THE PP GAME!

In LR fiddled with clarity, upped shadows & spot brushed various areas to get more variation in colours with greens on rocks, colour in the water & on the rocks themselves.

Into PE10 & dropped in a new blue sky with a few clouds & lowered the opacity so it didn't overwhelm the rest of the shot. High pass sharpening with soft setting. Reduced size for web use.

About 30minutes & Feedback welcome :thumbs:

Oh yes the bribe - is it Hobnobs, Fig Rolls, Milk Choc Biscuits or Shortbread Biscuit Brides :D


 
well done to everyone, hopefully a nice relaxing one after last round....

Rhodese, very competent B&W entry, possibly a tad dark in places, but I like the cleaned up look and the sky recovery.

Phil - good detail throughout, not sure on the colours or is it the WB? Great brightness on the water though. :thumbs:

Cathy - lovely and sharp on the left hand rocks, nice and bright on the wter, and nice and shiny ont he black rocks in the falls itself.

Ben - super B&W, just te vignette I'm not really likeing here. But thats all.

Waletr - interesting look with the plastic wrap technique - something I'll have to google.

Neil - great sharpness and detail from you. possibly too sharpened but thats a personal thing.

and John - lovely feel to the scene, look at you just dropping in new skies like that! I shan't included that in my scoring though as per my rules :thumbs:

Which leaves my winner as cathy, lovely feel even if your workflow could be improved :lol: But a lot of us have similar (me included) so can;t knock you for that.

Here's what mine looked like
 
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Well thank you Graham! I certainly was not expecting that and smack on hand accepted :) lol! I just did so may different try's to get a sky I got lost. Well done to everyone I think we all did very well! Graham I liked your edit of your own picture well done to you too
Cathy
 
Just celebrtated your win by having a large Cappuccino at my local Coffee Shop --- well done Cathy :clap:
 
feedback or critique


I hope you don't mind me having a little go at this, maybe a bit over the top with saturation
Nothing special pretty standard edit pulled it back from looking too HDR
Lightroom

WB
Shadows and highlight sliders
Gradient on the shy
Clarity and lum boost
Some hue changes
A small crop

I think it gives it a sort of "film" look to it ?



House by HS-uk, on Flickr


Not sure where I was going with this :shrug:

Lightroom
Day to night
Same as before
WB
Shadows and highlight sliders
Gradient on the shy
Clarity and lum boost with colours
Some hue changes
colour boosts using filters
Added some pops of light, straighten and crop

then lost my way a bit :thinking:



LH by HS-uk, on Flickr


Has anyone seen Bender ? oh dear just noticed that :(

Edit, sorry did not realise it was to only do one
 
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Neil, nice and dramatic
 
Well great edits so far! and not easy files to work with.
Looking forward to seeing the others.
Cathy
 
Really wanted the lighthouse one to work as that's a cracking sunset, unfortunately I found the land too dark to retrieve.

So went for the house, problems (for me), plain sky, lack of balance / symmetry to image and not quite central position......

So I... created three exposures
blended them together to bring detail into the sky and the stone of the house
B&W conversion
played with lens correction to correct (or exaggerate can't remember which) barrel distortrion
and exaggerate vertical perspective distortion
copied left hand buildings across to RHS using a mixture of normal and darken blend mode
nudged statue across to centre of middle window
first by cloning over left hand edge on duplicate layer
then selecting statue with magnetic lassoo tool, copy paste move.
and re-created the left hand side to the pond that I lost through my distorts



_____
oops, maybe 20-30 minutes, happy to hear your thoughts.



And for fun here's my attempt on the ilghthouse...


Exposure blend from -2 EV to +4 EV
Lighhouse masked and treated separately to brighten and midtone contrsat / microdetails reduced to make it more white
in PS, seperate layer created with levels adjustment to darken, then applied to foreground to only darken this area.
clone out a couple of seagulls.
straighten
border
 
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Nice building, nice gardens so just wanted to enhance what is there.

In PE10 a fair bit of the work to include a slight bit of HDR through my Redynamix plug in to bring out the shadows. Then went into all the light settings to tweak levels, brightness & such. Slight High Pass Sharpening. Didn't like the sky so replaced with new one which was lowered in opacity as original too blue.

In LR for a crop 16/10 & a very slight vignette.

That's all folks

Feedback fine.


 
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You are all doing really well! I am enjoying watching to see all the wonderful looks you are getting.
I truly get amazed at what can be brought out from pictures you thought were hopeless.
Cathy :)
 

IMG_5835-1 by btyreman, on Flickr

opened as RAW file in LR5:

cropped to 16:10 ratio,
changed to BW mode,
decreased highlights,
increased shadows,
decreased blacks,
increased clarity.

Tone Curve: Boosted Highlights and Lights,

Split Tone: Red Highlights and Green Shadows,

Lens Correction, applied canon 18-55mm profile to correct all distortion, and used 'auto' mode which worked very well. The straightened the horizon to as near to perfect as possible.

clarity brush used on parts of the building and water feature,

last but not least sharpened a massive amount as it was a very soft image to start with, almost in the 'red' zone in lightroom.

exported to jpeg with further output sharpening for the smaller size.

feedback is welcome! :thumbs:
 
Well done Cathy,
Here we go again; I’m going with the seascape.
I am not sure how far I can go, as in some edits outside elements have been introduced.
In this edit, I have created a light beam; I would have liked to have added a moon, but was not sure about the rule.
Anyway here goes.
I couldn’t get any thing useful out of the foreground so I decided to go the other way and make it a silhouette, including the lighthouse.
Opened in ACR, dropped the exposure by 1/2stop to help the sky then opened in PS.
Copied the layer.
Then make a selection of the sky to the right of the lighthouse, feather by 50 pixels, copy and paste into a new layer. Name this layer SKY.
In transform, flip it horizontal, again in transform scale stretch the sky to suit.
Switch this layer off for now.
SAVE.
Desaterate the copy layer, then up the exposure to loose most of the sky then go to levels and move the right slider in to the point where the sky and sea are all but white. OK.
The sky should now be white, select it with the magic wand tool set at 5.
Inverse the selection, pull the exposure down to make the silhouette. In addition, in levels move the right hand slider to the left.
Copy and paste into a new layer. Call this SILHOUETTE.
SAVE.
Bin the old copy layer, and make a new copy layer from the background.
Switch the sky layer on.
The stack should now be from the bottom, background, copy, SKY, SILHOUETTE.
On the SILHOUETTE layer add a mask and with the foreground colour set to black and the background set to white, pick up a soft round brush and in the mask paint black over the sea, inlet and the very edge of the land until the edges look right. Do the same around the lighthouse.
Create a new layer on the top of the stack, then using the polygonal lasso make a narrow triangular selection from the lighthouse to beyond the edge of the picture, feather it by 50 pixels.
Set the foreground to white and using the foreground to clear grad tool within the selection, strike a grad from the lighthouse to near the edge of the picture. Adjust the opacity to suit.
Tidy up and flatten.
Get rid of the mast thingy on the left of the lighthouse.
Select all and using the stroke command make a border.
SAVE.
Save for web.
I think that's what I did, :thumbs:

FEEDBACK OK.

TP-LHOUSE-WEB.jpg


Rhodese.
 
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My opinion Rhodese... FWIW... is that what you've done there is perfectly acceptable.

All the elements were there, a moon might have pushed it beyond the rules for me, unless it was small and very subtle.

I'm going to say I'm not 100% sure about changing the sky on every edit, sure it's a great skill to have and to be able to do.... but if the "new" sky becomes the major factor in the image, then it could tend towards a "who has the best sky collection" game, or "who can nick the best sky from google images" game....

Just my opinion and I would hate for anything to stifle your imagination and creativity Rhodese, so IMO for this round it's up to Cathy, and I'm happy for you to be "in". :thumbs:

_____

edit - by changing I mean importing from another image, rather than altering the one already there, maybe "swapping" would be better....

________

edit 2, which kind of leads me to having to state my position on John's edit, which I also have no problem with in this round. It complements the image and has been done well. . But I do feel it should be a technique used sparingly and with consideration.
 
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...
 
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Well what can I say! Give yourselves a huge clap and very well done to all of you.



Helen

Great job nothing standard here I like the way you have brought out all the colours without making it look over the top.

The lighthouse was over the top for me but I enjoyed seeing it.



Niel.

Again well done you have managed to get a lot from this image and I like the way you see it and enjoy the dramatic look. . It almost like a painting and I bet this castle would look good with stormy skies behind I may return on a stormy day. Great Job!

Graham

As usual a great edit and Culzean castle looks good in black and white. Not sure about extra part on the right but get what you were doing. Good job on moving the fountain this is much better!
Well done!

Awh! Then there is the poor lighthouse ☹ it was a bit of a rubbish print to begin with but! never say never, you did manage to get something to show so
Well done again!


John

John another very interesting edit. You are so good at dropping in a sky that looks like it was there ☺. Not sure about the sun though.
You have managed to bring out all the natural colours really well.
Good Job very well done!


Ben

Ben what a super idea to use split toning. This creates another interesting edit of the castle and something I would have a go at. The sky looks good in this colour. Very well done Ben!





Rhodes

I see where you were going with this and to get it look this good as a silhouette
with a poor raw file is a job well done!
I like your heading for the image too.




Thanks to all of you this was so hard and please remember I am only learning too, but my winner of the week goes to.

Helen! Well done!
Simply because I like her film look and enjoyed the colours.
 
Here are my edits.


Culzean.jpg





In raw opened up shadows increase contrast and Clarity. New multiply layer rubbed out bottom to reveal grass and fountain etc Flatten layer Dodge brush used on water and parts of Castle.Also on grass. In HSL increased luminance of most colours but decreased blue to darken sky. Increase exposure +10 Sharpen image and crop.
 
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Lighthouse.


IMG_7042-Edit-2.jpg



Open up shadow slider in raw to reveal bottom
Applied gradient to lighten bottom
Lighten again with gradient brush at bottom
Turn Clarity on full
Turn up vibrance
Gradient to darken sky on right
Into Ps

Lighten lighthouse
Auto Tone, Colour, Levels
Reduce Noise
Save.


For fun added the oil filter and border
 
OH MY DAY'S I really am shocked! Thank you :)

I really am a beginner to pp and there have been some FAD edits

Love your two Cathy :)

I did re-edit the lighthouse as a painting myself but not nearly as good as yours

I'm so shocked I don't have anything to offer right now so if Cathy can ask someone else, I'll come back with an offering another time

Thank you again :)
 
Hell on earth said:
OH MY DAY'S I really am shocked! Thank you :)

I really am a beginner to pp and there have been some FAD edits

Love your two Cathy :)

I did re-edit the lighthouse as a painting myself but not nearly as good as yours

I'm so shocked I don't have anything to offer right now so if Cathy can ask someone else, I'll come back with an offering another time

Thank you again :)
Click to expand...

Well done Helen & a great start to this thread :clap: Surely you have something & it doesn't have to be a RAW file as it is part of the fun seeing your piccy being PP'd by others then giving your critique. So get one sorted otherwise it would be normal for the judge this round (Cathy) to nominate her second place for them to put a piccy up.

John
 
DayDreamer said:
Well done Helen & a great start to this thread :clap: Surely you have something & it doesn't have to be a RAW file as it is part of the fun seeing your piccy being PP'd by others then giving your critique. So get one sorted otherwise it would be normal for the judge this round (Cathy) to nominate her second place for them to put a piccy up.

John
Click to expand...

Thank you

Ok Give me till the morning, I have an idea, just got a new tripod so may pop out :) if it does not come off then up to Cathy if she wants to go again or nominate

H
 
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Helen that is fine by me and I hope it is ok with the others.
Also have a look at some you already have there may be something there we can play with it can be anything and can be a JPG.
Cathy
 
Hell on earth said:
Thank you

Ok Give me till the morning, I have an idea, just got a new tripod so may pop out :) if it does not come off then up to Cathy if she wants to go again or nominate

H
Click to expand...

All good by me but I ain't the thread cop :lol:
 
overbez said:
edit 2, which kind of leads me to having to state my position on John's edit, which I also have no problem with in this round. It complements the image and has been done well. . But I do feel it should be a technique used sparingly and with consideration.
Click to expand...

Have you taken over thread cop :police: from Phil :lol:

Phil If I have misunderstood the rules in post one I am happy to be corrected but have I done wrong :shrug:

Because I am not able to use a camera very often (last time now some months ago) I often have no choice but to get what I can in whatever weather is there. So an important part of PP for me is to try & get a big improvement on a shabby sky.
 
Neil Opps! I sent up your photo instead of mine I think sorry.I had been looking at them both and may have saved your link instead of my own.I will post it again.
Just checked I may not have :) when I was clicking on my Castle picture on the ipad it was taking me to your entry.Only discovered I had show all on. Duh!

Apologies

John it should be ok rules say winner has 24 hours to post.i have never looked at the rules until
now and I notice I broke two rules sorry!

Only one picture to be submitted and one day for winner to choose next winner
I sent up two links and gave two days to enter Oops!
Cathy
 
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:wave: Cathy don't you worry as many of us have put two shots up (I often do) which seems OK. Sometimes the winner gets a shot up within an hour sometimes longer so NO problems. I'm sure if there was Phil Young, the thead starter (& thread cop :police: ) would let us know. So all good :thumbs:

PS I love using the cop emoticon
 
Seajay said:
Where do you find all of these John.
Cathy
Click to expand...

Cathy When typing out your post the normal range of emoticons is on the right so if you look at that section there is the word more at the bottom left of it where there are extra ones. So get using them now :D
 
Hell on earth said:
Ok here it is, have fun

https://www.dropbox.com/s/airygxnimx1f3pl/SHO_0419.NEF

H
ps I do have a different one if you feel this is to mucky, let me know
Click to expand...

Helen Good to see you managed to get one up & something different for us. Usually we put a jpeg shot in the post so folks can see without having to download first. In case you're not able to do it soon I've taken the liberty to do it for you if that OK?



PS Just to be sure this is NOT my entry :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
DayDreamer said:
Helen Good to see you managed to get one up & something different for us. Usually we put a jpeg shot in the post so folks can see without having to download first. In case you're not able to do it soon I've taken the liberty to do it for you if that OK?



PS Just to be sure this is NOT my entry :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Click to expand...

Oh ok, did not know, thank you for doing it for me :)

H
 
Morning Helen,

Looking forward to having a go at this one.
Can you tell the others when you will be choosing your winner.
It is just to give us all a time to complete and post.
Cathy
 
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