Before and After Exercise

Another project from our travels is for students to take an image that they really like and give it to another to improve in post-production where possible. No restriction was placed on how this could be achieved, nor on the software used - although most used Photoshop Elements, Photoshop and NIK Silver EFEX to get what was required.
Overall the results were really good, considering that the editing was done mostly in the bus as we travelled from Fes to Chefchouen. Here are some of the best examples. Bear in mind also that because of the time restrictions most have not been fully finished. But you'll get the idea...

Olive shop, shot in the Fes souk. Background is too dark and the wrong colour. Pic by Glyn Patrick.

Edited by Alan Stern. Much improved version with a lighter foreground and cropped exterior. In my opinion this can be further improved. A little bit lighter perhaps but then a more balanced colour in the upper portion of the frame - you might do this using a mask to limit the spread of the tone change, either in Camera RAW or Photoshop

Coke display in the breakfast bar at our Marakesh Riad. Pic by Robin N.

Edited by Sue Caldwell, she cropped the edges slightly, ramped up the contrast and added a High Pass sharpen filter effect to add a bit more impact. My opinion is that this has done the job nicely.

This is a real doozy from Fraser Burdon for Glyn to edit. We were on the point of rekjecting this entirly when it was suggested to try to convert it to black-and-white.

Under the watchful eye of yours truly, Glyn converted the image to monochrome in Lightroom then added a whizz-bang color effect using Nik Silver EFEX - to great effect I think. We liked the halo effect round the 'burning bush'. And might have removed the light patch in the upper roof section - if there was the time. An impressive rescue job. Fraser was suitably impressed (at least for a Deity).

Image supplied by Ian Caldwell for fixing by Lucie Loane...

So, Lucie did a great job of fixing this in quite a subtle way. A tiny edge crop, black-and-white conversion adn a few bits removed. Simple but effective...

Fraser took this shot of Lucie's and heavily darkened the upper section - just to emphasise the gull sitting on the boat. We all thought this was not quite enough - it needs that line of lighter tone running up to the bird's eye removed/Cloned out.

Not to be outdone, Fraser then added a shot of an owl he had seen in the day.
As I have said on other trips, some things should just be left alone!

Carolyn G's shot taken among the ruins at Volublis. Underexposed and very dark.

Here's the improved version: slightly lighter with an extended sky up top and a seriously blurred foreground. Excellent diagnostics - needs a little more time to get the feathering better and the blurring more under control - but the concept is fine.

Shot of Volublis by Fay Burdon. Not bad but it needs rotating to get it level.
It needs to be lighter and there's precious little foreground interest.

Here is my improved version.I cloned out some of the mess along the bottom right-hand side. I also copied the right-hand column and pasted it back into the image, far left, behind the 'sacrificial altar'. To boost the foreground interest I then added a bit of rock from a picture I made in Baalbeck (Lebanon) a year ago, desaturated and toned it to fit the host image.
Not the best job I have ever done but certainly a bit more interesting than the original.