Before and After - An Editing Thread

Fen

New member
I thought it would be a good idea to start a new thread with our own examples of edited photos.

Not other peoples work, but photos we have edited ourselves to either remove unwanted elements, add in objects, or other drastic changes to the image.

To start... here is one of two benches on the beach in Poole, Dorset (England).

It was pouring down with rain and 50mph winds coming from the West (the right as you look at the photo). I quickly jumped out of the cover of the shops to run across to the benches to to take the photos. I got drenched! But I managed to get the shot I wanted, even with the torrential rain. I knew what I wanted in my mind and that I could edit out the extra stuff in the background. The benches aren't there any more which is a shame as I'd like to go back and photograph them again.

Anyway... here are the photos.

Before:
2642393985_94f0bb4a9e.jpg


Afrer:
2642943459_5c6c54f89c.jpg


Now, let's see your best examples... and the story behind them :)

Original images here:
Unedited - Windswept Benches | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Edited Windswept Benches Edited | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
 

ohkphoto

Snow White
It was pouring down with rain and 50mph winds coming from the West (the right as you look at the photo). I quickly jumped out of the cover of the shops to run across to the benches to to take the photos. I got drenched! But I managed to get the shot I wanted, even with the torrential rain. I knew what I wanted in my mind and that I could edit out the extra stuff in the background.

Now that's dedication! Hats off to you, Fen! Great shot, outstanding vision, and superb post processing! I especially like the windswept sand.

I think this is great thread. It would certainly help all of us to be more conscientious . . . speaking for myself, I sometimes rule out shots because I forget that I can photoshop something out.

Best Regards
 

Browncoat

Senior Member
Nice work, Fen! I'm curious, though...why didn't you Photoshop "in" another board on the bench on the left to substitute for the one that's missing?
 

Eduard

Super Mod
Staff member
Super Mod
Not as dramatic as Fen's, but when we were in Rome I took this picture on the Spanish Steps realizing that I would have to do perspective correction and remove the contrail from a plane in the sky. I used Photoshop CS5's new content aware features on the contrail. I was trying to capture the amount of people and activity which is why I went wide.

EXIF: D300, Sigma 10-20, ISO 200, f/9.0. 1/320

BEFORE:

Rome_2008_1020_123525.jpg

AFTER:

Rome_2008_1020_123525_edit.jpg
 
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Gladiator

Senior Member
Wow very nice!!! All i can do for now is take off some unwanted crap from a sky with Lightroom 3, like electrical wires and such but as soon as i try to take away items someplace else i fail big time :-(

The brush option in LR3 is not easy to work with.

Good job!

I thought it would be a good idea to start a new thread with our own examples of edited photos.

Not other peoples work, but photos we have edited ourselves to either remove unwanted elements, add in objects, or other drastic changes to the image.

To start... here is one of two benches on the beach in Poole, Dorset (England).

It was pouring down with rain and 50mph winds coming from the West (the right as you look at the photo). I quickly jumped out of the cover of the shops to run across to the benches to to take the photos. I got drenched! But I managed to get the shot I wanted, even with the torrential rain. I knew what I wanted in my mind and that I could edit out the extra stuff in the background. The benches aren't there any more which is a shame as I'd like to go back and photograph them again.

Anyway... here are the photos.

Before:
2642393985_94f0bb4a9e.jpg


Afrer:
2642943459_5c6c54f89c.jpg


Now, let's see your best examples... and the story behind them :)

Original images here:
Unedited - Windswept Benches | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Edited Windswept Benches Edited | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
 

ohkphoto

Snow White
This is what I wake up to every morning . . .view out of my front window at sunrise (went outside to take the pic since I hadn't washed my windows. . .yet)


_DSC0003.jpg


After post-processing in Lightroom 3 --tone curve, vinbrance, and clone tool to take out the light pole on the left. Dfine to take out noise (the 3200 iso was a mistake . . .hadn't had my morning coffee and forgot the change iso back after an indoor shoot) I am pleasantly surprised that the noise is at an acceptable lever at least for a web pic.

_DSC0003-Edit.jpg
 

jdeg

^ broke something
Staff member
Here's some editing and lens correction I did on a low light pic of the Sistine Chapel:

10mm - 1/8sec @ f/5.6 ISO 800

Untouched:
DSC_0521_sm.jpg

After:
DSC_0521 copy.jpg
 

AxeMan - Rick S.

Senior Member
BEFORE:

DSC_6271 800 x 600.jpg

AFTER:
DSC_6271 copy2 800 x 600.jpg


Here's my contribution:

Rochelle Railroad Days June 3rd 2010. This unit was brought in for the 3 day weekend display. Once parked all access is taped of with yellow caution tape so people will not climb on the equipment. At the time the unit was brought in it was cloudy and a sea of people were taking pictures, it was imposable to get a shot off with out someone in the frame or blocking the unit and the lighting was poor to say the least under the clouds. After an hour or so most of the people had left, but the unit was all ready wrapped in caution tape. The sun came out for a brief time and out of frustration I took a shot and said I have to live with the caution tape on the hand rails. About a month later bored one night I put into Photoshop Elements 8 and started playing around with it and this is the finished photo. It's not perfect I need to go back and fix a couple of things.
 
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Carolina Photo Guy

Senior Member
but most people can not find the errors I left out.

That sounds like a challenge!

Sooo....
Take out the guy across the tracks and clean up the yellow tape at the back of the engine.
Of course, I just glanced at it. I'll study it later on tonight.

Pete
 

jdeg

^ broke something
Staff member
but most people can not find the errors I left out.

Oh, I really like photo hunt. hah

The railroad ties to the left are gone
The caution tape is gone from the steps and behind where the guy is. I see the shadows from the rails are also gone - I would try and put them back in to make it look more real.

Great shot!
 

AxeMan - Rick S.

Senior Member
I did not mean to make this a Photo Hunt, not the point of the thread. So here what needs to be changed. As pointed out the shadow for the handrail needs to be replaced, and the tape at the back of the engine needs to be removed. On the low rez upload it might be hard to see the guy in the back round is really a Cub Scout. Before I knew it was a Scout I was going to take him out, but decided to leave him in. Also the white highlights on the stairs have a yellow cast to them from the tape, and I have had a hard time covering up the yellow. If you guys want to Critique the photo maybe I show also post in that thread, I'll leave that up to the starter of this thread if he wants us to critique photo's here also.

Rick
 
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