The photoshopped thread!

As everyone knows (or should know by now), post processing plays a very big role in digital photography. While it is not the ultimate save-all, it can make or break an image. Generally, without PS, your images will have less pop and not stand out as much. so this is a thread to show your photoshop works, as a before and after! I'll start it off. I'm very interested in seeing other people's photoshop stuff, and I know at least a couple people here do quite a bit of work with their images.

Before:
http://img235.imageshack.us/img235/6566/b70e4574oi5.jpg

After:
http://img58.imageshack.us/img58/446...574copyep2.jpg

I wish I had your skills Brent. Nice job.

My shoe, originally shot with my brother's Canon S2 IS, the image seemed washed out, partly due to the sand in the water. Fixed the levels with Fireworks MX, printed with PIXMA IP3000, and then printed with a shutterfly coupon code for a 16x20 :cool:

http://gallery.photographyreview.com...m/IMG_3866.JPG


http://gallery.photographyreview.com...edium/shoe.jpg

Wow! That portrait is stunning Brent!!!

You know me...I'm a big fan of PS :thumbsup:

I don't have Photoshop, I just haven't been able to force myself to spend the big bucks for it. But the best tutorials and the best plugins are written for Photoshop. I seem to get a mental block when I try to use Paint Shop Pro and either I end up with a garish ghost of the photo I used to have and then I leave it as it was from the camera. At some point I will finally bite the bullet and buy the expensive program and finally learn how to use it. Frustrating.
I also have a purist aversion to using Photoshop to "fix" my inability to capture what my vision was, or even worse in my mind make something more than what my vision was(horror!). I have a hard time even cropping a photo because it wasn't what was in the lens at the time of capture. I have to get over this, I have many "negatives" that have plenty of potential, but I have neither the skill or the mental game to make them what they could be. My latest post to the Critique forum I tried a little PP(a lot in my mind) and I think I got something a lot more pleasing than the original.

I get to messing around with it elements 2 but not usually to the degree i did in these.
I liked the plastic wrap in this pic though.

Would you believe one photoshop type program has pulldown menues for:

1. teeth whitening
2. tanning

:D :) :D

Of course, maybe that is somewhere in CS2 as well!

Ronnoco

alison.... I want to know how you textured that skin the way you did. I've been dying to know how that's done, but couldn't find any info on it. Please do tell. Amazing portrait too, the focus is dead on and those eyes just jump out at you. i think some selective coloring could go a long way with this one as well. mind if i post an edit of your image?

Here is a quick example from me from my buddies wedding-

I'm a huge Photoshop junkie!

Befores:
http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/2954/beforessq2.jpg

After:
http://stillskystudio.net/images/sti...l_textless.jpg

Hi all .. my little contribution to this interesting thread! Personally, I prefer the subtle approach - basically if you can tell it's been photoshopped, it's probably been over-done imo (unless of course it's a fantasy photo of some kind). Here is a before and after example, taken on the Greek island of Santorini this June. All I did was 1) correct the verticals, 2) crop, 3) lighten slightly the sky and the more shadowy area under the arch, 4) a very little unsharp masking. The idea (conceived at the time of taking) was to view the cathedral through the arch. More critically, the cross on the top could not actually be seen from this angle, so I 5) photoshopped the cross (taken from a different angle) onto the top of the dome.

Cheers
Mike

Quote:

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Originally Posted by livin4lax09

alison.... I want to know how you textured that skin the way you did. I've been dying to know how that's done, but couldn't find any info on it. Please do tell. Amazing portrait too, the focus is dead on and those eyes just jump out at you. i think some selective coloring could go a long way with this one as well. mind if i post an edit of your image?

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It's a kodak airbrush filter Brent. I only click on the default settings.
No I don't mind if you edit my image Brent. Thank you for asking first. I really appreciate it.

Here's what I do...
#1. I do any normal editing first, e.g. levels, contrast, and her finger was shading her bottom tooth and making it appear grey so I used the lasso tool to outline the tooth next to it, feathered it by 1 or 2 and moved it across to the grey tooth. I then erased what wasn't needed and used my blending options to turn the opacity down on the tooth a little.
Then I flattened the image.
#2. Then...Layer > Duplicate Layer > Filter > Kodak Airbrush Filter > Erase tool @ 100% to the eyes, eye lashes, hair, teeth, lips, hands, clothing > Erase tool @ 50% to eye brows, crease of eye lids and around nostril area.
Flatten image.
#3. Layer > Duplicate Layer > Image > Adjustments > Photo Filter > Warming Filter (85) > Erase eyes (Iris and whites), teeth, and anything else that is supposed to be white, but now has a yellow/orange tint due to the warm filter.
#4. Lassoo Iris > feather by 1 or 2 > apply a little USM (sometimes I don't bother with this stage. Sometimes I just apply a sharpen for web, via an action, to the whole image.)

I love having fun with different backgrounds too :)
The pic of the twins was actually taken using my Sony Cybershot DSC-P10. I turned the flash off and got them to stand near a window :)

And a few more.
The moon, I made with the Elliptical Tool in PS. Feathered it by 5 or 10 and filled it with clouds. (Filter > Render > Clouds).
The sunset I actually took from my back garden.


Sorry, I'm getting a little carried away now aren't I?
I'm lovin' this thread :D

i gotta get me one of those airbrushes, i can never be bothered to do it the manual way!

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y11...007/connie.jpg
Scanned in at 600 DPI shot on Minolta X-7A Minolta MD 50mm f/1.7 lens on Fuji Superia 400

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y11...connie-web.jpg
Balanced colours & levels. Desaturated the background. Enhanced the colours on the dress, evened out the skin tones, smoothed the skin. Added in lip colour, enchanced eye colours, made the hair purple.

Yes, same girl as my "Put some clothes on" thread.

Here is my early attempt at doing something with PS Elements. It looks a little better at large size, 8x10 or more.

original:

http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/460/b70e4141fr0.jpg

edited

http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/3...141copyzv5.jpg

Not trying to beat a dead horse by posting this again, but this is the most PhotoShop work I have done on any one picture. And Wow Alison, your really good maybe you should open a studio.
Greg

If you all could see me you would see me a) bowing before you - such impressive work!! and b) green with envy! When I grow up I want to be as good as you all are at PS!!! :thumbsup: I wish there was a class near me that I could take!!!!! I did buy a book - it hasn't helped me yet - but I am considering opening it! :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ladybugamanda

If you all could see me you would see me a) bowing before you - such impressive work!! and b) green with envy! When I grow up I want to be as good as you all are at PS!!! :thumbsup: I wish there was a class near me that I could take!!!!! I did buy a book - it hasn't helped me yet - but I am considering opening it! :D

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More than anything else it just takes getting your feet wet and playing around with it. Just learning a few tools will help you a bunch.
Greg

It is a goal of mine. I can do a few simple tricks but not like I saw posted here!

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y11...07/orignal.jpg
Original

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y11...otoshopped.jpg
Photoshopped

Awww thank you so much Greg. Your too kind :)

Here's one I did only yesterday.
#1 SOOC which I thought was pretty cool hehe.
#2 Rotated, cropped, healing brush to shadows, cloned out the hair in front of her right eye, got rid of the lens glare on her right eye. And of course the wonderful kodak arbrush filter :)

I just did my first adjustment layer ...
No doubt there's more that can be done to this image, but it's a start.

I was going to say, I can't actually see a difference, but looking carefully, I can see you lightened the driver. Great job Paul. Did you do anything else?

Nothing, apart from the resize/sharpen steps this is as shot.
Can't remember if this was 1DmkIIN or 1DSmkII, both capture the weird fluorescent colours better than the 20D.

Burn, baby burn. LOL

What a lovely Pear/Pair.

Just some fun with selective colouring :D

Two more from me from my last shoot with my friends family. Before, then after

Great work by everyone! Aside from post processing something I've been using PS for lately is photo restoration. Some of my recent examples:

http://www.tmphotorestore.com/photoshop/comparison.jpg


http://www.tmphotorestore.com/photoshop/Grandma.jpg

those restoration photos always really amaze me. they're really impressive, i must say. here's one i dug up i was always not too happy with the PP, so I jus redid it. This is my sister.


Original
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/7...182copygu8.jpg

Edited when I didn't know much about PS
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/9973/img4185nz4.jpg

New edit
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/2969/img4182iq2.jpg

Heres one of mine, more of a creative one rather than just post process type stuff on a regular shot. Still have lots to learn with PS though.

Just been having some fun in PS and PSP8.
Cropped the image. Burned the bg, converted to B&W and spherized the lenses of the glasses in PS.
Added a spider and made a thin selection for the web and dodged it in PSP8.
Just my light-hearted approach to photography :D

Here's a couple that I have tweeked recently.

Before:

http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k1...052_Before.jpg

After:

http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k1...0052_After.jpg

Before:

http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k1...617_Before.jpg

After:

http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k1...0617_After.jpg

Here's another one I did a while back. I really liked the finished product on this one, but my computer crashed and I lost it and the original before I had them backed up.:mad2:

I'm rather new to this forum, but certainly not to Photoshop. Here's one of my favorites ( The "after" image actually got published!)
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...9_28489498.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...r/IceQueen.jpg

A montage I did for a comp: (I left out the source images, as there were four or five)
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...lr/Seasons.jpg

And some retouching work I've done:
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e313/zachtlr/Job.jpg

-Medley.

Oh my goodness Medley!!! My work pales in comparison to yours! Stunning portrait!

I had some fun in PS at 3am this morning. A composite of 3 images and 3 effects.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alison

Oh my goodness Medley!!! My work pales in comparison to yours! Stunning portrait!

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Thank you Alison. In truth, I'm a much better at image editing than I am at photgraphry. Done correctly though, it's difficult to tell the difference. And I'm learning that some things are better (and easier!) done in-camera.

Very nice composition! Here's one that I did recently that I really like:
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...r/IMG_0625.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...r/FullMoon.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...tlr/LRwolf.jpg

-Joe U.

Another quick cloning job

Wow there's a lot of amazing work on here. I have always resisted using PS. My wife has PS on her computer. I think I need to learn how to start using it since I know nothing about other than how to resize :)

Dave