Challenges

Photo Editing: ABFriday Week 35 One Photo Focus

 

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After
After

Step one for me is usually adjusting the lighting.  I work in Sagelight and used the Smart Light to make minor adjustments.  I liked the wet reflections on the sidewalk and wanted to keep and enhance that if I could. I didn’t like the semi-visible light standard to the right of centre so I wanted to either get rid of it or enhance it.  I enhanced it.

I used the power details to bring up the detail, adjusting the focus strength and transparency.

Since it’s a drippy day I added a soft focus, which brightens the colours so I then spot adjusted them using the vibrancy controls to tone them down and still retain the softer focus.

Using a plug-in, I added an iridescent effect but I didn’t like it except on the branches where I think it adds to the wet and rainy atmosphere of the photo.  For a quick fix to keep it on the branches and eliminate the iridescent effect elsewhere, I resorted to Microsoft’s Paint.  I simply copied that quadrant of the photo and pasted it onto my “before iridescent” copy of the image.  After the paste-in, the lighting on the pole on the left needed blending which I did using the dodge and burn brush.

Lastly, I added a tint to the sky and a soft vignette to enhance the atmosphere of  a drippy, set-in, rainy day.  I tried a few crops, just to see the possibilities but in the end preferred the composition of the original.

ABFriday is hosted by Stacy over at Visual Venturing

24 thoughts on “Photo Editing: ABFriday Week 35 One Photo Focus”

  1. Such an interesting process – just the idea of combining soft focus with enhanced details is interesting enough! And the final effect, with all your changes, is really, really nice.

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  2. I like this soft, yet more clear look. Nice job.

    Once you create a post and schedule it, there is a permalink above the tools bar (before you post it, while you are still writing it). Once you crested a post, the date in permalink is the date you created the post. Just be sure you change it to the scheduled date. And the title has to be the same, because if you change it after you send it Stacy, it won’t work. This is probably the worst possible explanation, but I hope it helps. 🙂

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  5. Hi Lynne nice job, I like the contrast between the warm sale shop and the cooler tones in the rest of the image, and the subtle colour in the sky. I confess to not being a fan of the oversharpened look in the trees in front of the building and there is a weird effect above them on top of the building in front of the tower I couldnt account for?

    Re posting times, in WordPress you can write in advance and then schedule it to be released into the wild at a certain day and time ie when Stacy posts her main post for this challenge it is 2am my time, the day after her timezone, so I schedule it for 2am on the Sat morning to match her 8am Friday morning.

    Its up on the top RH corner where you can hit the Save Draft button or Preview, if you it Schedule it opens up a date and time option that you can choose from there. Hope that helps 🙂

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    1. I know about the scheduling for a later date, but that doesn’t give a link to the post until it actually gets posted … does it? I don’t think so. So I’m still unsure how to give Stacy a link on Wednesday when my post doesn’t go up until Friday … Appreciate your input – thank for commenting 🙂

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      1. Yes it does give you a link to the post when you schedule it, its how I have been doing it for Stacy at VV the last couple of times 🙂

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  6. Lynne, the details really do pop in the photo and I like your choice of the creamy tone in the sky instead of the flat, dull gray. It really brightens the entire image. I’m not familiar with any of the programs you use, but you surely are adept at using them. Your post-processing really added to the wet, rainy look of the image in a very good way! Thanks for joining One Photo Focus – it’s great to have you aboard 🙂

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  9. Pingback: ABFriday Week 35: February One Photo Focus | Visual Venturing

  11. Great job Lynne. You really got rid of the slight haze that was over the entire image and I like thhe less saturated colors! I seem to have gone quite the opposite way from you. Mine will be out on Friday!

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    1. Hi, Emilio. How do you give Stacy a link to your post when you send it on Wednesday if you haven’t posted it yet? Is there a way? And thank you for your comments. 🙂

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      1. I usually title the post, add the photo, then schedule it for Friday. Then I preview it and copy whatever comes up in the address bar and send that in an email to Stacy. Then I go back in whenever I have time and complete the post. Does that make sense?

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