Author Topic: The wonders of Photoshop (the before and after thread) (Read 9136 times)

voyager · « **on:** January 05, 2011, 02:50:58 AM »

Let's see how creative we all are. Take a photo that you have improved on and post the original version, and then go through the process of how you made it look the way you want it to in Photoshop. Other suggestions from forum members and other edits are also welcome for the most part if the person asks for them. For example, I post a photo of the Golden Gate Bridge, straight out of the camera, and then I post the final version and tell everyone what I did to it. A great learning experience!

JonInKrakow · « **Reply #1 on:** January 08, 2011, 09:01:05 AM »

This adjustment was rather straightforward. First the background. I was taking pictures of my daughter in her new hat, and using program-shift to open up the f-stop. Somehow, without my noticing, the program-shift "unshifted" leaving me with the best picture of the bunch being unstopped-down, and with the unsightly fence in the background quite in-focus.

I opened this pic up in the GIMP (I like and use the GIMP, having given up Photoshop when I upgraded my Mac to an Intel Mac). I tried several methods of blurring the background, but in the end, the one that looked the best was the following method.

First I copied the background layer into a new layer. Next I used the magnetic scissors tool to select around my daughter's outline. The next step was to copy just her into a new layer on top of everything else. The next step was to blur the entire background copy layer, including my daughter. I believe I used the focus blur filter, and blurred to taste. ;-) Lastly, and most importantly, I reduced the opacity of the still sharp layer containing just my daughter. This accomplished two goals: 1, it helped soften the edges between the blurred and unblurred parts, and 2. gave a soft-focus to my daughter's face. While the result is not perfect (look closely at her hair), I hope that the effect is not glaringly obvious or distracting.

-Jon

ratobuhler · « **Reply #2 on:** January 08, 2011, 12:53:00 PM »

Artificial bokeh. Great. I would sharpen just the eyes.

voyager · « **Reply #3 on:** January 08, 2011, 01:59:26 PM »

I think the artificial bokeh looks great! But her face seems to have been given the same effect.

lisandra · « **Reply #4 on:** January 09, 2011, 03:41:38 PM »

I have one, It was a bunch of steps so I wont get technical.

Details

voyager · « **Reply #5 on:** January 09, 2011, 04:47:14 PM »

You should put in some details! I really don't know how you managed that!

n2hhr · « **Reply #6 on:** January 09, 2011, 06:55:02 PM »

Quote from: lisandra on January 09, 2011, 03:41:38 PM

I have one, It was a bunch of steps so I wont get technical.

Ha! Not too bad except for the boy hand and paper still hanging down on the right girls stomach! You did a good job on this. I do this kind of stuff also all of the time for customers here so I can appreciate your work very much!!!

lisandra · « **Reply #7 on:** January 09, 2011, 08:08:46 PM »

I noticed, I left the hand there because it kinda looked like the center model was holding the paper. The girls put it on their site nonetheless, but I guess I could have gone the extra mile there..

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You should put in some details! I really don't know how you managed that!

There are a couple of ways to do this (that I cant think of), some get more precise results than others but for web all of them work fine. I guess the easiest would be to make a selection (a very careful one) of the center and left model and that stand shes holding and saving it. Then open a second copy of the same photo and clone the right model on top of the guy with a medium soft brush(as close as the center model as possible). Then clone out (or brush out) whatever is left of the guy and make sure the background looks right. Then apply a pixel mask to a background copy of the layer, load the selection you saved, then edit-fill-black. zoom to 100% and clone/brush out the tiny details. Finally, crop tighter.
Other methods involve a lot more steps and layers, and take way more time.

Quote

I do this kind of stuff also all of the time for customers here so I can appreciate your work very much!!!

I get more work fixing photos than taking them!!

Panther · « **Reply #8 on:** January 09, 2011, 08:16:25 PM »

Quote from: lisandra on January 09, 2011, 08:08:46 PM

I get more work fixing photos than taking them!!

Which is precisely why I've recently been taking very few shots & instead working extremely hard on getting it right in 1 shot or 2....

lisandra · « **Reply #9 on:** January 09, 2011, 08:19:40 PM »

case in point, my cousin wanted this photo for xmas, a 13x13 print, but she was SURE I could do some thing about the dirt in the eyes. A lot of careful cloning. click them.

Details

lisandra · « **Reply #10 on:** January 09, 2011, 08:20:46 PM »

Quote

I get more work fixing photos than taking them!!

from other people I mean.

Panther · « **Reply #11 on:** January 09, 2011, 08:41:53 PM »

Quote from: lisandra on January 09, 2011, 08:20:46 PM

Quote
I get more work fixing photos than taking them!!
from other people I mean.

I know you did....

lisandra · « **Reply #12 on:** January 10, 2011, 01:27:43 PM »

Quote from: Panther on January 09, 2011, 08:16:25 PM

Quote from: lisandra on January 09, 2011, 08:08:46 PM
I get more work fixing photos than taking them!!

Which is precisely why I've recently been taking very few shots & instead working extremely hard on getting it right in 1 shot or 2....

Yeah thats the philosophy everyone should use, sadly they dont.

lisandra · « **Reply #13 on:** January 11, 2011, 11:53:21 AM »

Some times people expect miracles even. But sometimes good enough has to do.

Details

russell · « **Reply #14 on:** January 11, 2011, 02:50:33 PM »

Great work lisandra - you are setting a very high bar!

With the one of the little girl watching the open-air nuclear weapon test -- did you recover any of that contrast from the file or did you basically have to air brush all of the skin tones? Great work either way.

Em5 Pete · « **Reply #15 on:** January 11, 2011, 03:39:53 PM »

I don't use Photoshop, but, ACDsee Pro 3 (Lightroom like)
Can I play anyway?

lisandra · « **Reply #16 on:** January 11, 2011, 03:52:29 PM »

Quote from: russell on January 11, 2011, 02:50:33 PM

With the one of the little girl watching the open-air nuclear weapon test

JA JAJAJA!!!

. too funny!!...no what happened was that the photo was taken while the radio triggered strobe from another camera went off, and the mom ended up loving her face too much and begged for a fix.

Quote

did you recover any of that contrast from the file or did you basically have to air brush all of the skin tones? Great work either way.

I recovered a lot (not all) in light room (thank god for RAW) and then I sacrificed the skin tone for more detail. After that I opened it up in photoshop and brushed (background copy layer/dropper tool/brush/opacity 50%) the hotspots on her face. Then I got the skin tone back in hue saturation. I dont like the skin tone 100% percent but the mom is happy

lisandra · « **Reply #17 on:** January 12, 2011, 11:35:04 PM »

Quote from: M5-User on January 11, 2011, 03:39:53 PM

I don't use Photoshop, but, ACDsee Pro 3 (Lightroom like)
Can I play anyway?

indeed, I want to see what you fixed!

lisandra · « **Reply #18 on:** January 12, 2011, 11:37:10 PM »

No more skin tone frustration

Details

adash · « **Reply #19 on:** January 13, 2011, 12:14:22 AM »

I pictured a dog at my friends' house:

Details

Then I decided that the background was not perfect for my taste and I cloned some of the areas over:

Details

(I should have increased saturation though...)

(Not exactly Photoshop, but the closest I have - GIMP.)

Comments and critique welcome.

lisandra · « **Reply #20 on:** January 13, 2011, 12:46:23 AM »

Hey! I remember that one! from where did you clone the background or what did u do?

adash · « **Reply #21 on:** January 13, 2011, 01:08:54 AM »

I cloned areas from the right part of the fence and superimposed them over the areas I considered distracting. If you look carefully, you will see one and the same branch three times.

vdub_er · « **Reply #22 on:** January 13, 2011, 05:47:04 AM »

Some nice bits of photoshoping going on.

This one of my favorites that I've done, but not taken on a micro four thirds. But is the reason why I wanted to upgrade to get better quality photos to be able to play around with.

This is the original, taken in a field at a VW event.

CIMG1756.JPG by vdub_er, on Flickr

A quick description: To start with I cutout the beetle.

Next sourcing the images to create the background, not so easy. Took a while to find images the right size and perspective to make believable. One image for the decking, one for the surfer on the beach and another for the sky.

Then using different layers to build the image, using gaussian blur to create the depth and curve adjustment layers to harmonise the colouring

To finish added a texture of a watercolour painting to create the water mark/paper changing the layer blending option to soft light and added the pinhole effect using a black layer and layer mask.

and here is the post-photoshop image.

surfbug by vdub_er, on Flickr

voyager · « **Reply #23 on:** January 13, 2011, 06:00:18 AM »

Wow! What an excellent photo at the end. I never would have expected it started from something so ordinary.

lisandra · « **Reply #24 on:** February 02, 2011, 10:41:47 PM »

Ok, the background bokeh is from focalpoint selective focus, a software I really dont know how to use still so ignore it if it looks bad. The problem here was that my assistant, who is gonna hear from me tomorrow, jumped into the scene and the bride got distracted. I took another but when I got home it wasn't as good as the first one.
Sooo, I browsed trough the catalog of her photos and did a clone from another photo and masked of as best as I could what didn't belong. then I redid her makeup with a medium hard black brush.

Author Topic: The wonders of Photoshop (the before and after thread) (Read 9136 times)

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