BEFORE and AFTER: The Post Processing Thread

[highwaystardoritos]

depends if im on my imac or my macbook pro.... my macbook pro getting sluggish, i need to upgrade to SSD.

[M_Six]

Do it. I upgraded mine to a 500GB SSD and moved the 500GB spinning drive to the DVD slot. So now I have 1TB of storage space. Now my MBP boots from cold to login in 13 seconds.

[Matt@EuroJerks]

cool thread. sub'd

[///M Power-Belgium]

[M_Six]

These two pics were taken with my G7x and then combined into the pano shot below them.

[jmg]

Originally Posted by M_Six

These two pics were taken with my G7x and then combined into the pano shot below them.

I swear I've seen this shot on a photography forum. Nice job!

[socale39]

What software are you guys using? Sadly I have been using photoshop CS2 and just recently downloaded the trial version of CC. I want to upgrade the software just not sure with all these new adobe subscription apps, which one is worth it.

[metrickid]

Originally Posted by socale39

What software are you guys using? Sadly I have been using photoshop CS2 and just recently downloaded the trial version of CC. I want to upgrade the software just not sure with all these new adobe subscription apps, which one is worth it.

The PS + LR photography pack is the most popular one and I think it is offered at a decent cost as I upgraded often before. But I understand it feels expensive if you hold on to the same version for 5 years or so. There is also Affinity Photo which is cheap and very capable.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by jmg

I swear I've seen this shot on a photography forum. Nice job!

Possibly so. I post on POTN all the time.

[Aust350z]

Originally Posted by jmg

Another edit

RAW:

El Dorado RAW by JMG, on Flickr

After:

El Dorado 2 by JMG, on Flickr

Any tutorials for achieving this?

[jmg]

Originally Posted by Aust350z

Any tutorials for achieving this?

Not specifically. Most of the work was done in PS. Here's a list that you can search for tutorials for:

Cloning - I cloned out the palm trees and the sign on the left, distracting imperfections of the road, as well as some reflections on the car using the heal brush, spot healing brush, patch tool, and plain old copy and paste. There are lost of tutorials on painting out unwanted elements.
Masking - I used a mask to isolate the car and the road so I can adjust it separately.
Adjustment layers - I used many many adjustment layers like brightness/contrast, curves, saturation, levels, etc on dozens of parts of the photo. For example I used brightness adjustment layers to brighten just the wheels, or a cooling photo filter to reduce the yellow light on the car, an exposure adjustment layer for the road to make it darker etc. look up adjustment layer tutorials. Adjustment layers separate the men from the boys in PS. It's where the meat of the work is done at least for me.

Hope this helps!

[Antetokounmpo]

Before by Bryan Kendall, on Flickr

After by Bryan Kendall, on Flickr

[jmg]

Originally Posted by Harambe

Before by Bryan Kendall, on Flickr

After by Bryan Kendall, on Flickr

Very nice!

[Antetokounmpo]

Before by Bryan Kendall, on Flickr

DSC_3089-3 by Bryan Kendall, on Flickr

[metrickid]

One is before, one is after...

[jmg]

Originally Posted by metrickid

One is before, one is after...

Very nice shot, I love this perspective. I wonder if it would benefit from removing that white line?

[metrickid]

Originally Posted by jmg

Very nice shot, I love this perspective. I wonder if it would benefit from removing that white line?

Thanks!
Bottom right is a sidewalk. I edited it out at first but I wasn't sure if it helped or not so put it back. Might be a bit cleaner without...

[jmg]

My most recent:


Before
Lunch Break - RAW by JMG, on Flickr

You can see lots of magenta, and underexposure on the shaded side of the car. There are some distracting posts in the background that I wanted to lose as well as a major re-crop. There is a lot of negative space on the bottom, and I wanted more attention to go to the car and the mountain ridge behind it. I also wanted the lines of the road and plants to flow to the left of the screen, and the crop draws more attention to it. The color scheme I went for is sea green and gold, which I noticed I like seeing in Markus Wendler photos. I'm going for that "hyper real" look. More of what the mind sees than what it was in reality.


After
Lunch Break by JMG, on Flickr

Tell me what you guys think.

[metrickid]

Originally Posted by jmg

Tell me what you guys think.

Looks great! The reflection in the mirror and the chromatic aberration against the mountain line is a bit distracting in your edit and I personally dislike these strange aspect ratios (if not used for a panorama). Other than than -

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by metrickid

Looks great! The reflection in the mirror and the chromatic aberration against the mountain line is a bit distracting in your edit and I personally dislike these strange aspect ratios (if not used for a panorama). Other than than -

I agree.

Shooting a white car in full sun is a really tough shot. You really needed multi-shot HDR to have any hope of a great looking shot.

I'd probably crop in tighter and back off those adjustments, except raise shadows more and pull down whites.

Any white subject in full sun is a tough order.

[jmg]

Originally Posted by metrickid

Looks great! The reflection in the mirror and the chromatic aberration against the mountain line is a bit distracting in your edit and I personally dislike these strange aspect ratios (if not used for a panorama). Other than than -

Originally Posted by dcstep

I agree.

Shooting a white car in full sun is a really tough shot. You really needed multi-shot HDR to have any hope of a great looking shot.

I'd probably crop in tighter and back off those adjustments, except raise shadows more and pull down whites.

Any white subject in full sun is a tough order.

Thanks for the feedback! I shot this with the intention of cropping 2.35:1 which is the cinescope anamorphic ratio of film. Coming from a theatrical film background, I like this ratio because it almost feels like a still from a feature film. I also use 16:9 a lot. I guess it's my own little way of inserting some of my own personal touches to my photos.

I've corrected as much as the CA as I could and fixed the reflection. I'll probably upload it tonight. As far as the adjustments, I'm not going for realism in this shot. It's what I saw in the moment and a vision of what I remember that I want to portray, like a hyper-reality. Some call it overdone processing. I'm sure there is a happy medium that I might find one day.

[jmg]

Updated version:

Lunch Break V2 by JMG, on Flickr