Creative Effects Challenge No. 143 - RAW Old Log House

[hmca]

1. Participants in the challenge are asked to provide a screenshot of their edits within the RAW converter of their choice
along with the reasons for their edits.

2. Following their initial edits members may use whatever “tools" they wish to create an image that portrays their artistic vision for the image
as long as the character of the original image is not lost.

3. Including information on plug-ins, actions, external editors, textures, sky replacements etc that were used will only help to inform members
of some of the creative options that are available to today’s photographer.

4. Including layer stacks may be something to consider when presenting a final edit.

You have until Thursday March 4th to submit your edits.   At the end of the challenge the image creator will select his/her three favorite edits.

Comments are restricted to complimenting another member's edit.

 The photographer recently came upon this image that had never been edited.  The thought was that this would work well for the RAW challenge and he/she would be interested to see how others might edit this image.

This is the image we will be working on:



The RAW file can be downloaded here.  You do not need a dropbox account to download.  Look for the download top right.

[tonyw]

Thanks Helen (and for filling in for this challenge when I forgot it was my turn). Certainly a challenging image to work on with a high dynamic range so a blown out sky and no detail in the building but as it's raw much is recoverable. I decided to concentrate on the building so straightened and cropped it and then made some major changes to the highlights, shadows and white balance (see below). Couldn't recover any sky detail so did a sky replacement as it's now so easy to do! Here's what I finished up with for now. I did try color grading in Lightroom (as discussed in another thread) but in this case I couldn't get it to offer much of an improvement.





Tony

[hmca]

Great start with this image, Tony! Like your close crop of the house and the way you have brought out all the interesting details on the porch. Think this should be a fun image to work on with lots of possibilities for creative editing.

[hmca]

To begin with I have to admit that I am not good at relating what steps I took with editing. Like so many images of my own I begin thinking I am going in one direction and end up going someplace totally different.
My first thought was to warm up the image by adjusting the white balance and a few sliders. Plus I wanted to adjust the red on the apples on the tree on the left and lighten the corn stalks using Blake's technique. I then added a new sky using Luminar and took it into DXO NIK CE and used the Pro Contrast filter.
After all that I wasn't happy with the results. So I decided to try it as a B/W. I used two presets the antique plate on one copy over a plain B/W beneath. Finally I decided that this would work for my first attempt on this image.

I took it into RAW two different times....

[Andy]

- Auto Upright mode
- Temp 5150/Tint +27
- Exposure +.14
- Shadows +89
- Blacks -26
- DeHaze +50
- Saturation: Orange +18, Yellow +28, Green -35, Blue -42
- Luminance: Yellow -38
- Color Grading of shadows with yellow
- Noise Reduction +11
- Adjustment Brush
- Exposure +.24 and Shadows +13 along the front of the cabin
- Shadows +28 and Texture +73 along cabin and chimney
- Clarity +22 on chimney

[hmca]

Such a wonderful old cabin! It is going to be fun to see the different ways our members approach it. Your rather "bleached/weathered" look has brought out so many of the details that were hidden in the shade, Andy.

[fotofrank]

Thanks for this Helen.





Topaz Denoise AI
Replaced sky Luminar AI
Silver Effect Pro to create a Luminosity layer.
Cropped in Photoshop
Add inside to the cabin

[pontiac1940]

I opened it in ACR and made some adjustments. Then added a new sky in PSE2021. Then ran it through ACR again. Then did some desaturating. And fiddled with the borders.  

[hmca]

Very colorful edit, Frank. If you have time, could you expand a bit on how and why you decided to use SE to create a luminosity mask? Another thing I haven't gotten a handle on and I would imagine would be interesting to others as well.

Clive, your image looks like it would make a nice notecard to be sold at the location's gift shop....if they had one.

[fotofrank]

Hi Helen, sorry if there is some confusion - In my post I said I added the B&W from silver effects pro as a Luminosity Layer - not a luminosity mask.



I have used Luminosity layer to add a little tonal quality to the image. When the B&W is in the layer stack I change the blend mode to luminosity. It will make subtle changes to your image. You can add a mask to this layer so that it is supplied selectively along with changing the opacity. This process is not limited to the Luminosity bled mode - a number of others work just as well.

Just as a note - I use the basic/default from Silver Effect.

[hmca]

Thanks for clarifying my mistake, Frank. It was nice of you to add your layer stack and explain your reason for adding the B/W layer.

[tonyw]

More fiddling and going in closer - primarily using an adjustment brush to reveal details. Also decided to remove some colour compared to my first try.  And then went all the way did a black and white conversion in Silver Efex Pro2





Tony

[hmca]

I like how your new versions bring our focus to all of those interesting items on the porch, Tony.

[Lillias]

For my first effort


In PSE straightened the image.
Duplicated that layer and saved as jpeg
Opened again and applied three Filters as follows...
Poster Edges - Settings 6, 3 and 3
Dry Brush 7, 10 and3
Smudge Stick 5,11 and 5
Selected the sky and added a gradient to bring more colour into it and added some clouds with cloud brushes.



Then for my second effort I built on the first by creating a stamped layer and went to Enhance>convert to B&W and I chose Scenic Landscape and moved the sliders as shown.





I think my black and white might just be too stark!

[hmca]

I was waiting to see what you would come up with, Lillias. Interesting to see the painterly effect that you achieved without ever leaving PE.
As to your black and white version, it would seem to me that a lone home with no neighbors in sight could be processed to give it a stark look.