Let's play RAW !!!

[zeeman]

Hi all,

I have an idea of a game that can be fun and educative at the same time.

The idea is that a member uploads a RAW to any file hosting service, so all the rest can download it. Then, each member who wants to play, works on the RAW, curves, tones, B&W, framing, cloning, etc. Each member uploads the result of their work on the thread.

Then, the uploader of the RAW decides which one he/she likes best.

Then, the winner uploads another RAW and the game continues.

We can give a week, or 10 days, since the RAW is uploaded until a winner is chosen.

The idea is have fun and learn from others. Those members who work on the RAW and post the result should share his/her technique, something like:

- I adjusted curves to accent the shadows
- I reframed the subject
- I cloned out the antenna
- Add some saturation or vibrance
- etc etc etc...

Since this is not a contest, there are no rules, anybody can use the program they want (Lightroom, DPP, Capture One, Photoshop, Paint, etc).

What do you think about the idea?????

[zeeman]

Ok, I start

Here's an image:




And here you can download the RAW file (8 megas):

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=DK7H3R4W

Let's see who starts.

Game ends FRIDAY 8TH OF OCTOBER 2010

[Skippy]

Jose-Luis I love the idea. I'll play. Sounds like fun and it should be a learning experience for everyone. Great idea.

This board needs a little something to liven it up.

Skippy

[Skippy]

Question????????? wouldn't an unprocessed jpg be better. You shoot Canon, I shoot Canon, but what about the others? They may not have the software to process it. Or maybe an unprocessed tiff would be a better choice. All the info would be there. Let us know what you decide.

Skippy

[zeeman]

Skippy, it can also be a JPG or a TIFF, I also though about the software and files compatibility.

The only problem I see with the TIFF is that its size can be too big for everyone to download, specially those behind a dial-up internet connection. The JPG would not be as "doable" as the RAW, because its interesting to start from the scratch, and its always good to work with RAW files. For instance, if you want to do a HDR, you easily can get your 3 expositions out of a RAW file, with a JPG it would not be that easy, or the results would not be the same.

To be honest I don't mind if its RAW, TIFF or JPG.

This is a way around: As you noticed, I uploaded the JPG and the RAW file. Those who cannot or don't want to download/process the RAW, they can simply right-click over the JPG and save it to their computers and work with it. Obviously those who work on the RAW will have better possibilities to get a better result, and this can also be educative for those who are not familiar with RAW files. So both the JPG and RAW will be available for people to download, they will decide that suits them better.

So...I don't mind if its RAW, TIFF or JPG as long as we all can play, have fun and learn.

Deal ???

[Skippy]

You are right on the tiff files. Duh!!!!!!! what was I thinking. Mine turn into 48 megs. Ok with me. Until the dark side comes to play.
Surprised you haven't had a bigger response to this. Will get it down loaded and see what I can come up with.

Skippy

[zeeman]

Yeah, seems nobody wants to play? Let's wait over the weekend, maybe people will find the post

Ok, let's see your work, I will work on mine too.

[PPPhoto]

Okay, I'm downloading the file and I'll give it a shot. Sounds like a fun little experiment.

Skippy, don't worry about other makes of cameras, there are plenty of free RAW processors available that can open just about any of them. If all else fails, just use Picasa, or better yet Faststone to convert to a workable file format.

[FranDaMan]

GAME ON !!!

Straightened the horizon, increased contrast. Alien Skin exposure for B&W conversion with a brown tone and then Alien SKin Bokeh to focus on the tree.

[Skippy]

Working on it.

Skippy

[mishlove]

I'm getting a "The file you are trying to access is temporarily unavailable."

[mishlove]

Belay that.....downloading.

[yellalablady]

I've downloaded the image. What happened to the building on the right? There in the picture here, but not in the download.

[mishlove]

When I 1st saw the photo what came to mind was the novel by Nevil Shute "On the Beach"...and my thought was to edit into a reflection of the book. Got a little enthused and may have forgotten some of the steps.....but in general.

Opened in DPP, Opened up edit, RAW tab choose Shot settings = Shade, Picture Style = Portrait, Checked marked Linear under Shadow, went to RBG and played with the curves, converted to TIFF, opened in Elements, adjusted "Shadows/Highlights, Levels, Color Curve...ran it thru Neat Image x 2.

Apocalyptic...................maybe.

[Sage]

This looks like fun. Downloading now. ~~Peg

[zeeman]

I've downloaded the image. What happened to the building on the right? There in the picture here, but not in the download.

My fault !!! I had 3 photos similar, I uploaded a JPG and a different RAW, but now its fixed, above you can see the matching JPG.

Its really nice to see people is playing and having fun !! It will be hard to decide the winner. Hope everybody else can play too.

Remember: Game ends FRIDAY 8TH OF OCTOBER 2010

[yellalablady]

I like the other one better. It gave us more that needed to be done. It would test our skills.

[Sage]

This shot with its lack of color made me think of a night at the beach, so voila, here it is in the moonlight. Editing steps are below the image.



1. Straightened horizon 2. Curves Adjustment 3. Enhance Edges 4. Xero Moonlight Plug-in (Time of Day - 70) 5. Crop 6. Sunburst (Color - Gray, Light Spots-Brightness-39, Horizontal-15, Vertical-16), Rays-Density-25, Brightness-50 - Circles - 25 7. Dodge Tree Trunk 8. Sharpen 9. Save as jpg and resize. ALL ADJUSTMENTS DONE IN PSP Ultimate X2 ~~Peg

[Skippy]

Was gone most of the day. See you guys do such good work in such a short time. I was going to play until the time ran out.

Peg.... What is the Xero plugin and is the sunburst part of that or is it PSP? If it's PS you have to tell me where to find it.

Some interesting things are are going on here.

Michael

Checked marked Linear under Shadow,

When I do that I get the weirdest looking pic. Or do you have go to RBG to adjust it after that?

Still working......... Peg told you I was slow.

Skippy

[loco-lobo]

The tree looked lonesome, out on the beach without even leaves to keep it company.



Editing steps:
After conversion from RAW, adjust levels and curves for a bit more contrast.
Open in Topaz Simplify filter. Select watercolor preset. Bump up the details a bit. Accept the changes and return to PS.
Select the sky into a new layer. Select "multiply" as a blending option. Reduce opacity to 55%.
Resize to 1000 pixels on the long size, 72 dpi. Convert to sRGB. Save as jpeg.
What a fun idea!

[Leonie]

Opened RAW version but first tweaked white balance, exposure and set sharpness to 0.
Levelled horizon
Cropped some of the foreground sand out and right hand side to get better rule of thirds
Smoothed out noise by applying digital gem filter (skin smoothing filter)
Applied 40% clarity topaz filter to sea and sky, not to beach sand. This brings out a little more definition in the clouds and water.
Cloned out imperfections and litter from beach sand.
Flatten image
Resized
Sharpen
Framed
Saved for web

[zeeman]

Amazing results guys, you all are turning an ordinary photo into something extraordinary !

[Sage]

This is such a good idea Jose-Luis. I am learning already and pushing myself to work harder on post processing. Thanks for suggesting this challenge. ~~Peg

[zeeman]

Thanks for suggesting this challenge...g

A pleasure !

Come on, last day is 8th of October !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Skippy]

I played with this so much............... couldn't make up my mind. The exif says it was taken at close to noon. Tried making it look like sun breaking thru at that time of day, did not work. Tried some spooky effects, didn't like them.

Here's what I ended up with.

Made three layers don't know why. Put a star burst on the second layer. To make a light spot in the upper left corner,
Went to top layer and used topaz adj4's spicy, used a blend mode of darken at reduced opacity, stole a turtle off the web, and applied it twice as new layers, just easier to delete layers if you make mistakes. Reduced the opacity on them, they were a little to bright. Still are a little.
When back to the third layer and added dark rake marks behind the turtles for trails or track.

Flatten and resize. Save as jpeg.

All done in PSP XII ultimate.

Skippy

[zeeman]

haha, that's a very different approach, Skippy, nice turtles there !!! I hadn't seen any turtle in that beach, but maybe I was not paying enough attention XDDD

[Skippy]

Well I was thinking crabs, but they have to many legs. Of course I found a lady, but then it would have to go to the AN forum.

Skippy

[yellalablady]

OK, here's mine. I cropped to a panoramic size. I used curves, levels, the burn tool, and lighting effects. This is what I came up with.

[PPPhoto]

Well, after seeing some of the other incarnations of this, I'm almost a little embarrassed to add mine to the thread.

I really didn't do much at all here. Just the basic straightening, click white balance, and then transferred over to Photoshop. In PS I did a slight curves adjustment, and then desaturated it a bit. That's it. Nothing major.

[Skippy]

Don't be embarrassed. We all see things differently. Yours is an improvement over the original. You seemed to have captured more detail in the clouds and changed the mood. These types of games are always fun and fascinating to watch how everyone's mind works differently.

Good thinking on the crop Monnie. Would never have thought of that. You save the left side of the tree too. Good.

Skippy