Before and After

[marstar]

I did a few searches in the forums and couldn't find any threads that show a collection of pre and post edit photos.
Forgive me if I passed by it. Or perhaps it's like the magicians code, never reveal your secrets....

Browsing through past competitions I'm constantly amazed at the quality shots that are posted and can't help but wonder, how much of it was done in post and how much from straight out the box.

I feel that it would be tremendously helpful to see these before/after pics to encourage those of us who are just starting out editing or touching up to show us the possibilities and limitations. Step by step would be amazing, but considering our enthusiastic members, the servers would probably crash...

What do you think mods? Make a sticky?

[Shadowman]

Probably not a specific thread except for some of the montnly challenges, but you should be able to find a sprinkling of before/after edits throughout the forum. Try the People/Pets section.

[Polar01]

Did you look in the monthly and other competitions, once look for PP Chanenge, you will see one for #19. Here we are supplied with the orginal image and are let loose to process it any direction we want, then repost it back. As for step by step that can take some time to write up, for some step by step videos try Adorama and/or B&W web sites.

Cheers:

Allan

[Wayland]

I think it's an interesting idea but perhaps a breakdown, frame by frame, to show how an image is altered would be more instructive.

[marstar]

Thanks for all the replies.

I did see a bunch of before/after shots in various threads and sections, but I was thinking of more of a showcase style thread with just 2 pictures per post, one before, one after.
This way, other members can quickly see the end result of the transformation, also giving us different ideas and inspiration on how we might want to try and edit our photos.

Perhaps the poster adds the before/after photos with a brief description on what software he/she used and tell us what was envisioned before starting and if that changed by the time the edit was done.
Editing is of course technical, but I also think its a lot of "feel" as well. Frame by frame breakdown would be optimal, but that could result in A LOT of pages per poster, depending on how much work was done. Not to mention, not everyone has the same software to edit on and that would result in a lot of "what about if I used ______?"

I think that 2 shots would go a long way to motivate some of the newer people to editing, (raises hand) point them in the right direction.
If a particular person wants to know more about a certain edit, Im sure they just have to ask.

[marstar]

Did you look in the monthly and other competitions, once look for PP Chanenge, you will see one for #19.

Sorry, ran by this before my last post.
Something exactly like this, but of course using any photo a member chooses to post.
Those pics from the PP challenge were VERY helpful to me! Some ideas I would have never thought of had I not seen them.

[Giman]

I did a few searches in the forums and couldn't find any threads that show a collection of pre and post edit photos.
Forgive me if I passed by it. Or perhaps it's like the magicians code, never reveal your secrets....

Browsing through past competitions I'm constantly amazed at the quality shots that are posted and can't help but wonder, how much of it was done in post and how much from straight out the box.

I feel that it would be tremendously helpful to see these before/after pics to encourage those of us who are just starting out editing or touching up to show us the possibilities and limitations. Step by step would be amazing, but considering our enthusiastic members, the servers would probably crash...

What do you think mods? Make a sticky?

I really like the idea. I am new to this forum but I agree that perhaps you should institute a specific competition or something. just for this.

[rpcrowe]

I ALWAYS do some post processing, even if it is just a bit of sharpening and resizing.

However, I try to get the best image possible SOOC and not depend on PP to get a credible image. Since, I always shoot in RAW, I always have a non-destructive copy of my original image as shot!

Mostly my PP work is just to add some finishing touches to my images not to attempt to salvage any shots which were incorrectly exposed or focused. But, I do a LOT of MAJOR salvage work with rescue dog images submitted to me from our rescue group volunteers. Unfortunately, the resultant product is never great, only just passable (which is usually a quantum improvement over the originals).

When I do post processing, I often do not keep a record of what I have done nor, do I really remember all of the steps. This is especially true when I am using NIK software (with which lately, I have been doing a lot of my PP). That is because working with NIK is so very fast and so very easy (for me). It is almost intuitive but, I always have a specific aim...

OTOH, I do try, when I post an altered (and hopefully improved) version of some other photographer's image, to remember and to list the steps I have taken to arrive at the final product.

[Loose Canon]

Okay Mars! I don’t really think that is a horrifyingly unreasonable request. There are post-production threads going on all the time in here. And sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words!

So I’m going to breech the Magician’s Code (on pain of death ) and let the rabbit out of the hat!

I knew from the onset what I wanted and tried to shoot toward that end. Since I don’t always get what I shoot for I like to be prepared to improvise, adapt, and overcome if I can!

This is a single frame (non-composited) image with all post production work done in ACR & Photoshop CC with an additional reference frame for white balance and color profiling.

I stopped a splash I liked in the studio and then went into post. This was a function of flash duration. There will be many more to come. And I’ve included a lighting diagram for this shot. Note that I would change it a bit on re-shoot. Namely add one more light to the mix.

It was shot at the following: f/20, 1/200th sec. shutter, ISO 200.

It would take the book you mentioned to tell you what I did but adjustments include and are not limited to white balance, camera color profiling, white/black points, sharpening, clarity, lens correction, probably a tad of saturation in ACR.

Once in Photoshop, including but not limited to: local contrast, curves/levels, a ton of cleaning (um, getting rid of unwanted splash, drops, whatever I didn't want in the frame), work on the product labeling, colorization of BG (the color was chosen from a shade of green on the bottle), additional sharpening, crop, to name a few and in no particular order (except sharpening, which is one of the last for output), and sometimes I’ll run some local noise reduction on maybe the BG or something before any further sharpening. Not because of any noise issues either necessarily. It helps smooth out a BG sometimes or a really scratchy glass bottle or subject. Noise reduction can be used for a lot of good things and is not necessarily the “Evil Last Resort Because I Had to Shoot at ISO 16384000 Because it Was Dark and I Left My Flash in My Other Pants Pocket” that it sometimes gets a rap for!

I don't consider the shot a failure but it is not near where I want it to be. So as I mentioned there are going to be a ton of re-shoots down the road until it starts to get closer!

So any specific questions just fire away! If I can’t answer then there are a lot of folks here who can!



My backdrop only extended to the floor and not under the subject.