Jun 4, 2012

Before and After Monday

First, I just want to thank Elena from Cropped Stories for having me as a guest poster while she was on vacation. It was an honor. You should definitely check out her photos from the trip.

Also, check out my new Before and After page on my website. (there is one photo on there that I haven't posted on here yet, but don't tell anyone)


The After

The Befores



I processed this just like any other HDR; in Photomatix, then in Photoshop. I really needed several more darker exposures to get rid of the blown out sky, but I was hand-holding the camera while sitting in the middle of the road with cars headed towards me so I didn't get a chance.

 The first one had everything in it like the original, but then I started thinking that it would look good without all that stuff in the way. It only took about 5 minutes to get rid of the car mirror, power pole, and lines.

I started with the mirror first because I knew it would take the most work. I originally tried to replace the whole thing with grass, but it wasn't looking right. That's when I used the Distort tool to pull down the whole right side, and cropped the bottom so that there wouldn't be as much mirror to cover up. Then I just used the Healing tool to cover the road, and cart path with grass. I also used it to get rid of the power pole and wires. I didn't do much in Photoshop besides that. The rest is pretty much the way it came out of Photomatix.

I know some people try to use minimal editing, and keep their image close to how it came out of the camera. I like photos like that. But, if I see something I don't like, and I can fix it, then I'm going to. Besides, I want to get my money's worth out of Photoshop.

Sometimes I just want to see if I can do it, whether it should be done or not. I've learned that this should only be tested in Photoshop, and video games. It can get you in trouble in real life.

7 comments:

  1. Your after picture is so beautiful. It almost looks like a painting!

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  2. Wow, great job!! Very impressive!!

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  3. Whoa! Excellent re-do/clone work on this!

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  4. WOWza! Deno (love your name btw), this is A-mazing. I agree w/ my girl Holly, looks like a beautiful painting!

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  5. wow- that looks stunning!
    Gladly followed
    Have a great day!

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  6. Thanks for the mention! I love this pic! By the way, I checked out your before and after page and I love it! It's seriously amazing what you can do in Photoshop! It's like magic ;o)

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