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.




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!

[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:

[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]

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. Correct me if I am just missing something here...

[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

[Teewinot]

Originally Posted by 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.

Thanks for the explanation, Nicole!

Originally Posted by Nicole

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

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

[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.

[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 .

[ELAY]

Here's another take on blue:



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):



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