Post Processing Challenge #132

AussiePhil

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Post Processing Challenge #132 - Winner announced - Closed

Tossed a few files around and decided to go with something different myself, didn't even know I had this image till I was doing a cull and nearly deleted it, didn't understand at the time why the batter walked.

This one has multiple options so have fun everyone, I haven't post processed any baseball images yet, purely posted ooc jpgs the other day.

15690850952_de6d51fa45_b.jpg
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_EM28023 (Copy) by aussiephil1960, on Flickr

As always apologies for DNG but the orf's never make it off the card.
the RAW (dng) file is here

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28032744/_EM28023.dng

and the JPEG here

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28032744/_EM28023.jpg

Good luck to everyone and I will close the competition 6th Nov Australian night time around 11PM.

Phil



The Rules:

The Challenger will provide any photo that he/she deems worthy of challenging other members to "improve" by way Post Processing. It must be their own photo, and taken with m4/3 equipment. "Improve" is a subjective term, and includes many creative ideas as well as traditional "fixing". The Challenger agrees that entrants may make any changes they deem fit to post in their entry.

The winner of the previous challenge gets to post the next Challenge and serves as the judge for his/her PP challenge.

For obvious purposes, the judge is disqualified from participating in his/her own PP challenge. Instead, he/she should post a photo to start out the challenge.

***** If the winner fails to post a new challenge within five days, the responsibility passes to the runner-up. *****

At the end of the 72-hours (we don't have to be strict about 72-hours, especially with time differences depending on where you are on the globe), the judge will name a winner, a first runner-up, and a second runner-up.


Entrants:

The Challenger's image is posted for the sole purpose of the PP Challenge; it is not posted to invite Critique or Criticism.

Entries shall be limited to 2 per member for each Challenge.

Entrants to post a BBCode link to the Large size image of their PP edit(s), preferably 1024px x npx, or npx x 1024px, if the original image and/or the PP edit allow for these sizes. Also a click-through to the original sized hosted edit if appropriate (but not a requirement for entry). If you post your entry to a photo-hosting site such as Flickr, Photobucket, or a Gallery, etc., please credit the original photographer to make it clear it is not your photograph; something like "Photo taken by xxxxxx over at Mu-43.com" should suffice.

Entrants are strongly encouraged to post the settings and techniques used for their entry, however this is not a requirement for entry.

As we all know, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. We may not all agree with the chosen winners, but the judges decision is final without adverse comment from the Entrants; the judge is encouraged (but not required) to state what criteria he used to decide on a winner.

To make sure we don't break any Mu-43 rules/regulations, by participating in the PP Challenge you are allowing the judge to re-post your image for the sole purpose of announcing the winners in the thread
 

Matero

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Couple of candidates: color and b&w

_EM28023-2.jpg
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Matero

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And the last, already pretty 'aggressive'

_EM28023-3-tiltshift.jpg
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AussiePhil

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Hi Matero,
Can I please ask you to select your 2 images you would like in please.

..............doesn't matter how I write that sentence it always sounds bad as I hate pointing out the 2 image rule, sorry.


Great jobs so far.
 

Matero

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Hi Matero,
Can I please ask you to select your 2 images you would like in please.

..............doesn't matter how I write that sentence it always sounds bad as I hate pointing out the 2 image rule, sorry.


Great jobs so far.

Aah, sorry, no problem. I didn't check the rule, just remembered it was three. Ok, now I've removed one candidate.
 

AussiePhil

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Hi all

Winner is WhidbeytLVR with the monotone version, the overall editing really did lift the image, i'd like to understand more about the background blur technique.

Second to dbuckle for the first image with the ball re-positioned in front of the face, nice touch

Cheers and over to WhideyLVR
 

WhidbeyLVR

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Thank you, AussiePhil, for the image, the contest and for giving my version the nod. It may take me a few days to start the next contest.

re. background blur: I just used a full frame body with a fast, fat lens and rephotographed it.

No? OK, then, briefly... I will ignore the ball blur (which is not difficult) and gloss over other details. I use GIMP, but you can do the same in PS.

1. Separate the in-focus and out-of-focus areas into layers:
a. The in-focus part includes the players and the in-focus area around the feet of the players, from edge to edge across the frame.
b. The out-of-focus includes the foreground grass at the bottom of the frame as well as the background.
2. Make two overlapping background layers from the out-of-focus area:
a. The first is the "far" out-of-focus (halfway to the fence and higher in the image).
b. The second is the "near" out-of-focus (below the fence).
3. Blur the near background layer a little, blur the far background a lot.
4. Blend the background layers using feathered alpha or layer masks to give the impression of increasing blur as you go back to the fence.
5. Blend the in-focus layer over the background, again using feathered alpha or layer masks on the grassy bits, to make the focus blur appear gradual.

Done.

A couple of notes:

A. Lighten and reduce dynamic range of the background layer(s) so the players "pop".
B. Add simulated film grain back into the background so it doesn't offend the eye as artificially soft.

If you are interested in the actual GIMP file, I can probably post it. But it is enormous, and the above is probably sufficient.
 

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