Let’s play #50

[Ben Egbert]

To spice things up, we are requesting that everyone "Play" with the Let's Play photo. Please don't use your normal processing steps as that's not playing, that's just your normal processing. The goal here in Let's Play is to see just how different from the original photo you can make your edit. So go Play!

https://www.focalworld.com/index.php?resources/lets-play-50.77/

Show us how you would render it.

The embedded image is a small jpg of the raw, but use the DNG file for rework.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Ok, here is my attempt.

,

 

[JimFox]

Good attempt Ben! I like that zoomed look!

 

[Amy Nelson]

 

[JimFox]

View attachment 27015

There you go Amy!

 

[JimFox]

Here is mine. After basic editing, it was back to Topaz Texture Effects 2.

 

[AlanLichty]

Slightly less artistic as an approach:

 

[Jameel Hyder]

Here is mine.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Wow, we have some great entries, here. Going to be a tough contest.

 

[Amy Earl]

Haha, you guys all really went wild with this one.

I did mine just now in about 5 minutes without looking at the other entries. It's fun to see how different everyone's take was.

Sometimes it's amazing how the original file can transform so much. I thank this Let's Play exercise for liberating me a little from my regular rigid editing habits. Here were my steps:

1. Chose the crop I wanted (16x9) and applied my "moody matte" Lightroom filter which I really only use for fun - it reduced saturation and squashed the tone curve to raise the blacks and dampen the highlights (also uses a severe S-curve within that range), applied split-toning to warm the highlights and chill the shadows.

2. Used a short graduated filter from the right to add exposure to that side of the house that was dark.

3. Did some other lighting corrections in LR to bring more of the house lighting into play besides the Xmas lights; aimed for a pleasing contrast with the night shadows. Kept a little glow in the sky which reveals the pleasing outline of the rooftop.

4. Brought it into Photoshop and:
a) used the Perspective Transform trick to bring us more in front of the house instead of to the left
b) ran a highpass filter at 1px to bring out the highlights in the Xmas lights and foliage in front of the house
c) reduced noise in the sky, top left using a mask with radial filter

What do you think?

 

[Ben Egbert]

Great entry Amy, and I like your description of the steps you took. I wish I could remember how I do mine.

 

[Amy Earl]

Ben's image looks like Jesus is being born.

Alan's version looks like we ended up in the red light district.

Jameel's looks like a honest-to-god Christmas card. Nice, sharp treatment on the house and the addition of the stars & moon actually works really well with this scene despite it's cheesiness I just wish the hedge was level.

Ok, here is my attempt.
View attachment 27010

Slightly less artistic as an approach:
View attachment 27029

Here is mine.
View attachment 27032

 

[Amy Earl]

Great entry Amy, and I like your description of the steps you took. I wish I could remember how I do mine.

Thanks! I liked the idea of providing the steps, a cue taken from Jameel's similar documentation from last Let's Play (or perhaps it was a different post? ). This was fun!

 

[JimFox]

Here is mine.

View attachment 27032

I like yours a lot Jameel. I had thought about cloning Santa into mine.

 

[JimFox]

Thanks! I liked the idea of providing the steps, a cue taken from Jameel's similar documentation from last Let's Play (or perhaps it was a different post? ). This was fun!

Thanks Amy for the steps!

I had requested a while back to have people supply info on what they did with their edit so that others can learn from it. So it's great when people do that, especially detailed lists like you supplied. That's really awesome.