"Extreme Processing" Challenge COMMENTS thread...

Comments on the photos welcome here.

In addition, although it is not a requirement for the challenge (and certainly not the basis on which they will be judged), I encourage entrants to share the techniques they used to achieve their work, so that the other members of this group may learn from them.

I'll go first...

What is accepted as extreme processing? Does the original motive need to be intact, or is photoshopping allowed? :-)

...or similar work with a comparable image editor. OTOH, I'd be curious to see what some people might come up with using methods other than computerized image processing.

I've always enjoyed using this title since, of course, the photo of tree reflections in the water is not of an "autumn" anything -- it was taken at the Tallman Wildlife Sanctuary in Gig Harbor, Washington, at the height of summer, the evening of July 18, 2005.

The photo was given an autumnal look through the use of Photoshop's Channel Mixer. I took the red channel (which is normally based on 100% red, 0% green, 0% blue) and changed it to -50% red, 200% green, -50% blue, which had the effect of moving the green leaves of the reflection into the orange range, as the newly-remapped red mixed with the pre-existing green channel. A boost to the colors with hue/saturation and some judicious use of unsharp mask (to bring out the ripples in the water) completed the effect.

already... now I have to do my own.

LOL

I made a duplicate of the cropped from original image, applied Duotone, tweaked the levels until it looked OK. Overlaid an original color image and erased everything but the one red leaf. Flatten the layers, applied unsharp mask, and did minor tweaks to levels and such. Gave it a clever name.

Almost like a silk screen ;-)

day.

That day the Arboretum was crawling with photographers. Even a bluegrass band was there to take some publicity shots. (Reel World String Band) http://www.reelworldstringband.com/

In a free little editing program called Vicman's Photo Editor. I resized, then did the auto color processing. That made the rainbows come out more prevalently. After that, I applied a 3D transition mask and adjusted the saturation, brightness and contrast.

was just an attempt to lighten up my underexposed first shots out of the new camera -- learning curve and all that. I cropped, lightened, messed around with the hues ... I really don't know what all I did, but the result looks a lot more like what I was actually looking at, so I guess this is extreme processing in reverse.

You really brought out the colors in the sky. That's not easy.

You increased the drama in the pic very much with the prosessing.

Congrats on the 5000 :bounce:

1) Take "drive-by shooting."
2) Straighten and recrop.
3) Apply a bit too much (for realism, that is) unsharp mask.
4) Adjust levels for optimum contrast range.
5) In hue/saturation, increase master saturation to 100%.

Because I did it a while back when we were posting those New Orleans photos. I just remember going crazy on the filters and liking the results.

It brings out the architectural details. Was it destroyed by Katrina?
That's too sad...

I accidentally posted this in the submission thread first, sorry :-)

Congrats on winning last month's contest. It was a beautiful photo.

The cathedral still stands, but I wrote RIP for New Orleans.

Mostly just lightened and brightened, then softened it up a lot so it looks like an impressionist painting.

wow. good work.

1) Used Photoshop's highlight/shadow adjustment to bring up the foreground level.
2) Worked with hue/saturation to bring up all colors, with an especial emphasis on reds and yellows.
3) Used clone stamp to remove the ugly clearcut in the middle hills, plus erase high-tension lines running along the ridge.
4) Finally, used Fred Miranda's "Velvia Vision" plug-in to give the color an extra 25% boost.

Grass Dancer, now to remember since I finally found the original. He was cut out with the lasso tool and placed on a yellow background that faded into white because of the lighting on him. Duplicated the layer of the dancer and blurred him, then duplicated that layer and used smart blur edges only. I then inverted it and removed all the white leaving black outlines. I adjusted the opacity until I liked it and flattened all. Oops, painted in the shadow then blurred it before flattening all the layers.



Love seeing everyone's work. They are all great and love seeing the different creative direction each person has gone.

Bombay Hook Morning Swim.

Adjusted levels slightly.
Adjusted color balance slightly.
Pulled the to top reeds down a bit to narrow the water area and cropped it.

Especially that rose, it was special :-)

My piper are from a series called 'The day the world went pink', taken a beautiful spring day in 2002. I wanted the bright green spring leaves to turn pink, so the hue is adjusted. Then I made a loose selection with a feather of 20 around the image center, inverted it and applied a slight radial blur.

I have a very Brecht-ish clown too I wanted to post, and wondered if I could get permission to post another pic? ;-)

were that you could post as many as you want.

I cropped the photo, and then used the 'find edge' transition in Vicman's Photo Editor. Lightened it up a whole lot and sharpened it a bit too.

editing. It is called Art Rage. You can paint over photos using this tool.


http://www.ambientdesign.com/artrage.html

It's free.

Oops!!!

I used the emboss filter for depth and line definition. Then I used the solarize filter to thin out the background and for line strength. I converted to grayscale the rest was just a matter of contrast, brightness, and gray level.

For Gemini Reborn I erased the background, adjusted the contrast and used the cutout filter.

Man, that Art Rage program is cool! My attempt is probably pretty lame, because I'm on a laptop with a touchpad instead of a graphic pen. But it was fun, all the same!

Isn't Art Rage a real hoot?

As I noted in a separate thread, since F.Gordon seems to have dropped out of sight, and since I know he was planning to sumbit to this challenge, I don't want the entries to fill up without him having a chance to either submit a couple of entries.

Accordingly, I'm going to cut off the entries at 28 for the time being, unless I hear from F.Gordon that he isn't planning to enter after all. Once the cut-off has been reached, I'm going to wait a few days for F.Gordon to get in his entries, then start the actual polling.

So, if you haven't had the chance yet, get your entries in right away. We seem to have 24 already, so only four more non-F.Gordon slots remain. (It's looking more and more like my initial prediction that this challenge wouldn't draw all that many entries falls under the "famous last words" category.)

like a regular contest? And, no, I haven't heard from F. Gordon either, but I hope he shows up. I think he'd hate to miss this one.

I still haven't decided whether the preliminary rounds will be in the Lounge or this group. It's something I was planning to talk over with F.Gordon, which obviously hasn't been possible up to now.

so, CURSE YOU RED BARON!

Since realpolitik didn't enter an original. You have a "full plate". I'm still workin' on my main entry but here are a couple I would have entered...

When Children Are Left Behind





Fantasy Park

...and I can't replicate it. :cry:

I did it more than a year ago, stumbling along, when I knew next to nothing about PS.

But I'm having fun experimenting. I guess I'm trying to make him look like one of those comic book characters from the 1930s. The guy in the picture is a local performer and actor who plays with fire.

What I did was use the "liquify" filter on the flames to make them larger. In the second Shongo photo, I used the "cloud" filter for the background to try to give it a fiery background. Then I used the "poster edges" filter to give it that comic book look.

I've never used any of those filters before. By the way, Shongo is the name I gave him, he goes by another name. Shongo is supposed to be the African God of Fire.

Houston, we have a problem.

Even though I issued a cut-off at 28 entries, people have kept submitting photos. Since I don't have the authority to lock this thread on my own, I couldn't stop these additional photos from being entered.

So (big gulp), I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and have a larger field and four preliminary-round polls for this challenge.

With four polls, we'll be taking the top two finishers in each poll, plus the two closest overall runners-up, to include in the final round.

What this means is that, since we're currently at 34 entries, I will accept up to an additional SIX ENTRIES. Anything submitted after that will be disqualified, whether I can lock the thread or not.

Also, I'll be ending the submission period tomorrow night, even if we have less than forty entries on hand.

(I don't know how I get myself into these things...)

No wonder you had such an outburst. This was a fun challenge.

when I put mine up there, but it is clearly after it.

...to choose their favorite. Managing 40 entries is a LOT of work!

Just to add more confusion to the mix.

be withdrawn. Thanks for doing these threads. :hi: :loveya: :hug: :pals: :woohoo: