What Would You Do (#7)

[Nicole]

Another week, another photo for you guys to show us what you would do to the photo to make it your own. :) Sorry for the delay, I forgot it was Tuesday yesterday ;).

So this week, we have a picture from my3texasboys.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1098/537527214_5085c22cc4.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/my3texasboys/537527214/)


As usual, show us what you would do. Be creative if you want, be subtle. But make it your own. Last week we had some great creative entries... like the cat that was about to eat the city. So, let's see what you can do with this one.

If you want your photo to be the subject of one of these threads or have any questions, send me a PM. Now, let's see what you would do! :D

[thekevinmonster]

Well, the large size didn't work... so I tried playing around with the small one.

First: Too dark, so I fiddled around in the curves. Brought up the midtones, downed the shadows and raised the highlights a little to give the mushroom cap more brightness while keeping the rest a little darker and deeper.

Second: I pulled down the blue curve in the midtones, I guess, and that warmed up the color very nicely, and made the cap a nice yellow gold.

Third: It's awfully noisy, isn't it? I decided to try GIMP's Despeckle. I set it on recursive, radius 3, black level 7. I don't really know how Despeckle works. I assumed it was noise reduction, and it is. But it's extremely powerful, or maybe it's meant to be used on really really huge pictures. When you use it on a small one.... this happens:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/thekevinmonster/708735839/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1218/708735839_4fdf79fed8_o.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Mushroom (for DPS)" /></a>

[Nicole]

Yep, you're right, the large size only went to the medium size. Removed the link to the large size. Thanks for the first post thekevinmonster :)

[pkd14u]

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pkd14u/709731327/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1144/709731327_4491a59754_o.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Mushroom" /></a>

First, I created a clipping path around the mushroom cap and a little under using the "pen" tool in Photoshop.
I then adjusted the levels WAY to the left, making the mushroom lighter. Then I adjusted curves in an "S" shape, giving the mushroom cap an HDR look.
I then warmed up the photo a bit by adjusting the color balance to more yellow and red.
In "Selective Colors" I raised the "black" in yellow, red, and white and decreased the "black" in green (this was done to the entire photo, not just the clipping path selection).
Then I sharpened the image using "Unsharp mask" to 50%, then despeckled the "noise."

Clear as mud? I'm not very good at saying what I did, but am learning by reading other peoples' descriptions here.

Thanks for teaching me so much DPS!

pkd14u

[Teewinot]

So, am I to understand that there is no large size at all this week? I just ask because I don't really want to spend time editing the medium photo (not as easy to achieve its potential) if there really is a large one to work with somewhere out there. :D Correct me if I am just missing something here...:confused:

[Nicole]

You are correct in your understanding Teewinot. Unfortunately, the link that I had for the picture only went to the medium size, and the large / original size is not available when I check the flickr page :(. So I guess this presents you with your challenge then this week ;) I've seen your previous edits, I know you'll still be able to impress us :D

[Teewinot]

You are correct in your understanding Teewinot. Unfortunately, the link that I had for the picture only went to the medium size, and the large / original size is not available when I check the flickr page.

Thanks for the explanation, Nicole!

I've seen your previous edits, I know you'll still be able to impress us :D

ohmigoodness don't say that...I'm not out to impress, just learn... :o :)

[jiminyClickit]

A basic edit, starting with improving the look of original. Small crop of right side. Add a strip of background to top, blend into original.
Convert to negative. Add two layers of vignette mask, but set on "Lighten." Two gives a better control of fade towards edges.
Saturate negative to bring back color vignette may have covered. Merge layers (Flatten), reduce size, add drop shadow using a dark color from negative.
Goal was to create a fantasy, much like one might see after eating one of the more potent of these.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/47146451@N00/711528182/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1297/711528182_4466b3b70e.jpg" width="500" height="381" alt="7WWYD" /></a>

[Nicole]

Ok, wow. Jim, that's pretty impressive. It makes me think more of a wedding than a mushroom. Somehow the leaves have started to look almost like bows. A complete twist on the original. I like it :D.

[ELAY]

Here's another take on blue:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/67761809@N00/712070884/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1299/712070884_9624175d11.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Blue mushroom" /></a>

I read about colour replacement using LAB space and have been wanting to try -- the above is the result.

1. I decomposed to LAB. On the B layer, I did a curve adjustment in an upside down U, like so (doing the inverse, or doing the curves on the A layer will produce different shifts):

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/67761809@N00/712070896/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1425/712070896_fedbc9afd7_m.jpg" width="169" height="240" alt="Mushroom curve" /></a>

I then recomposed which gave the basic colour replacement, giving me a blue cap.

2. On the recomposed image I did a bit of levels and curves to brighten the thing up, and especially to get some background.

3. I wanted to go with the misty ethereal look, so I did an Orton layer, using a radius of 20 for the blur, and overlay at about 70% for the blend mode.

4. I then lightened up the background a bit again, as the overlay had darkened it.

5. Finally I did noise reduction in GIMP using my new favourite plug-in, GREYCstoration. I tweaked the settings a bit, figuring that any resulting softness would just add to the effect.

EL

[jiminyClickit]

Nicole, Thank you

You did suggest "make it your own."

Trying to get out of a rut some. Got a reply from Adobe as I was doing this: my PhotoDeluxe will never be updated. It is a dead program, but they would like to sell me an Elements package. Foolish people have misread their customers' needs.

[neuronio]

Simple edit, just to participate ;)

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/5928/capdpshy9.jpg

1. First I've created a Levels adjustment layer and played a bit with blue and red.

2. Created an adjustment curves layer and changed the blue a little.

3. Selected the cap with the pen tool them inverted the selection(to select the bg) with 10px radius of feather.

4. Applied Lens Blur on the selection

5. Now a Contrast adjustment layer with Brightness = +20 and contrast=+15 to give some life.

6. Sharpen

And that's it.
My first edit here on DPS :)

[ribkaje]

Here's mine.

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p199/vempireoffilth/537527214_5085c22cc4copy.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>

01. Duplicated background layer. Changed blending mode to Screen.
02. Applied Smart Sharpen filter.
03. Duplicated layer and Desaturated. Changed blending mode to Soft Light and Opacity at 56%.
04. Applied Gaussian Blur (2.3 pixels)
05. Used Selective Colour and adjusted Yellows, Greens and Whites.
06. Created Vignette and applied Patchwork Filter.

[evran]

http://desi.thriceshy.com/images/8916magic.jpg

a simple 5 minute edit on PS CS3:

1. lab mode curve adjustment to bring out the yellow slightly
2. level adjustment to bring out the yellow throughly
3. curve w/ dark shadows on soft light - 50%
4. yellow gradient layer for light source
5. increased exposure and decreased gamma to really make the yellow "pop"
6. dark yellow gradient to increase light source
7. gaussian blur + mask to create focus
8. type + widescreen bars
9. increased sharpness

[Nicole]

Great job so far guys :) I really like how people have been taking the picture and really making it their own creation. :) Blue mushrooms are pretty neat looking :p And then there are the edits that have brought this shot into it's own by working with the detail that's there and bringing it out. Again, great job guys. I love seeing all the different ways that a single photo can end up.

[Nicole]

Ok, I think this is the first of the WWYD threads that I've actually posted an edit in. But it's raining out, and I needed something to keep me occupied. This is what I came up with:

http://static.flickr.com/1258/714097086_34a67ea1f8.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicolesphotos/714097086/)
Duplicated the original layer and set it to "Color Dodge" to lighten the photo a bit.
Merged the two layers together and sharpened them using Unsharp mask set to 85%, Radius 1.0 pixels, Threshold 4.
Reduced the noise on the picture by using "Reduce Noise" at a strenght of 8, 50% preserve details, and 25% sharpen.
Added a Hue / Saturation layer. In this layer, I increased the saturation in the Yellow channel (+25), then adjusted the hue (-44). I also adjusted the hue slightly in the red channel (-3) just to make sure that it blended with the Yellow (now red) channel.
Added a curves layer and used the "Cross Processing" curve, which I thought gave it a kind of different feel.I was inspired to change the mushroom to a different colour after seeing how the blue mushrooms turned out from other people... but I thought I'd go with red instead :)

[matthewchj]

Increase brightness/contrast, crop, add border, saturate, unsharp mask.

[jiminyClickit]

Nicole,

Not that red is your favorite or anything! That almost looks tasty. But . . . you needed something to keep you occupied?!! Are there more hours in the day in New Zealand?

[praesentire]

Nicole, I love the redness in that mushroom! Like jiminyClickit said, it looks very tasty ... Now I have a craving for strawberries!

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29039494@N00/715033771/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1311/715033771_4fda325af5.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="WWYD7" /></a>

Using The Gimp ...
1. Created an overlay layer with mask for contrast.
2. Created a screen layer.
3. Flattened the image.
4. Applied selective Gaussian Blur for noise reduction.

[Maggie]

The first thing I thought of was the mushroom cap looked like a picture frame.
I haven't used PhotoShop in years but here is my take on the photo

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8559391@N08/716425318/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1074/716425318_10854a6c84_o.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="MushRoom" /></a>

[Teewinot]

OK, so this one was sort of fun for me and as Nicole pointed out, challenging, due to the small size of the photo. That said, here's what I did:

Goal: Make the mushroom look like it might look after consuming it (assuming it's psychedelic). Not trying to copy jiminy...had the idea last night and then was inspired by his success. :D

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/7845858@N05/716031073/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1050/716031073_aa75d7272a_o.jpg" width="394" height="394" alt="What you would do #7" /></a>

What I did:
-Lighted the image (curves)
-Desaturated (made b&w)
-Adjusted histogram midtones (-25)
-Square crop
-Duplicated layer
-Gaussian blur (radius 50)
-Overlay blend (100%)
-Merged layers
-Freehand selected the mushroom
-Created a mask layer, showing the selected mushroom
-Added raster layer and moved it to the background
-Found a shot of mine of fall leaves reflected in a lake..thought it looked sorta psychedelic..
-Added a portion of this shot to the new raster background layer
-Applied a gaussian blur to the mask to blend the mushroom into the new background
-Adjusted the color balance the mushroom (before this point still b&w) to give it an orange hue to match the background
-Increased saturation of the mushroom
-Merged all layers
-Increased brightness and contrast of the image (curves)
-Added borders

[pkd14u]

Teewinot, I LOVE it! Now I want to go play with some of my own photos to attempt what you have done. Super cool!

pkd14u

[jiminyClickit]

Teewinot,

Totally your own view; I could believe mushroom is growing out of the water!

[Teewinot]

pkd14u...thanks for your comments! Please share any results you come up with!

jiminyClickit, I didn't think of seeing the mushroom coming up out of the water...thanks for articulating your perspective!

[NaturesPixel]

jiminyClickit, I didn't think of seeing the mushroom coming up out of the water...thanks for articulating your perspective!

JC is not only one .. its what came to my mind too when i first seen it well done mate :)

[Nicole]

See, I knew you'd come up with something impressive Teewinot ;) Like everyone else, I totally thought that it looked like it was coming out of the water :D

[pkd14u]

Teewinot, my results are on the first page, 2nd response. My husband thinks it's overdone. What do you think?

pkd14u

[Nicole]

Maggie I just noticed yours today. What a creative way to use the photo :) Fantastic what people come up with.

Pkd14u I don't know if you only want Teewinot's opinion on it, but I definitely would not say that it's overdone at all. It seems like that would be the sort of result you would want when keeping the picture as close to the original as possible (there's nothing wrong with that either since this thread is all about what you would do :p). So if another opinion is ok, I say it doesn't look at all overdone. Thanks for sharing.

[Teewinot]

Teewinot, my results are on the first page, 2nd response. My husband thinks it's overdone. What do you think?

pkd14u

In my statement about sharing your results, I was actually referring to your comment about potential results from playing around with your other photos to try the technique I used...but I do like your results on page 1! I like the vividness of the mushroom cap contrasted with the darker background. I don't personally think it's overdone. :)

[Teewinot]

Nicole and NaturesPixel....thanks so much for your kind words...you are both very encouraging and helpful on this forum!!!

[pkd14u]

Nicole: I am thrilled to get opinions and responses from all here! Thank you for yours. I told my husband he was full of @$%& :P

Teewinot: Ah! I get it! I'll play some and post. Thanks for your comments.

pkd14u

[xxpinballxx]

I gotta say I have been playing around with this shroom for the last two days and am not getting anything cretive out of it. Lots of attempts that resembles others but i am not getting anything that I really like.
I guess I'll keep trying till sunday. I leave for Vegas monday....

[eflouret]

Nice work everybody! I only participated in the first one, but now I'm back.

Let's say that in this case, the mushroom is the star of the thread. And today, every star receives a digital makeover.

Here's my digital makeover for this little mushroom (before and after):
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1098/537527214_5085c22cc4.jpg
http://www.photoshoproadmap.com/imagenes/varios/hongo-makeover.jpg

Hope you like it!

[xxpinballxx]

well I came up with a B&W almost Infrared version.
Just stripped the color and added texture and then adjusted curves.

http://xxpinballxx.zoints.com/image/64912-BWShrooom

[Maggie]

Thanks Nicole, this is the original thought I had when I saw the Mushroom but I did not have time to serarch for appropriate image, so here is a second one, still with the mushroom cap as a frame.. maybe I am showing my age but the first thing I thought of was Alice in Wonderland, for those that do not know why that popped in my head I will leave to someone else to explain.

What do you think of on this take...

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8559391@N08/738167893/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1270/738167893_5131cfe4ff.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="MushRoom" /></a>

[Nicole]

xxPinballxx glad to see you finally got a chance to participate. Hope you have fun in Vegas and take lots of pictures :)

Maggie glad you found a picture that you thought suited it. I definitely agree, it really fits the Alice in Wonderland picture :D And I don't think you're showing your age... if you are, then what does that say about me? :p lol Thanks for sharing version 2 of your photo.

[xxpinballxx]

I'll be sure to take alot of photos to add to the what would you do thread. Need to keep it going.
Plus getting use to CS3 from CS...alot of changes.....some better some worse.