Photo Editing Contest Week of 10-29 to 11-4

[Master Mason]

I am going to be very busy on Monday, so I am trying to get this done ahead of time which is why this is posted tonight.

Please note, this is the first week with the updated rules.

This weeks chalenge is to covert a photo to B&W. You may use the photo below, or a photo of your choosing. It would be nice if your photo could be Disney related, but is not a requirement. If you choose to use your own picture you must post the before and after photos.

Photos may be cropped, framed, whatever you wish to do in your editing, as long as it is a color to black and white conversion.

Also, please post your comments or suggestions in the Photoshop Contest Help thead, I want this to be fun and a good learning experience for as many as we can make it.

Please see the official rules of the contest located at http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1566404

http://gregghall.smugmug.com/photos/208692982-O-1.jpg

 

[gokenin]

first step was to increase the color depth to 16 channels,the a went into the color adjustments and increased the green and blue up to 25% and decreased the red down to -50% then simply went to greyscale.

and here is the original

one of the few pictures taken with my 10-17mm fisheye

 

[jann1033]

seemed like a good pinholeesque camera photo to me

 

[Shasta]

Ok, here is mine. I thought a B&W canvas might look good so...

 

[DueyDooDah]

 

[cc1075]

Not sure of everything - - texture - spotlight - but need to write it down next
time. But, I felt OK for a first try.

 

[Amy]

Duey - I really like your shot! Can you explain sharpening to me? Every time I try using sharpening in PSE4, I never like the results. Is there a trick to it? TIA!

 

[°O°Joe]

I'll have a try at this... I like what the B&W conversion did to this picture. First I converted to black & white, then I adjusted highlights, brightness & shadows as the picture was way under exposed, sharpened and framed. I use the same frame for all my pictures...

And here's the original:

 

[gokenin]

I think the picture works better in black & white you definately get much more detail out of the trees and space mountain had greater clarity as well in this picture

 

[RBennett]

I know it's pretty similar to some of the other posts, but I thought I would finally jump in and participate before Master Mason closed down the competition altogether!

 

[cryssi]

are we posting techniques, too?

 

[Gdad]

Here is my offering...

Original version can be seen Here...This was done with the Gorman-Holbert Conversion Method with a slight brown tone and a little vignetting added to darken the mood. Happy Halloween all.

 

[Anewman]

Ok since it is Halloween, here is one from Disneylands Big Thunder Ranch last week.

The black and white was done during the RAW conversion and I added a vignette in CS3, here are the conversion settings used before and after.

And here is the original image with auto conversion settings.

 

[DueyDooDah]

Duey - I really like your shot! Can you explain sharpening to me? Every time I try using sharpening in PSE4, I never like the results. Is there a trick to it? TIA!

I don't find it tricky but I find it can be touchy.

As you are probably aware, this is the last step you should perform before saving the file. I start with the photo I want to sharpen sized to 100% then, using the Unsharpen mask under Filters, I try the suggestions in Kelby's book, basically looking at 65%, 75%, 85%, 150% and 225%. I find, for me, I use 85% and 150% most of the time. I never change the other settings, leaving radius at 1 and threshold at 0 (I'm sure one day I'll need to change those settings for some reason, but for now, I am happy with these settings). I use a feature with lines (as in this photo, the lines of grain on the signs) to see if I have not over sharpened. Over-sharpening is when the effect starts to look unreal (although for printing to an inkjet, you should oversharpen). If I reach that point, then back off until I'm satisfied. Then, I compare the original to the sharpened by toggling the Preview checkbox. That really shows me if I've hit the target. Most of the time, this step causes me to make adjustments, showing me that I was a bit too sharp.

Now for the final step: saving the file as a JPEG, resized for the web. I first go into Image | Resize | Image size. In the Document Size section of the dialog, I change te Resolution to 72 pixels/inch (this correlates to the dots on a monitor). I leave all three checkboxes below checked, change Resample Image to Bicubic Sharper, then click OK. I then again go into the Image size dialog as before and this time change the Width or Height setting to 800. The 800 goes into to long side of the photo so that the photo is never over 800 pixels on any side (this is for the Disboard). I leave the Resample Image set to Bucubic this time as it has already been sharpened as far as I wish to go. And that's it!

I hope this is not too confusing. It's simpler that is seems.

 

[Pennykay]

This is my first time posting here. I love this shot and couldn't resist!! It was taken this past Sept. at Little Ones Magic Hours.

Before:

 

[JR6ooo4]

I know it's pretty similar to some of the other posts, but I thought I would finally jump in and participate before Master Mason closed down the competition altogether!

I hope that does not happen.

Maybe to help ease the mental load, let the winner choose a picture or topic for the next available round. Since voting takes a week minimum, each choice would be a week or so behind.

also ask some other competant disers to help with postin polls, etc...

But I am still trying to think of something to do with this week's picture.

Mikeeee

 

[Master Mason]

As long as folks participate, I am most happy to continue running it. My plea for help on the other thread was just so that we can make it something that is fun and useful for as many folks as possible.

We ran it the original way for about 6 weeks I think, I have topics set up for the next 6, as we go though that, I hope everyone evaluates what they like, what they don't like and make suggestions on the other thread, so that everyone benifits.

As for the work, it really isn't that bad at the moment, takes me a hour or so a week, if something is going on I might be early or late, but I will get it done. The poll for last weeks contest will be up sometime this evening.

I was at DL all day.... sorry that was more fun

 

[RBennett]

As long as folks participate, I am most happy to continue running it. My plea for help on the other thread was just so that we can make it something that is fun and useful for as many folks as possible.

We ran it the original way for about 6 weeks I think, I have topics set up for the next 6, as we go though that, I hope everyone evaluates what they like, what they don't like and make suggestions on the other thread, so that everyone benifits.

As for the work, it really isn't that bad at the moment, takes me a hour or so a week, if something is going on I might be early or late, but I will get it done. The poll for last weeks contest will be up sometime this evening.

I was at DL all day.... sorry that was more fun

Well me personally, I am thankful for you doing this!! I love looking through here and getting ideas and seeing how other people's eyes and minds work. It gives great ideas and training for someone like me who is just starting out and lets me know what I kind of need to look for.

 

[Marinerbaby]

The Castle
Specs... 70-200L 2.8 IS, f/2.8 SS 125, ISO 1600. PPing... Gradient map, boost contrast, Duplicate layer, lighten with curves, erase back in background, burn background a bit and dodge the windows in the castle, sharpen for web, and reduce in size.

B/W

Color

 

[NostalgicDad]

Used pretty much standard editing as I'm no PS expert by any means. From a recent shot I took of the moon, I basically merged and resized to add the "mickey moon" to the existing castle picture. I then desaturated all the blues and warmed up the moons as well as the street lighting. Since the original shot of the castle has a lot of "dead" space, I decided to crop out the undesirable areas.

And, here are the original shots.......