Photo Manipulation - Before and After

[Spaniard]

I'll be the only one to say this, but I like the before shot better. The contrast in the second pic looks unnatural on my laptop, but I aint tryin to knock your work.

Boooooo!

[littleindiangirl]

Boooooo!

Sorry Rich! It's just glaring for me...

[Spaniard]

Guess we can't agree all the time

[Patrick Long]

I'll be the only one to say this, but I like the before shot better. The contrast in the second pic looks unnatural on my laptop, but I aint tryin to knock your work.

I find it the exact opposite.

If you look at the before picture the rock faces have almost no detail due to the over exposure. Even above the mouth of the fall, the rocks are drowned with light.

I find the After picture much softer, and not as straining on the eye.

[Jsh]

Nice Work! I love the contrast in the 2nd photo! As far as HDR goes it stands for High Dynamic Range.
"set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range of luminances between light and dark areas of a scene than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention of HDR is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to shadows." --From Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_dynamic_range_imaging

Here is my take on a single image HDR made with Adobe Camera Raw, No Photoshop.(Not a real HDR)
Before:


After:


Hope I didn't hijack your thread just trying give an explanation.

[littleindiangirl]

I find it the exact opposite.

If you look at the before picture the rock faces have almost no detail due to the over exposure. Even above the mouth of the fall, the rocks are drowned with light.

I find the After picture much softer, and not as straining on the eye.

I do agree, for the majority of the photo it certainly has heightened the quality of the picture.

But, the middle of the photo which I take as being the center of attention; the water fall and rocks just at the top of the water fall look too high in contrast, and I find it quite distracting to the eye.

Just me being an art snob, don't think too much about it.

[Patrick Long]

Step 1 – I start by duplicating the layer that your base image is on. With the duplicated layer selected do Filter-Sharpen-Unsharp Mask.

Step 2 – In the Unsharp Mask window, adjust the amount percentage (usually 70%-140%), and the radius. (Radius anywhere from .4 to .9) These numbers will vary on the actual image itself, so you will have to play around with it, and not make it look to funky.

Step 3 – Duplicate the layer that you just Unsharp Masked, and apply Filter-Blur-Gaussian Blur. For my image I used 12 pixels, but your image may require higher pixels if it is larger. Your image should be blurry…but don’t worry.

Step 4 – While the blurred layer is selected change the transparency mode from Normal to Multiply (at the top of the layers palette). Then adjust opacity to around 35% (give or take with varying images)

Step 5 – Again, duplicate the Blurred layer and apply Layer-Layer Mask-Reveal All. Now this is where your eye comes in to play a lot. Grabbing the brush tool and selecting black, you want to adjust the opacity, and brush out the focal points of the image. If your image is of a dog, then you will want to brush where the focus of the dog will be. (more black on the face, less black on the paw)


Hope this helps!!!!!!

[Soterios]

I find it the exact opposite.

If you look at the before picture the rock faces have almost no detail due to the over exposure. Even above the mouth of the fall, the rocks are drowned with light.

I find the After picture much softer, and not as straining on the eye.

I do think the original is over exposed, but the modified version looks very over saturated and unnatural. Somewhere in the middle would be a "natural" look.

[Patrick Long]

Eh, I tried

[dizzy]

I think that in the original photo the upper part of the photo is over exposed, and the focal point is great looking... In the after, I think the top part looks much better but the focal point is much too dark.

Great shot though. Beautiful location.