Let's see your re-processed images

[NorthernFocus]

I'm sure everyone runs across an old file from time to time that gets a shot at a rework. I thought maybe we could post a few and share what techniques allowed them to be recovered. Here is an example of one previously processed in PSE8 and reworked completely within LR5.3.

The original file was pretty noisy shot at ISO 6400 in really bad lighting conditions. With the original processing, I ran NeatImage on the file for noise reduction. I then used layers in PSE8 to selectively work the lighting and sharpening on the bird so as not to make the noise any worse in the BG. As you can see below it was still pretty noisy.

Working with the RAW file in LR, I turned the sharpening completely off in the details panel. I left color NR at the default settings then with the image at full resolution tweaked the luminance NR until I was satisfied. Working with the 16 bit image makes a big difference I suspect too.

I used a spot on the bird's head at a neutral point and tweaked the WB. Then in the Basic panel adjusted lighting, vibrance, and saturation. No clarity on the overall image.

Then I used the brush tool to select the bird and adjusted clarity and sharpening. With the brush again I selected the BG and turned clarity all the way down and NR all the way up. Finally with a circular gradient I lightened the shadows around the eye and sharpened it. A little work on the BG with the healing tool and that's it.

This was shot in pretty bad conditions. Heavy overcast skies.
Nikon D7000, 200-400mm w/1.4x TC. monopod
f/5.6 @ 550 mm, 1/1000, ISO 6400

Old version.



And the LR processed version.

[Brownbear]

Hi Dan,

Thank you for starting this thread. I hope to learn a lot from it. I will post an attempt later this week.

Aside... Beautiful shot. I've never seen an eagle perched in a position like this... Very captivating.

[NorthernFocus]

Thanks, Christina. I call this shot "Contortionist". The bird was on a nicely isolated perch with some color in the distant BG so I stopped to take a shot or two. Then it started preening which rarely results in a decent shot. I liked this one due to the texture in the feathers and the odd position.

Hopefully a few more people will post some images...

[deetheturk]

Great shot Dan,i would be happy with the first edit,but your second one is like night and day,well done that man!

[Glenn NK]

The original image wasn't initially processed because it was so lacklustre. It was probably kept because it was taken very early in my digital experience, and couldn't part with it. Last year while going through old photos to "bin", it seemed a likely candidate for some major work as there was nothing to lose.


The modified version was achieved solely in LR by first changing Vibration and Saturation to 100 % in the Presence panel, the radically altering the Saturation and Luminance sliders in the HSL panel. It seems that I can't upload a second image - will exit and try editing.

Success:

[Brownbear]

Hi Dan,

Well, I love your contortionist! Thank you for starting this thread. Here is my try following your guidelines in the previous thread. Of course I learned soon enough that I couldn't follow them exactly and I muddled my way through but I do believe I improved the image!

A little underexposed and a little noisy but I managed to decrease the noise enough to be able to crop the image.

SS 1600 Aperture 6.7 (limited by extender) iso 800 (so not as noisy as my eagles) Exp comp +1 (and yes, I wish he were looking at me and flying towards me but for now it is a place maker, as they say)

Original (Photographed at Boundary Bay and it was foggy)



New and improved (edited the edit to include Dan's suggestion of increasing contrast)

[NorthernFocus]

Hey, Christina. Your rework definitely brought out more detail on the bird. Maybe a tad more contrast on the bird without brightening the BG would top it off. Probably have to use the tone curve and pull down a bit on the dark end.

[kintatsu]

Here's my contribution. A boater on the Danube near Kelheim. The original shot is nice, but seemed to lack soinething.






By making the image into a negative and applying the H&D curve for Old Kodak Ektachrome 100, the greens pop and the scene seems about right. I also did one for Provia 100f, Eastmancolor movie film from the old days, and Astia 100.

Having the slide feel seems to add something, at least to me.

[bambleweeney]

First light on Higgar Tor. Pre breakfast (i.e well before noon) and I was struck by the colour of the sky and the light on the rocks and heather. The camera wasn't that impressed however and produced a really dull rendition for what I thought was a really contrasty scene.



Luminosity mask to separate the sky from the land. Colour/contrast adjustments for the sky and for the land, edge sharpening and texture sharpening with surface blur to bring out the texture of the heather and rock. Followed by 'light painting' with the history brush to bring the scene closer to what I remembered about that morning on the fells.

[Kris V]

The original image wasn't initially processed because it was so lacklustre. It was probably kept because it was taken very early in my digital experience, and couldn't part with it. Last year while going through old photos to "bin", it seemed a likely candidate for some major work as there was nothing to lose.


The modified version was achieved solely in LR by first changing Vibration and Saturation to 100 % in the Presence panel, the radically altering the Saturation and Luminance sliders in the HSL panel. It seems that I can't upload a second image - will exit and try editing.

Success:

Wow! Back to the 60's.
I love the effect!

[NorthernFocus]

Here's my contribution. A boater on the Danube near Kelheim. The original shot is nice, but seemed to lack soinething.

By making the image into a negative and applying the H&D curve for Old Kodak Ektachrome 100, the greens pop and the scene seems about right. I also did one for Provia 100f, Eastmancolor movie film from the old days, and Astia 100.

Having the slide feel seems to add something, at least to me.

I like the colors on the trees in the re-do. The rocks seem a bit green.

[NorthernFocus]

First light on Higgar Tor. Pre breakfast (i.e well before noon) and I was struck by the colour of the sky and the light on the rocks and heather. The camera wasn't that impressed however and produced a really dull rendition for what I thought was a really contrasty scene.

Luminosity mask to separate the sky from the land. Colour/contrast adjustments for the sky and for the land, edge sharpening and texture sharpening with surface blur to bring out the texture of the heather and rock. Followed by 'light painting' with the history brush to bring the scene closer to what I remembered about that morning on the fells.

Nice example of what a difference PP can make. That's what it's all about after all isn't it? Capturing what you experienced at that moment in time.

[kintatsu]

I like the colors on the trees in the re-do. The rocks seem a bit green.

Yes, they do. I could have adjusted color balance, but left it that way, as It left me with a nice "foresty" kind of feel. There's also the fact that we were in a gorge on the Danube. High cliffs and tree covered hills all around. Lots of blue and green light reflected everywhere. I also use several ways for each film. I've tried on other images adjustment layers, decomposing into RGB, and just plain curves. The results are similar for each method.


Here it is Color balanced for the white on the rocks to match what the eye perceives. Of course, making the white "too white" takes away from the shot, I think.

For Fuji's Provia and Astia, they are a bit more bluish. I like the blue-ish cast, too, the greens remain strong, but slightly cooler. With Eastmancolor they are more golden, as there is considerably more saturation in the red curve. The cool thing about working with the film curves is that you can create an image with areas from several films. I prefer not to, but it makes for some interesting experiments!

[Brownbear]

Hi Paul,

Thank you for sharing this and your process...

Can you explain a little bit about this process (beginner level)

Followed by 'light painting' with the history brush to bring the scene closer to what I remembered about that morning on the fells.

PS Dan... thank you for the feedback on my edit. I will try just that.

First light on Higgar Tor. Pre breakfast (i.e well before noon) and I was struck by the colour of the sky and the light on the rocks and heather. The camera wasn't that impressed however and produced a really dull rendition for what I thought was a really contrasty scene.



Luminosity mask to separate the sky from the land. Colour/contrast adjustments for the sky and for the land, edge sharpening and texture sharpening with surface blur to bring out the texture of the heather and rock. Followed by 'light painting' with the history brush to bring the scene closer to what I remembered about that morning on the fells.

[HorseRtist]

I love both versions of your eagle Christina...just fabulous!!!

[HorseRtist]

I'm still not used to this forum so I hope I do something right.
This is a picture that had a terrible background and I am not great at doing PP, so I hope it's not too bad. I took the picture and then took one of the lake where he lives and put them together.
OOPS, I don't know what happened with the size....

[Kris V]

Not really a remake - this was never edited. It was taken a few years ago, with a Kodak bridge camera. It had no RAW possibilities.
Going through some of my old pictures, I almost hit the delete button when I remembered this thread and decided to give it a shot.
The original is pretty flat as you can see - but I think I managed some form of rescue.

This was a good practice run for me to get back in using masking and blending modes, rather than just tweeking in LR or ACR.
I have a tendency of exaggerating things and then I end up with all kinds of crazy results. I saved the file at this stage - before I went way overboard.

Here is my work flow:
Original JPG
Duplicate layer and cloned out the spider web threads
Change Mode to LAB --> Lightness channel: applied image on itself in overlay mode aat 85%
Reduced the layer opacity to 90 %
Merged layers and changed back to RGB
new layer-->Fill withe black @ 60@ opacity - Overlay
new blank layer--> paint with white over the flowers @ 35@ opacity - Overlay
New adjustment layer: Hue/Saturation: Masking the flowers
Hue: -64
Saturation: 0
Lightness: 0
Blending mode: Linear light @ 65%
Cropped
Copy merged layers
Duplicated this layer 2X
Applied HPS on top layer - 1 px. - masked out the background.
Merged down --> Overlay
Blendingmode with layer below: Normal at 40% opacity
Flattened and saved as JPG

[FrankMi]

Here is a shot I took 11 years ago with a Sony Cybershot P&S at ISO-100, f2.8, 1/160 sec. of the bridge of the ship 'Voyager of the Seas'.



Outside the windows was overexposed and inside was underexposed so in post processing I used Layers to select specific parts of the image and adjusted the brightness, contrast, and vibrancy as best I could given the lack of detail in the shadows. In particular I wanted the skin tones to look correct and preserve as much of the detail in the clothing as possible.

Unfortunately, there wasn't anything I could do with the overexposed scene outside the windows so I thought to myself "What would this look like on Star Trek?"

I found a star scene on the WEB and substituted it for the overexposed outdoors and ended up with something a little bit different.

I tried to get the original and the reworked image aspect ratio (added the border to the original image) to match so that you could open the image in Lytebox and use the Arrow Buttons to switch seamlessly between the two images to pick out the changes.

So here is the resulting - "Bridge of the Voyager in Space"

[Brownbear]

Simply amazing! (and beautiful)

Here is a shot I took 11 years ago with a Sony Cybershot P&S at ISO-100, f2.8, 1/160 sec. of the bridge of the ship 'Voyager of the Seas'.



Outside the windows was overexposed and inside was underexposed so in post processing I used Layers to select specific parts of the image and adjusted the brightness, contrast, and vibrancy as best I could given the lack of detail in the shadows. In particular I wanted the skin tones to look correct and preserve as much of the detail in the clothing as possible.

Unfortunately, there wasn't anything I could do with the overexposed scene outside the windows so I thought to myself "What would this look like on Star Trek?"

I found a star scene on the WEB and substituted it for the overexposed outdoors and ended up with something a little bit different.

I tried to get the original and the reworked image aspect ratio (added the border to the original image) to match so that you could open the image in Lytebox and use the Arrow Buttons to switch seamlessly between the two images to pick out the changes.

So here is the resulting - "Bridge of the Voyager in Space"

[Brownbear]

Hi Jo,

That's Dan's eagle, and yes it is fabulous and a shot I'm still dreaming about and aspiring to.

Your eagle looks very nice but it is too, small to see.

I love both versions of your eagle Christina...just fabulous!!!