Before and After Photos: A days work

Ike615

[Edit 11/7/07: I have included two more photos that I've recently edited.]

So I spent the entire day (and I mean from early morning till now) researching different photoshop techniques online. At one point I contemplated buying Joey Lawerence's editing tutorial but the realized I can learn pretty much everything I need to know in a game of scavenger hunt and following the links on the internet, and then just playing around with the tools in PS CS3.

Here are the final products of what I've learned. I've included the original photos for your viewing pleasure. Maybe when I have more time I will post step by step how I got to the final images. But for now here are the photos:

Original:



Final image corrected in Photoshop:



Original:



Final image corrected in Photoshop:




Original:



Final image corrected in Photoshop:



Original:



Final image corrected in Photoshop:



As always feedback is always welcome.

- Isaac Lane Koval

Seneca

Pretty cool...yes it's amazing what Photoshop can do...it's a photographers dream.

Rhuarc

Wow! Very nice! You mind sharing the sites where you got the techniques for that style? I'd love to do somethings like that!!

gmonkeh

I really like what you did to both images. Looking forward to seeing more of your "experiments"

Mrs F

Wow, these are really cool. Posting the before and after really shows off your great post processing. Thanks for sharing!

saurora

When one sees results like these, it's difficult to ignore the power of using actions. I really like these. The 2nd one is like night and day!

Agnieszka

WOW!! Haha ... well, I know to who I'll send all my untouched photos now

LittleLew

nicely done.
the only nit I would pick is that the pattern on the farmost wall in the first 'corrected' image should be more OOF. Now it looks like they are almost floating in space.

Ike615

Thanks everyone for your comments!

I thinking about offering up my post processing skills for other photographer's photos. Not sure how much I'm going to charge yet though. I wonder if there's a big interest out there for it or if most photographers would rather edit their own photos.

LittleLew,

thanks for the feedback. I think I try your suggestion and see how it turns out.

- Isaac

Cantfeelmyfingers

a day well spent in my opinion!

Rhuarc

Well, I certainly want to do my own editing, but I would love to learn some of your techniques!

Ike615

Just wanted to let everyone know I updated the beginning post with two new photos I just finished editing today. I've learned a couple new techniques since the first two photos. This week kind of feels like a crash course in photoshop.

Rhuarc wrote:

Well, I certainly want to do my own editing, but I would love to learn some of your techniques!

Hopefully by this weekend I'll be able to post a tutorial to show the techniques that I just learned and used on these photos.


- Isaac

nvisiblephoto

Not bad at all. Good start.
I'd have to recommend Joey Lawrence as an inspiration. Kid's only 17 and got major talent!

mrpilles

Oh, it's my bad! I expect titles to be under the pic like capgtions,; and these are the opposite. sorry.

ShepsMom

Nice work! It looks like famous Lomo with Vignette effect. Is it what it is, or did you created your own action?

Ike615

I created everything myself.

if you're interested here is a snapshot of my layers for one of the images:




I went to a Photoshop Seminar yesterday, put on by Kelby training
and I definitely recommend going if it comes to your area. A lot of the stuff I already knew but I learned a lot of new tricks to speed up my workflow.

pyrtek

Well, a snapshot of your layers palette is only slightly helpful without some
comments.

Ike615

pyrtek wrote:

Well, a snapshot of your layers palette is only slightly helpful without some
comments.

very true.

I took different exposures of my photo from raw, and then combined them in photoshop using the masking tool. I then used the Gaussian blur to blend the different images together better. Each exposure has it's own curves. I also applied selective color to bring out the orange and green more in the background. I then added a texture over the top and masked it out atop the subject. I then applied vignetting using a new layer with %50 grey.

dogwood

Ike615 wrote:

I thinking about offering up my post processing skills for other photographer's photos. Not sure how much I'm going to charge yet though. I wonder if there's a big interest out there for it or if most photographers would rather edit their own photos.

Here's a link that might be helpful.

http://www.greatretouching.com/

These guys are in your city (Portland) and their client list includes folks like Sony, Toyota, Apple, HP, Nissan... etc, etc. In fact, I was just at their studio yesterday. Dual G5's with the biggest apple cinema display screens I've ever seen.

Anyway, there is definitely an interest for photographers to outsource retouching (see also the current issue of American Photo) -- but the folks offering it professionally have some pretty stellar credentials behind them. I know this isn't the "mind your own business" forum, but you might just ask yourself why someone would use your retouching services over someone with a pretty amazing client list and years of experience.

pyrtek

Ike615 wrote:

I took different exposures of my photo from raw, and then combined them in photoshop using the masking tool. I then used the Gaussian blur to blend the different images together better. Each exposure has it's own curves. I also applied selective color to bring out the orange and green more in the background. I then added a texture over the top and masked it out atop the subject. I then applied vignetting using a new layer with %50 grey.

Not really instructions one can follow, but it seems like a very convoluted
way to get a rather simple effect. I took a 2 minute stab at it, and (sans the
added texture) it took just a couple of curves layers (2 of which could easily
be done in one, but I was being lazy) a Hue/Sat layer and some dodging and
burning. Here's the result (I'll remove it tomorrow when I logon). I'm posting
the link as I don't want to bloat your thread with photos.

http://bertold.zenfolio.com/p53652483/?photo=h00A9113F#11079999


EDIT: As promised link now removed.

pyrtek

dogwood wrote:

I know this isn't the "mind your own business" forum, but you might just ask yourself why someone would use your retouching services over someone with a pretty amazing client list and years of experience.

Isaac is just enthusiastic about having learned some new Photoshop techniques.
I can fully understand him, but I agree with your sentiment - it takes years
to make it in this business. Luckily it's just a hobby for most people.

Ike615

pyrtek wrote:

Not really instructions one can follow, but it seems like a very convoluted
way to get a rather simple effect.

yes, it is very convoluted and since Monday's photoshop seminar I've learned to do it much quicker as well (pretty much like you just did). The thing is, every photo I edit I try something new so it ends up taking longer anyways. And I will continue to try new ways to do the same thing because that's one of the best ways I learn new techniques.

dogwood wrote:

but you might just ask yourself why someone would use your retouching services over someone with a pretty amazing client list and years of experience.

Pete, I appreciate your two cents but that's not the kind of thinking that will make one sucessful in this industry. If I adopt that thinking I might as well just give up. The way I look at it is:

- What can I do to make clients want me over an already well established photographer. And the way to do that is create something unique that others aren't offering and knowing how to network (with networking being infinitly more important than the first) and I will do this, you can't count on it. It may not be post processing but it will be something.