THE PP GAME!

Here goes my first entry then! Hopefully this will work, I've set the image to private on Flickr seeing as obviously it isn't mine but I think you'll still be able to see it on here. If not, I'll upload it somewhere else :)

Also, like an idiot I didn't see the link to the RAW image so I ended up saving and editing the JPEG :bonk:
Another thing is I have no set workflow when I use Photoshop, so some of the stuff I do in the order which I do it probably degrades the image quality.


Post Processing Game by joshwainwrightphotography, on Flickr

So what did I do? Here's the not so logical process:
A little fiddling with the levels
Adjustment of the shadows and highlights
A nudge of the vibrance
Tiny bit of selective sharpening
Despeckle
Crop some of the water out
Some cloning here and there
Addition of a contrast layer to try make it 'pop' (failed)
A little nudge of the colour balance
Hopefully this isn't cheating - a bit of messing about in Colour Efex Pro
And finally, a tiny bit of sharpening

Open to feedback, obviously I'm not a Photoshop whiz but I'll reply to others' entries too!
 
Rhodese said:
Jim, I don’t know about “not very exciting” I think it has loads of potential.

Rhodese.
Click to expand...
"Exciting" was probably the wrong word to use. I meant it's got composition problems! Glad you enjoyed it, I had a quick bash myself before I went out and think it's quite tough.

Forgot to set a time limit. Shall we say Wednesday P.M.?
 
Joshwain said:
Here goes my first entry then! Hopefully this will work, I've set the image to private on Flickr seeing as obviously it isn't mine but I think you'll still be able to see it on here. If not, I'll upload it somewhere else :)
Click to expand...

Hi Josh and welcome to the PP Game!

I think it would be better set this image as public on Flickr as I know I, and I'm sure others, like to view the entries as large as possible. The images here aren't large enough for assessment IMO. Copyright infringement isn't a problem in this case.:)
Thanks for entering:thumbs:
 
Farmerjim said:
I think it would be better set this image as public on Flickr as I know I, and I'm sure others, like to view the entries as large as possible. The images here aren't large enough for assessment IMO. Copyright infringement isn't a problem in this case.:)
Click to expand...

I've just set it to public but left it so that it doesn't appear in public searches :thumbs:
 
Jim I just love that old lady with her brew in her hand.Wish i had more experience to make her pop!


Opened in PS
played with sliders to enhance shadows and highlights.
cropped out boat on left and then copied image onto a larger layer
Cloned in waters edge and extra barge plus a view other bits.
Tried to copy water onto bottom left but was not very good at it.
Cloned out birds and pole with wires.
Flatten,sharpen,reduce noise,
new vibrance layer to increase colour
add border with texture
Flatten.
FB welcome


Jims.jpg
 
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Opened in Lightzone - free opensource "alternative" to lightroom
dropped exposure by 1 EV
slelected boat, made shadow / highlight / detail adjustments
used same selection inverted to make shadow / highlight / detail adjustments to rest of image
upped vibrance, lowered saturation
slight sharpen

into PS
straightened slightly
edit > transform > distort and pulled top right up and out a bit, and lower right down and out (slightly less than above)
to try to enhance the front of the boat
cloned out bird
crop

Picasa, final crop & border
10mins

 
All done in LR5 & how as per screen shots +lots of brushing (about 12 points) with sats, clarity, colouring - sky & foliage.

15 Minutes.

FB is Fine




 
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Well done everyone:thumbs:, some good entries so far. Still time for more though. Picking a winner is going to be difficult.
 
Good morning everyone,
Is anybody having problems uploading images to the TP Gallery?
I’ve always uploaded images at 1024 pixels on the longest side and as near to 200kb as possible, usually about 197kb ish.
The thing is I can’t get anywhere near these sizes to upload, What’s changed, “elp“.
 
Thanks everyone who entered, I think it’s judgement day :)

The photo that you’ve been working on is a shot of George. George is a 71 foot Narrow-boat built in 1928 and named after the king. The butty (un-powered boat towed by the motor boat) is Mary (The queen) They are members of the “Royalty Class” and probably the largest of narrow-boats on the canal system carrying up to 42 tons and working the GUC, the Thames and London Docks.

End of history lesson :)

Since no-one opted out of critique and feed-back, you will all feel the lash of my heartless criticism:D Hee-hee!
This is my first time as judge so please bare that in mind and it's not easy picking a winner with so many good entries.

Rhodese : A lot of work went into this, making extra canvas etc. I thought about trying that but gave up. For me the bows of George are a bit too dark and I’d like to see more detail in this part of the boat.

Josh ; Welcome and a good first effort. I like the way you have got the boat to stand out. There’s a bit of a green/blue colour cast though.

Neil ; The colours are good and so is the contrast. You have detail in the bows of the boat and I like the water.

Cathy ; Interesting border and texture! The boat stands out well but it's a little bit dark and also I think a bit too much has been cropped of the bottom and we've lost some water. BTW The old lady is always on board George, think it's the owner's mum!

Graham ; A good overall effort with bags of contrast but I think you've managed to introduce some noise and George's bows are again too dark.

John ; The exposure if the boat is spot on and the colours are good, I see contrast was -11. Do you think it could have been upped a tadge? But if you'd done that you'd sacrifice the dark tone details, hmmmmm?

After long and hard deliberation I pass the PP King crown to...... Neil with John just a whisker away 2nd. Well done Neil:clap:

Here's my rendition which for a change I did most of the PP in ARC. Where I added a bit of vignette and sharpened a little. Used the Shadows/highlights inCS6 to make it a bit punchier, the gamma slider to darken a bit then a layer mask on the bows to lighten them again.


NB George by Farmejim, on Flickr
 
Well done Neil.. :clap:

And well done Jim for surviving your first round of judging... honestly, it's far harder than just simply whacking in an edit. :thumbs:
 
overbez said:
Well done Neil.. :clap:

And well done Jim for surviving your first round of judging... honestly, it's far harder than just simply whacking in an edit. :thumbs:
Click to expand...

For sure Graham! Gonna make sure I don't come 1st again :D
 
Yes well done Neil you're back to your winning ways :banana:

But glad to be close second to you :woot:

And Jim it is difficult to give a critique in case someone argues that you're wrong :eek:
 
Post appeared twice so removed duplicate one :confused:
 
I’ve sorted the upload issue. For some reason I have to resize to 1024pixels on the longest side and 72ppi before I save for the web. I have never had to in the past, I have just hit save for web and made the changes there, strange?

DayDreamer said:
And Jim it is difficult to give a critique in case someone argues that you're wrong :eek:
Click to expand...

John I know what you’re saying, “It is difficult“, “I mean how anybody can criticise my work? When I know it’s perfect, immaculate and without fault, really the cheek of some people.” :lol: :exit:

Rhodese.
 
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Rhodese said:
John I know what you’re saying, “It is difficult“, “I mean how anybody can criticise my work? When I know it’s perfect, immaculate and without fault, really the cheek of some people.” :lol: :exit:

Rhodese.
Click to expand...

:lol: :lol: :lol:
 
DayDreamer said:
And Jim it is difficult to give a critique in case someone argues that you're wrong :eek:
Click to expand...

Well that at least will never happen as I'm always right:) Oh...what...oh yes sorry, my girl-friend's always right.
 
Farmerjim said:
For sure Graham! Gonna make sure I don't come 1st again :D
Click to expand...

Yes, winning aint all glory, the judging of others is hard, not to mention you have to find an image that you know needs attention but is not an embarrassment to your camera skills.

It is such a worry. :runaway:

Rhodese.
 
Congratulations Neil! :clap: Very well done!

Jim thank you for your critique I can see exactly what you are saying and you are right!
Really enjoyed your photograph :)
Cathy
 
Need to miss out next few edits guys and gals!
Moving house and up to my eyes in it.
Will pop in when I can
Cathy
 
Seajay said:
Need to miss out next few edits guys and gals!
Moving house and up to my eyes in it.
Will pop in when I can
Cathy
Click to expand...

Hope your move goes smoooothly :)
 
Grrr.. another seemingly simple one.... why have I spent the last 20 minutes on it then eh???

In Lightzone again.....
Set WB
crop to put head on lower third, and slight rotate
clone out buttercup and bits of log behind
select all but the shadow area under the cat
lift shadows, increase contrast / detail, bring back highlights a bit
sharpen just the body of the cat
sharpen just the head with settings to suit

In PS
bump saturation a (fair) bit for just the cat
selected eyes only, increase saturation and brightness
HP filter (small radius (2.0), Soft light 60%) to sharpen (again just the cat)
reduce sat in greens and yellow in just the grass

Click for big!



.
 
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overbez said:
Grrr.. another seemingly simple one.... why have I spent the last 20 minutes on it then eh???
.
Click to expand...

I've spent the last 20 minutes trying different crops - even rotating to see if it will do a headstand - but not even tried PP'ing. So off out for my morning coffee & look again when I'm back :mad:
 
Congratulations Neil, well done. :thumbs:

“Amenul” :rolleyes: pictures are always a pain and this one is no different. Do you go for a studio type look or a wild thing, “wild thing” I don’t think that would work here with a cuggaly little thing as this.
I have gone for a cat on a rug sort of thing.

Open in ACR see screen grab.

790-1383826324-3b9818270f4669856512f69563ee9464.jpg



Open in PS, crop to 16x9 adding to the left to put the cats head on the bottom third and removing the fence shadow across the bottom. Copy layer.
Fill the space on the left by making a selection of the grass to the left of the head, feather by 50 pixels, then copy and past into a new layer, use distort to stretch it over the space.
Add a mask to this layer and hide and mix the overlap.
Using the healing brush get rid of the logs and stuff.
SAVE.
Make a new selection across the top of the image above the cat and feather by 100 pixels again copy and paste into a new layer and then add a lens blur, drop the opacity of this layer to 15%, this gives an out of focus effect adding a little bit of depth.
When it all looks OK flatten.
SAVE.
New layer, fill with 50% grey, using a soft round brush set to low values, with black and white as fore and background colours dodge and burn the cat to enhance its form, also lighten the eyes and under the nose.
When OK flatten.
SAVE.
Select all and make a border using stroke.
SAVE.
Save for web.



Rhodese.
 
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I have used a new host site this time (well new to me anyway) to give an enlarged version but the representation is not as good as the TP gallery, the whole image seems darker than it actually is. The nose has no form and the eyes are dull.

Graham you use “Imgur” can I be cheeky and ask if you compensate at the PP stage?

Which code do you post to get the double click for zoom? In addition, do you post it strait onto the page or into the image "pop up"?

I note that Jim told me how he posts, but it doesn’t seem to work for me. :'(

Rhodese.
 
Hi Rhodese,
My upload process starts with the full res jpg saved at maximum quality, converted from the 16bit TIFF I have worked with since the RAW conversion (Thanks David... :thumbs:)
That is then resized to 1024 in Picasa (using export), and then sharpened the tiniest amount I can do with the basic sharpen tool.
I then upload these two images to Imgur, and right click each of them to open in a new tab
So I now have 3 tabs open, TP, 1024 image, full res image
I post in the 1024 by copying the address, (i.imgur.com/bYpKI8A.jpg), clicking the image link and pasting......
then..... go to the full res image, copy the address, then go back to my post, select the pasted (1024) image, and use the Link icon to paste the address. (In the same way as you can do with text).

(So basically the 1024 image appears as an image, but when clicked it opens the large one)

Bit long winded.... but it means that if the judger wants to use the 1024 images posted in the thread they can, or peek at a slightly larger version. ;) and also I tend to delete the originals from my computer, and teh RAW's, so if I decide to make a little change after posting, :suspect:, I can get back a higher res file to work on).

Oh - and I can't say I've noticed any differences between my fished edit, and the one that appears in the thread.
 
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Thanks for that Graham :notworthy:, I think I have cracked it :banana:, would you be so good as to test my image and let me know if it works.
Rhodese.
 
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it does indeed.....

Can't comment on how the uploaded version may or may not differ from your "actual" edit..... but I'll keep an eye out next time see if there's any differences. :thumbs:
 
Here's my go & a little more difficult than I first thought as I didn't want to just to the obvious!

Nearly all in LR Temp 5660, Tint +13, Contrast + 2, Highlights -45, Shadows + 100, Whites +36, Blacks + 21, Clarity + 69, Vibrance - 83, Saturation - 17, Orange Sats + 100, Green Sats + 100, Slight white Vignette, Heavily sharpened.

Then into Picasa for border & caption.

30 minutes.


 
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