricky for me to edit.  I knew I wanted to crop it and tried a few different crops.  I finally decided to crop out the right side and some and the sky which was a little burnt out.  I wanted to keep the focus on all the super cool roots that surrounded the building.

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Submitted by Nancy / dogear6— Living the Seasons

Nancy says: Thanks to Stacy and Helen for another month of fun in expanding my post-processing photography skills! After some Lightroom adjustments for exposure, contrast, and clarity (among other things), I cropped down the picture as my eye wasn’t sure what to look at first. In this way, I focused on the bricks.

The doorway was another challenge. I cloned out the red object and removed some speckles from the top half. I decided to darken the doorway more, using a mask, so that it looked mysterious. Once those change were done, I began experimenting with a number of Topaz Labs filters. I wanted a dark and creepy look to the picture. I didn’t end up with that! Instead, my favorite was this charcoal drawing, which I felt highlighted the brick and vines in a beautiful way.

As usual, I experimented quite a bit. The results of my other attempts can be found at my blog, livingtheseasons.com or http://wp.me/pow9k-2tY.

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Submitted by Nic Anderson — Photography by Nic

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Submitted by Lynne Ayers — Beyond the Brush Photography

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Submitted by Linda James — Rainy Day Reflections

Linda says: My initial goal was to make the building seem a little spooky and a little magical.  I decided to try out the MacPhum’s Creative Kit 2016 (which I just received).  First, I used the moderate filter in Noiseless to reduce some of the noise around the edges.  Then, I played around with the filters in the FX Photo Studio.  I used three filters to get the effect I was trying to achieve:  Glow Vivid Color, Midway & Posterize.  Next, I used Snapheal to remove the tree limb that was hanging over the door.  Then, I.darkened the inside of the building and added some magical colors to the floor by the entrance.   Finally, I boosted the light just a little using the Fotor app. 

I enjoyed working on this challenge.  

I’ll post about this challenge on my blog later this week:  http://rainydayreflections.com/category/photography-challenges/

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 Submitted by Katie Prior — Drawing with Light

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 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!

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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!

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