I would like to try something different:

It is fun to take a good compositional image to the next level. Make it a great shot! One worth marketing with and using on your site.

So let’s do this: send me shots you think are good but you are having a hard time “seeing” the potential for making it stronger.

I will pick 5 that I think have the most potential to go to the next level.

Send them to me email size.

Then as a group, me included, we will work out how to take the shot to greatness!

You have to let us play with the shot until we all decide it looks much better.

Send the shots to david@davidbeckstead.com

This will be fun!

This is cool!
I have one

off to email!

I am in, sounds like fun. Can't wait to see the transformations. Emailing you now.

OHHH I just sent one (okay well three) I couldn't decide!

This is cool!

Ohhhh, can't wait to see!

Just so you know, you can send more than one.

I may not pick any of yours. It depends on if I think it has enough potental and has room to work and make something different.

I have gotten some shots that really are great already. Not much that needs to be done to improve the composition and look.

Send all you want.

can't wait to see the before and afters...very good idea David.

E

David,
Mind if I send one unedited and I keep the edited version to see how it compares if you choose mine?

Yeah send it.

I sent you some .

I think this shot by Carrie Viohl has potential to go to new places. There is a lot of visual chaos that works against the composition. There are layers with the sea, rocks, tree and subject that need to be separated more. There are some parts of this photo that are not needed. It would help to eliminate some branches, lighten up the rocks……

Please take this shot and mess with it and repost it. It would be fun to see your interpretation of it!

Click to view attachment

Oooh, I love challenges like this, here's my attempt

A beautiful shot Carrie.... and I really should be editing not photoshopping! Great thread David!

Here's my attempt with the use of duplicate layers, blending modes, some masking, hue/saturation & curves layers adjustments:

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

ewww fun! great shot to work with...



one thing i discovered - carrie's got some sensor dust...

AHAHAHHAHHAHA!!

GUILTY!

These are amazing so far!! I am glad ya'll are banging away on this one, because I'm at a loss as to exactly what to do with it to make it shine!

here is my take. I thought it needed to be grunged up a but, maybe becasue I am just in a grunged up mood today.
worked with level and contrast and color took out a part of the trunk, and textured

All I can say is OMG!!!!

Can I send you some photos! Lol!

here is another take on it. I cropped played woth color and contrast, and trimmer the tree trunk

Amateur attempt here...

How did you do that?
Geanette

So far I have seen some good attempts. The problem still seems to remain: how do you ‘pop’ the bride away from the background? Lot’s of things going on behind her. She still gets lost. MJ so far has popped her a little better but lost her between the sea and her dress midway. She enhanced the waves but they ended up matching up with the dress with the same tone. I think she could clone a little of the darker parts of the water around the dress to help pop that section of the bride out. Also she lost the wonderful tree look at the right and left sides by making them too dark. I would bring some of that back.

If you guys can show them almost as big as I posted it that would be better to see what you did.

Tami your shot looks cool but it is too small to really get a good look to see what you did.

Charlotte, I like the idea of an overlay.

Sarah I like your crop idea.

Amorphia I not sure if that tilt is helping. It seems to add more chaos by the way of the horizon line. It adds a sense of drama where there is too much already.


I am working on one but I still want to see what you guys can do. I am learning also as we go!

This is Fun! Here's my go at it.

I wish I had taken the picture! Great capture Carrie!

Holy moly, you girls are pretty darn good at this editing thing ! I'll see if I can find sometime tomorrow to try.

oh these are soooo great and Carrie wow the wind and the drift wood and her dress all so perfect... I love her bare feet there too! I took a kinda romantic pov... it was sooo hard to crop down because the beach and the water are so lovely but those roots were sooo fighting with her for my attention so they had to go. Gosh I wish I had the ocean to shoot by (is it the ocean or a great lake?)

anyway what a better way to avoid going to bed early then to process and avoid a good nights sleep

Click to view attachment

I lightroomed two exposures one for sky one for everything else then went into photoshop and added a ablur to focus on the bride, a vignette and then with all that texture sometimes more texture evens it out without removing the beauty of it so I added a sprinkle of texture. for a print I'd play with her levels a touch she may be a shade washed out...

Wow Melissa, that is a nice crop! You did 'pop' her and she looks separated from the layers behind her. Only problem I see is you lost detail in her dress and you could bring that back. The white is almost too hard to look at!

I tend to pop my whites a bit But maybe that is why I was seeing her as a bit washed out... this is the dress sooc, no brightning... a smidge of burning in... I didn't want the dress to go any more gray...

Click to view attachment

better for sure I love this discussing the procesing, it allows me to see with so many more eyes and make mine work even better!

Am I late!!!!! LOL


Ciao.

whoa awesome thread!! i wish i had time to play but i wanted to just pop in and say a huge thanks to david, carrie, and all the editors giving it a shot! i'm learning a ton from you guys!

Did I tilt a photo AGAIN?!!

Mango's tilt is a tad better visually than amorphia's tilt I think. Just my opinion. You guys can decide that also. Art is subjective. I critique for many hours at each of my workshops. I enjoy it but I also put a disclaimer on it saying that it is only one man's concepts.

Mango you created a lot of dark areas in PS that I think are not helping the depth of this shot. Muddy!

what about now?
Sometimes It can be my monitor calibration still having problems with my huey.

was mine to awful to critique?

Kadie, I loved yours..very different approach. VERY dramatic and I love the color of the sky,,but maybe a tad too dark. Maybe lighten up the beach areas just a tad so there's a little bit of detail but not too much. Her dress almost looks like she is underwater and it's undulating with the waves.

Yeah Kadie, what J said. I think it also needs more detail to give back more depth. I like the darker look and the color. Just more detail here and there and not quite as dark. Fun PS work you did!

Mango, tons better!! Really that look so much better than the last one. Nice! I like the crop and tilt.

I will post mine tomorrow. I would still like to see what everyone gets. Please post!

Here's what I would do:
Click to view attachment

MJ---your post is so yummy!!

Here is my take...I am not sure how to upload a larger more sharper image....sorry:)

Lisa it looks good. But you should reupload it at the around 1000x1000 because yours is square anyways. As you see yours is 280x350.

Here is my take!
I quickly added some reflection at the bottom too it probably needs some touchup to make it look more real but I think if done right it could help to draw the viewer's eye towards the bride? Enhanced her hair to make it pop out more golden, sepia toned the sand/drift wood and cloned some dirt out around her to give her a stronger presence. Left background as is, ran sharpening action on model only to further enhance and have her pop out more.
And the reasoning behind my crop is leaving space towards where she is looking--seems kinda towards viewer bottom left but trying to balance with providing some sky to keep the airy feeling.

I am just going to say that I just suck at resizing images for this forum!! There, it is out and I am free of trying to sneek around and pretending I know what I am doing. Basically...I am way too lazy to upload an image to a photo host. I just upload the image straight from my harddrive and this forum only allows a 400mb size..which is kinda smallish!

Anyhoo...This image was ran with my fav Nicole Van outdoor action..then selective sharpen...then gaussian blur...then a bit of burn and dodge....and that is it.

BEAUTEEEUS image!

Cool!!
Email sent with three images SOTC. Two of them I included my final edited version.

Thank you David, I'm working on another version as I type this. I did wonder about the dress and waves.

I am a big fan of MJs! I can't wait to see the second version. I'm also a fan of Lisa's--- a crop is definitely needed

Ok here's the second attempt, as you can see very similar to the first but with less emphasis on the waves

Hello MJ
I personally love your first one more! You have mad skills! To everyone else.. it is so cool to see what you have come up with.. such different styles, and amazing abilities to take one thing and make it totally different. I think you all rock!
The photo itself is amazing too


~~
Angela

Hey everyone! I sure enjoyed checking out what you all could do with an image. I think Carrie would admit that we took her shot to new places. I really felt it had more potential.

I think many of you have imagery you are showing on your site that needs to go to new places. I should go back and really evaluate what you are showing and see if you can not make some good images much better. This is one way to take your style to new levels and create more buzz…make more money!

My thought for this image was to go way more natural but still separate her from the visual chaos around her. I took out some branches and had fun creating a storm approaching. I was after realism! It was fun! I spent about 1 hour on it. If this was my shot would I think it would be worth spending an hour on it? Most definitely! The drama of this shot makes it worth it in my mind. I am going to give this shot to Carrie and let her use it with no problems from me. A gift from me if she likes it.

I have to head out to AZ for a SWB workshop in Sedona. Totally looking forward to it!

I will not have time to do another one of these for a week or more. But I will resurrect it soon. If you guys want to keep it going, please do. We all learn from each other!

Click to view attachment

How great is this thread?!?

Okay, if we are going for realistic color, I'd have to go with David's play. But for pure drama, I gotta say MJ rocked it. I'd like to see it a bit closer to your first play, MJ. I understand the wave crests blended a bit too much with the dress, but the second's are a bit too blue. (Although I'm glad her feet are no longer blue! ) IMO, a blend would be perfection.

All the plays have been fun to look at.....looking forward to more!

LOTS of cool takes on this so far! Thanks for starting this David!

Here is my take. Not sure about my colors.... but I feel like this should be a pano, with some smoothing in the water and I love the reflection idea, so I did that too... ;-)

David, I missed the end of this thread, but WOW! What an interesting game! It's very exciting to see the same image with so many different treatments! I really love the sexy/moody final product that a lot of you guys ended up with!!

I can't wait for this game to come along again!

Yes lets do another one!

Kerri

I love that image of Carrie's. I played a bit...
mild cross process in curves, and brightened image.
burned the shadows in all the details, includig dress.
dupe layer+softlight, to darken shadows even more.
Bfore I flattened, I did a gradient map with a dark sepia brown to white conversion. This added a subtle sepia wash, then I flattened, and added a tiny miniscule diffuse glow.