This weeks first winner was an aspiring photographer Kelly Elder.  Kelly has a very developed eye and a desire to get into fun and very scenic locations to make beautiful photographs.  In my opinion Kelly is sitting on a gold mine of images and potential future images, they just need a little TLC.  I put out the call that I was going to start processing one to 2 fan’s images per week so that you as readers can get a look at what you are really capable of.  They are your images and the post processed versions are still your images, (if you send your work to a print lab and they color correct and process the digital files for print they would still be yours).  Look at this process as just shipping them off to a lab to have them tweaked for print.

Kelly Elder found a beautiful lake location that just sang to me, this was the reason that I chose Kelly’s images to work on this week.  If you sent me an email a douglasleecoon@gmail.com and I didn’t get to your images this week try again when I send out the next post that will be called (FAN “PP” SUBMISSIONS WEEK 2).  All you have to do is send me the original full-sized jpg or RAW images that you would like to have considered and I will let you know as soon as I decide wich images Won and will be posted the following week.  Kelly Elder Submitted  one image to me and I found an additional image that sang to me in the same group of images.

ORIGINAL WORK OF KELLY ELDER:

Image 1

Image 2

These 2 images were instantly compelling to me I just love reflections and beautiful landscapes, I look for images that give me the feeling that I want to be there right now.

I open firstly all images Jpeg and RAW in Adobe Camera Raw.  Here I make sure that I am applying these things;

  • Adobe RGB 1998 color space
  • 300 ppi
  • Upscale mega pixel count (So the image will be ready for larger printing.)
  • I help shadows with (fill light) and clean the initial muddiness with (Clarity and Blacks)

I first looked at the images as if they were from my camera,… “How would I process these images?”  Keep in mind this very important point, I am not the best in the industry at doing this.  I don’t claim to be some end all authority on what the “best way” of doing this is.  I will say this though that no one is, be careful when reading blogs from anyone who says they have the answer, there is no one single answer in any art form.

I saw first that these images had hidden details that you couldn’t really see, and color that hadn’t yet been realized.  I knew that I would need to enhance the details and bring out the color a bit more.  When chosing what areas you are going to enhance you need to keep in mind what the focus of the image is.  In this case the part of the image that I wanted to “know” more about was the mountain and the clouds.  They were a tiny bit blown out and needed a bit of help.  I typically make use of a variety of masks and adjustment layers;

  • Levels
  • Curves
  • Vibrance

That is not the entire story though, for the blown highlights I will select the highlight areas and put them on their own layer by Ctrl clicking on the RGB thumbnail in the channels palette  and then holding down Ctrl J.  You can then apply levels adjustments to just the highlights and not muddy up the details in the blacks and soft shadow areas.  I use a variety of sharpening techniques I will just say this, make your images into smart filters so you can always start over without being destructive.

The final processed images came out like this:

Image 1

Image 2

The only real “PhotoChopping” came with the Pano, I took out the shadow of the photographer.  The rest of the adjustments were like thoughts I would make in a darkroom with pinpoint mask work, color correction, and white balance.

These are the before and after gif files that I made to express the difference in the post processing.  The image was there and the potential was there. just as Ansel Adams would tell you.  The negative (digital file) is the score, the print (post processed image) is the conductors performance!

BEFORE – AFTER

Image 1

BEFORE – AFTER

Image 2

Kelly Elder is a great artist with a great eye, check out Kelly’s links below and show some love, encouragement is like mothers milk to aspiring artists.

Photography By : Kelly Elder

Google +

https://plus.google.com/u/0/?tab=wX#102111571538090124895/posts

Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14014381@N02/

Let me know what you thought of Kelly’s images and my Post Processing work.  Don’t forget to follow my blog found on the follow me box on this page.  You just enter your email address and I will automatically shoot you the full version of the blog via email.  Your comments and questions are of course always welcome but be polite to the selected artist of the week. (translation: No Trolls)  I have thick skin some others may not!

Keep your eyes on my blog and submit your images next time!

FAN “PP” SUBMISSIONS WEEK 2

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