15 replies to this topic

[krag96]

 With Peter's help I dug up an old challenge.   Post processing/editing challenge.

Each week someone posts a new (preferably) RAW challenge photo, we'll use the same rules as the original challenge.

 

And then the rules:

The challenge is weekly, a new thread with a new raw (preferably) or jpg fine file for each week.

Cutoff time for submissions is midnight between sunday and monday your time zone.

This is a round-robin challenge, the order of submitting the week’s raw file is based on an alphabetical list of applicants’ user names. If the next submitter on the list is unable to post at his/her turn he/she may ask the thread master to be moved down the list no later than friday morning. Late applications will be added at the bottom of the list.
We will revise this when every applicant has had a go, and perhaps change this model.

The submitter for the week must make the file along with any specific text for the post available to the thread master during the weekend preceding the challenge week. The thread master will then copy the file to a Dropbox location for the challenge and make the starting post for the week.

Images provided, as well as the images resulting from the challenge remain the sole property of the photographer who took them. Those participating in the editing challenge may not use or display the photo outside the challenge thread.

The owner of the photo declares a winner after the challenge is over.

As this challenge is a tool for learning and inspiration, multiple entries are not only ok, but encouraged if a participant gets a new idea for how to present or interpret the photo, including artistic interpretations.

Participants must share how they have achieved their take on the photo.

Participants are explicitly not limited as to what software is used for the challenge.

 

 

I'll start off with this RAW file shot at Gettysburg, April 23 2021.  Nikon D750 Nikkor 24-120 f4 G ED  RAW 1/160  f22 ISO500 120mm 0.0

 

The Michael Bushman farmhouse on the southern end of the July 2 1863 Battlefield with Big Roundtop in the right background.  The orchard on the right is where Confederate General John Bell Hood was wounded by a Union shell at the outset of the Confederate advance.  The farm was used as an aid station for the wounded and a temporary hospital.  The bodies of eight Confederate dead were buried there. 

 

Transfer - Dropbox

 

 

 

 

I'm still trying to feel my way through this, here's my edit on the above photo.  I used Affinity Photo and simply increased the contrast by 25% and darkened it 11%.

 

[Merco_61]

Shouldn't there be a link to the raw file?

[krag96]

Shouldn't there be a link to the raw file?

I'd love to do that, but computers ain't my generation.  Where is it?  I can get it to Afinity...

[Merco_61]

In the original challenges, we used Dropbox to host the raw files. You just sign up to dropbox, upload the file and use the Copy a link function in the app or web page. This will copy a link to the clipboard on your computer that you can paste in the message on the forum.

[krag96]

I'll give it a try, but I'm about as computer savy as a common red brick.

[krag96]

Peter, rather than do this via PM,  I'd like to keep this on the forum in case it can help someone else who didn't grow up with these infernal machines.  

 

Here's what I have so far, (and don't expect me to explain how I got this far on my own).  Free dropbox account made and on the computer.  I attempted to load the above photo in a file, and ended up with all my photos there, (okay, that makes things easier...I think.  Now I'm at a stand still as to what to do with them, it's a strange format, (to me anyway).  I've selected the photo, now what?  And where do I go with it? 

[Merco_61]

You go to the Dropbox app.

Click on the folder pictogram.

 

This will open your Dropbox browser.

 

Click on the Share pictogram for the file you want to share and click on Copy link in the bottom right corner in the window which opens.

 

This will copy a link to the file to your clipboard. The next step is to paste the link where you want the link to be in the post you are writing.

Dropbox - _DSC0967.NEF - Simplify your life

 

This example link is to an old editing challenge raw file by Mr_Leeman. The challenge thread is here: Editing mini-challenge, week ending 7 December 2014 - Mini-Challenges, Member Contests, and Games - NikonForums.com

 

Did this clear things up a bit?

[krag96]

Things may not have worked out via your instructions, but I think I may have done it.  Check the post.

[Merco_61]

It has worked, however you did it!

 

I forgot to add that things might look different on a Windows machine...

[krag96]

You know the story of the blind squirrel finding a nut every now and again...well, that's it.

[Merco_61]

Here is my take on your file.

 

I started by lowering saturation and contrast to give Analog Efex Pro a better starting point.

Changed Picture Control [LS]Landscape from [VI]Vivid.
Activated ADL Extra strong

These were the only two steps in Capture NX-D.

 

Over to my old version of Analog Efex Pro to render a feel of an old faded Ektar print from a medium format folder.

 

I wasn't sure how warm I wanted to go, that is why there are more than one film type in the screenshot.

[krag96]

That gives it sort of an old time post card look bordering on lithograph.  Not bad, I like it!

[bluzman]

I was curious about what the image would look like if rendered in gray scale since that would have been the look at the time. But I also wondered what the same image would look like if it was rendered in sepia tone although that seemed to be most common in images of people.

 

This is very simplistic. I just exported the .NEF file from NX Studio to a .JPG file and then used the free FastStone Image Viewer program to create these.

 

 

[krag96]

You have me wondering if I could produce an ''imperfect'' image that would look like a print from a period glass plate negative like a July 5-6 1863 Gardner O'Sullivan.  Now I'm going to have to dig through my books and see if they photographed this house while doing the battlefield just days after it happened.

Here I go again, another dive into historical archives!

[Merco_61]

I did another one, this time in monochrome...

 

In Capture NX-D:

Changed Picture Control to [FL]Flat from [VI]Vivid.
Activated ADL Extra strong

 

The recipe from Analog Efex Pro:

 

The recipe from Silver Efex Pro:

[krag96]

That's very much excellent, Peter!  That's very close, most period photos taken outdoors have a bit more contrast, but some are like yours.   It's known the Gardner O'Sullivan team were in that area July 5-6 1863 they apparently took no photographs of the Bushman farm, nor did any other photographer of the time.  The only period photo depicting the Bushman farm I could find was taken around 1868 from Little Round Top and it only accidently depicts depicts the Bushman farm as tiny buildings on the distant horizon.