Before and After

[Koru]

Another of my son's pics from the Hot Rod Show on the weekend.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b126/wildsweetone/Bike.jpg

and my fiddling...

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b126/wildsweetone/Bikecopy.jpg

I think I have eyeball spin after that lot. There's gotta be an easier way! lol

First time I did this, I took out both mirrors and left the back of the vehicle (including it's bright red light) in the windshield of the bike, and left in the helmet by the right handlebar. lol I nearly chucked in the job and then thought I'd give it another go. The end result is as you see. I don't think I've enough patience to go that step further and correct the shadow in front-left of the bike.

(By the way, my son says I'm wrecking his photos. ;) All the originals are safe. :) )

Grayfish, I think I'll definately leave the future carrying of grasses, moonbeams and wildlife etc to you, I curtsy in honour of your skill and patience. rosesm

[richg99]

Lots of work there. Too much for me for a black bike.

I liked your more colorful Hot Rod shots. We still think that you should put 12 of them together for a calendar. Sell it to a chain of Auto Parts Stores and retire a millionaire..or..... at least, have more $$$ for your camera pursuits. Rich

[grayfish]

You been practicing Karen. Very nicely done. That is really good. I salalute you. You have an eye for detail. Welcome to the wonderful world of modifing photos.

Jack

[Koru]

Rich, that black bike was a nice bike (according to my son ;) ). I kind of think that what I've done is make it look nothing special. Maybe the framing or picking up the graphics and putting them into the framing would soup it up a bit. I don't know.

There's a tad too much green grass for my liking. (I also see I didn't get the right handle bar quite right - my monitor is playing up towards the end of the day and not giving me as clear a picture as in the mornings - so I see the bike is all it's glory(?) right now.) lol I wonder if I pinched some of the darker grass and put it into that area above the bike... a little more interest there perhaps?

As for the calendar idea, hold that thought. -JAW- and I have talked about a calendar project and what you've suggested is another dimension, another possibility. Thank you.

Grand Master Jack, thank you but I learnt my limitations with modifying this photo. It takes a lot of time and patience and a lot of incredible fine detail awareness, and some knowledge perhaps not only about the program itself, but also about the subject. --- Several points during the process I had legs and wheels popping up all over the place just when I thought I'd grassed an area properly. lol It might be easier with an optical mouse or a different tool to the normal Dell one I have.

If it wasn't for you sharing your incredible skill with modification, I never would have tried doing this. So, thank you. I've learnt a great deal.

I can't say I won't do it again, but hopefully it'll be a little easier next time. :)

[mr.robo57]

Great work!!

[grayfish]

Karen ask be to post this. It is not as great as she thinks. I did it the morning of teh 23rd. for practice and sent it to Karen. I did modify it from what I had sent her. I would love to see what she could do with a pen tablet. She is good.

[MsAddicted]

Holy cow. Both of you impress me.

[my3peas]

Wow! you both did great work! I'd love to be able to clone like that, I just don't have the
patience for it :)

[Koru]

Karen ask be to post this. It is not as great as she thinks. I did it the morning of teh 23rd. for practice and sent it to Karen. I did modify it from what I had sent her. I would love to see what she could do with a pen tablet. She is good.It is as great as I think, Jack. Having spent some time with editing this photo myself, I know just how much effort and skill you put into what you do. I am in awe of your ability.

My son and I sat here last evening just staring at the bike you had edited, comparing it with the original, comparing it with my edit.

When he saw my edit (before you had shown me yours) he was disappointed with it. It didn't look right. There were bits that I should have been able to remove (mouses are indeed restricting lol).

He sat and stared at your edit for an hour, looking back and forth, comparing.

Within an hour later, he was sitting at his own computer, with Photoshop downloaded onto his machine and was playing with photos he had taken himself. (Not sure I should tell you this part but you know the island that features in some of my beach/sea shots? Well, he's figured out how to move it. lol)

The point is, that he was so impressed with your skill that through you sharing your photo, he wanted to have a go himself. Thank you from my heart for that. rosesm

If anyone else wants to have a go at editing, I would highly recommend the experience. It is VERY enlightening and is yet another way to hone your eye to look for details... In my opinion, knowing how to find details most definately enhances our own creativity.

rosesm

[grayfish]

Thanks Karen. I hope his new found hobby is a good thing.



Here is a little trick you can use to correct some mistakes. It is also helpful for other uses, more about that at a latter date. I use CorelPhoto-Paint for my edits so the terms and features may be different.



Of course when editing a photo always use a copy of the original.



I place the copy on Layer 1 and duplicate it to Layer 2. I turn off Layer1 and work in Layer 2. This way if you make a mistake, such as cloning over an object edge and not noticing it till later you can correct it by turning on Layer 1. Then working with Layer 2 you can make it a little transparent (less opaque in PhotoShop, I think). This allows the lower layer to show through. Then you can use an erase tool to set to about 60% transparent to erase the upper layer gradually with repeat strokes so that what you want shows through. Then change the transparency back to normal. Then I duplicate Layer 1 again. The dup becomes Layer 3. On some programs it will be on top of all the other layers. Move it between Layer 1 and 2. Then combine Layer 3 and 2. This saves Layer 1 in case you need it again.



In the motorcycle picture I used that very trick to clean up the right hand grip due it a mistake I made. By the way the right lever is a cut out of the left lever which was placed on an upper layer. Flipped, resized, and turned to what I think is close. It had some more length than I needed so I erased part of it on its left side. Since it was on its own layer above the rest I could do that. Then I combined it with the layer below



Hope that makes sense. I am not much of a writer.

[Koru]

I am not much of a writer*cough, choke, splutter* Yeah right.


I have printed off your suggestions and will have a good look through over the next week. (I have some hefty prose editing jobs to do and it's been about 86f on and off for the last few days with pretty much 99% humidity, which is not conducive to much logical thinking).

I does make sense, but I would like to work with it next to me whilst editing a photo (can't believe I'm thinking about doing that again!). lol

The right hand grip... that was really interesting to look at and to work out what you did. I told my son that I bet you'd borrowed from the left hand lever and flipped it and he didn't believe me. The weird part is, that the silver breaky thingamiebob on the right hand side is actually not fully shown in the original due to the way the bike is standing. If you look close, you can see the little 'knob' end (look at the left hand one first), but not the stick going out to it because it is lower and away from the bike itself. Very odd perspective and no one would probably pick that up without using a magnifying glass. I only knew it because I was trying to find it in among that dense 'busy' area and my son figured it out.

Thank you for the handy hints. I'll try them out soon and let you know how I go. :)

[galbayfisher]

Both are great. However, the tiebreaker is the windshield.

Grayfish by a verrrry small nose.

[Shed Hunter]

Holy cow! They are both great! Looks like a lot of work! Nice Jobs, Karen and Greyfish.
SH