I finally found some time to join this month’s One Photo Focus. It’s a challenge where we all make edits to the same photo and then we see what we have all come up with on the First Friday of the Month.
This month’s image was provided by Michelle Lunato from Michelle Lunato Photography.
Here is my submission…
And here is the before image…
I made a shit-ton of layers to get this look. See for yourself…
The thought of trying to write a tutorial is just daunting, to say the least. So I’ll just give a semi-brief overview.
Let’s see…
- I made a few minor changes in UFRaw and saved as a ppm file and then brought it into GIMP*
- I lightened the image by adding a white layer and and transparent layer painting more white in some areas.
- Next I played around with some textures and blend modes which changed the overall color of the image to be more bright and cheery.
- I painted black on a transparent layer (using a radial gradient) to try to lessen the brightness of the sun.
- Then I sharpened the image using the wavelet decompose filter.
- Then I reduced the noise using the G’MIC plugin (Iain’s noise reduction) – which reduced the noise and removed the texture that I created earlier… but I decided that was ok because the textured layers gave it the color I liked so it wasn’t a complete loss.
- Then I wanted it to have more oomph so I played around (and followed my own tutorial) on faux hdr and grungy combo, including G’MIC’s Freaky Details and High Pass Sharpen.
- And lastly I lightened the boats a bit more by adding a transparent layer and painting white in those areas.
Phew! So that’s what I did. 😀
Go check out what everyone else did for this challenge at Stacy’s blog Visual Venturing!
Kind thoughts and comments are welcome!
Until next time…
~nic
* GIMP is Open Source software that is available for all platforms (Linux, Mac, and Windows), it is a photo editor that does many (if not all) of the things you can do in Photoshop. You can download it for free here. The GIMP online manual can be found here.
Photography by Nic 
Hahaha! “Shit-ton”! I think you just coined a new post-processing term, Nic 😀 Been there, done that, and never even tried to explain the “how”! So kudos to you for attempting to do that. Despite all the layers, your final image does look clean and natural, and I quite like the lovely blue tone!
Thanks, Stacy! Sometimes it takes a ton of layers each subtle to get to where you want an image, so glad you like it! 😀
Exactly, Nic!
My you did go through a bunch of stuff for this edit – Can’t say I understand all you did but I do like the results. – It seems much cheerier and happy.
Here is the link to my October photo:
http://wishesdreamsandotherthings.blogspot.com/2015/10/one-four-challenge-31-days-of.html
Thanks, Ida! 😀 I’ll check yours out soon.
I really like the cold daylight feel for the image. Shot-ton of layers is always right. I am so surprised when i look at my layers panel after editing. Although each one is a small step to the end image.
Thanks, Ben! 😀 Yes, incremental changes eventually add up and hopefully still look natural.
Beautiful!! Love the colors you add to it. L:)
Thanks, Amy! 😀
Great edit! I love the “shit-ton” of layers. Now, I just need to digest it all. Thank you so much for finding time to do the edit. I know I have seen your blog before, but now I can follow you! You have some wonderful work. Thanks so much for the privilege of being mentioned on your page and your great edit:)
Thanks, Michelle! It was a pleasure working on your photo. Thanks for following me. 🙂