Weekly Challenge #120 - Before & After

The challenge explained:
Always fascinated by how people choose to edit the images that they've taken. This weeks challenge is a double poster - post the original SOOC, and then post your final edit of the image.

The simple edits don't need to be explained (crop, curves, blur, sharp, etc.), however, if you've done something special let me know!

Anything goes on this one...so be bold, be subtle, be you...whatever.

As always, composition, focus, etc. will play a significant role in the winning entry.

Good luck and have fun!!!

Challenge Starts:
Now!

Challenge Ends:
Saturday, Dec.19.09 @ 1159PM EST

Results:
Sunday, Dec.20.09

The fine print....
1. Post ONE photo (max 1000x1000).
2. The photo must portray an interpretation of the theme.
3. Post your single picture in this thread, and explain what motivated you to take the picture and/or how you feel it represents the weekly theme
4. The challenge is interactive. Any response is welcome.
5. The judge will pick the WINNERS and chose 1 of them to be the judge for the next week.
6. This challenge runs for 7 days plus a day for the judge to choose the winners.
7. Any Pentax camera will do or a Samsung DSLR.
8. Pictures can be from any time frame, not just within the week of the current theme.

Previous Challenge Subjects:
1-Statues, 2-Wheels, 3-Speed, 4-Peace, 5-Survival, 6-Macro, 7-Mountains, 8-Children, 9-Post Processing, 10- Windows & Doors, 11-Sport, 12-Urban Landscape, 13-Wisdom, 14-Power, 15-Music, 16-Pathways, 17-Lines, 18-Storm, 19-Boats, 20-Water, 21 - Golden Hour, 22 - Natural Lighting, Portraits, 23-Motion Blur, 24-Simplicity, 25-Color, 26-Cars, 27-Repetition, 28-Wildlife, 29-Epiphany, 30-Contrast, 31-Pets, 32-Landscapes, 33-Coastal, 34-Churches, 35-Bridges, 36-Creation, 37-Still Life: Food, 38-At the Zoo, 39-Wide Aperture, 40-Merry Christmas, 41- Sunsets, 42-Action, 43-Fireworks, 44-Manipulated Light Portraits, 45- Advertising/Product Shot, 46- B&W Street Shooting, people/buildings, 47-Vanishing Point, 48-Reflection, 49-Tranquility, 50-Expressions, 51-S Curve, 52-Hands, 53-Shadows, 54-Your Favorite Beverage, 55-Barriers, 56-Perspective, 57-Night Scenes, 58-Zen-like...Water and Stone 59-Modern architecture, 60-Sunrises, 61-Red, 62-Action on water, 63-Bodies in Motion, 64-Ruins, 65-Blue and green, 66-Iridescence, 67-Anthropomorpha, 68–Sound, 69-Backlight, 70-Group Shot, 71-Railway Scenes, 72-Technology, 73-Color on Color, 74-History, 75-Autumn/Harvest 76-working men and women, 77-Silhouettes, 78 Stranger Portrait, 79-Transportation, 80 - Lonely, 81 - Holidays, 82 - Toys 'n Games, 83 - Machines, 84 - Ice, 85 - Cats, 86 - Stories, 87 - Cultures, 88 - Absence, 89 - Weather, 90 - Old roads, 91 - The River, 92 - The Seventies, 93 - Beautiful Bokeh, 94 - Balance, 95 - Crop a miniature landscape, 96 - Opposing gravity, 97- Feet, 98 - Sacred Grounds, 99 - Extraordinarily Ordinary, 100-added textures, 101-still life, 102-bicycles, 103 - Broken, 104- Flowers (B&W), 105 Backlighting, 106-Water. 107-Wind, 108-Parent/Child candids, 109-Passion, 110-Events, 111-Streets, 112-The Aged, 113-Fire and Heat, 114-Nature vs. Culture, 115 - Letters or Numbers, 116 - Self-Portrait, 117 - The Tree, 118 - Minimalism, 119 - Rust, 120 - Before & After,

c[_]

[atupdate]

Guess I'll go first.

Before: Converted From Raw


After



I love the Clarify tool in Paint Shop Pro.

Tim

[tpeace]

I was shooting a football game and inadvertently changed the shutter speed to 1/15th. Would have deleted this but I was stuck by the one stationary player amid the blurs.



After I uploaded it, I manipulated the levels and amped up the saturation:



Honestly, I've been so intrigued by this shot that I've been shooting sports with a slow shutter speed ever since.

regards
-tom

[smf]

Although the cropped version probably is "better," I'm drawn to the first photo.
Your opinion is welcome.
Stu
K100D

Attached Images

   

[K McCall]

I'll have a go. I shot this just yesterday and tweaked it a bit with some white balance changes, some curves, a dash of individual color manipulations (yellows desaturated, reds pushed), finished off with some vignetting and a bit of the ol' dodge and burn:

[jheu02]

During a foggy morning drive Monday, I found this tree a bit back from the road. This shot was taken with my (new-to-me) SMC "K" 135/2.5, 1/160", ISO100, and F8 or less I think, but forgot to write it down.

I really liked the shape of the tree, but with so much fog between me and it, even having a polarizing filter didn't do much good to cut through, so I came out with a very low contrast shot as can be seen in the original.

No cropping was done, just a lot of levels adjustments (to include individual RGB channels prior to monochrome conversion), a gamma adjustment, contrast and monochrome conversion. Sharpened post resize, but not much since it was a foggy day anyway. I also removed a couple spots from either lens or sensor dust that became visible once the contrast was better. I only have some basic controls for PP and an OLD ('95) shareware version of PsPro, so can't do masks and such. If I did, I'd have tried to multiply the whole thing in stacked layers to bring out a bit more detail and the treeline in the background, but I'm pretty happy with now really being able to see this tree better. I also like that it's more 3 dimensional.

[stevebrot]

I really like this challenge, though I don't know if I will have time to take part. I will comment on Keitha's rose. Great work. I am indebted to Keitha for showing what can be done with selective desaturation. What a wonderful tool.

Steve

[m8o]

I started using RAW then RAW+ more recently, so have JPGs out of the camera of most everything even if I rarely use them. With near 20,000 camera activations you might wonder why I have to recycle? But I admit it. I'm recycling...

Some of you may have seen this in my "Why I shoot RAW" thread. Whether if so, or if not tho, it's one of my favorite shots I've taken and outcomes from my pp work. I

With approximately 5 miles of moist air between me -- on the deck of the cruise ship in port at St. Petersburg -- and the subject that so intrigued me lit-up by the setting sun ....

BEFORE:


After 150 individual tweeks in Lightroom,
AFTER (brought back to what my mind remembers my eyes picked-up):




Based on my analysis using Google Maps, that ferry was quite close to me (about a mile?), large antenna about 4 miles away, and it was the cooling towers about 5 miles. I used a Monopod to hold the Sigma 300/2.8. The AF shot was ehhh... this was the best of the manually focused shots.

...you ought'a see how this prints out on my new-to-me Dye Sub printer on 8x12 Kodak paper. So much better than the screen.

[Bramela]

Here is an entry from me, for what it is worth.

Kookaburra
Before :



Kookaburra
After :



I have just got into using Lightroom, and I have a lot to learn in the areea of PP. Not that I was ever any expert

[SWEngineer]

Pretty basic changes: WB, crop, tone / color, and huge helping of clone.

[seacapt]

1) The off side of Three Sheets by Robert F. Irwin
2) My picture Bluepoint Dream which looks alot better on big canvas behind glass than on small file computer screen.

[xs400]

This started as a jpeg taken with K100 and DA 50-200mm.

[jheu02]

Frank,

Great use of cropping and a perfect subject for a B/W conversion. Really brings out the facial texture.

[ll_coffee_lP]

Challenge is now closed. Thank you to those who participated! Results will be posted today.

c[_]

[Peter Zack]

Hey Coffee, sorry I missed this one, I'll post this just for fun.

I was fooling around with a shot (using Paint.net) and came up with this:



I've never really shown it to anyone but really liked the look of trying to make it a pencil sketch. Sorry I can't outline all the steps. I'll do it again someday If I have time.

The original was from a series and like a dope I renamed the abstract. I think it was the attached file but not sure. I just increased the exposure and then started using the 'artistic' tools in PN. Thought you might enjoy something a little different.