This week’s challenge from Mitch Zeissler at Imagecraft Bootcamp is fantastic. It is actually a gift from Mitch.
He asked us to choose a ‘throw-away’ photo, those we wish we had done better than that…and take them through a rescue mission in Lightroom. The next step is the best! Mitch would take our photo through his post-processing magic and improve it! Who can refuse such an offer?
I choose a photo I took during Amsterdam Sail 2015. Tall ships come from across the world to take part in SAIL Amsterdam, which takes place every five years and sees hundreds of boats accompanying these historic vessels on a trip from Ijmuiden, in the western Netherlands, to the capital.
I made zillion photos and posted here and here in the blog, but still have many more to share. However, there are some that I wish I had better light, composition, lens, etc. etc. etc.
The one I chose for this challenge is one of them. I waited with anticipation for the sail out event when all ships would leave shore at the same time. I especially wanted to shoot the sailors climbing the rigging on the Tall ship and staying there all the way during the procession of vessels.
There were many boats following them, and many people, like me, who had the same idea. This is the closest I could get. I had to deal with a 120mm lens, which wasn’t enough to capture the sailors, as well as poor light conditions. I shot anyways and hoped for the best with Lightroom.
Here are the results I achieved and the various steps I took.
In short this is what I did: Auto Tone. Camera Calibration. Lens Correction. Cropping. Clarity. Vibrance. Saturation. Highlights. White Balance. Sharpening. Graduated Filter. Radial Filter. Tone Curve. And a few more light touches.
- improving the original in Lightroom
2. Applying an analog filter (color)
3. Converting to monochrome in Silver Efex Pro2 to achieve silhouete and applied filter fully dynamics soft
4. Applying filter Antique in Silver Efex Pro 2. It feels like a scene from a bygone era.
And here is the original RAW file, as shot.
Mitch, I am sure you will do much better than that. Looking forward to learning more from you.
Thank you!
Sights & Insights 
Love the antique effect you’ve captured here! Nice editing job 🙂 And oh boy , those sailors standing so confidently , so high up makes for an impressive sight! Happy weekend my friend!
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the antique effect is perfect for that picture
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I thought it was the most appropriate!! Thanks!
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I loved seeing the entire process, but I really loved seeing what you started with first. Such great editing, Lucile.
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Thank you Lois. This was a pleasant surprise. I am really happy to have made something out of a lost photo.
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That is absolutely fantastic Lucile. A masterpiece. So glad that you used Mitch’s magical tips on this one rather than putting it in the trash folder!
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Thank you, Lisa. I was sad to have list this photo and Mitch’s guidance was invaluable!
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I’m still resisting editing. I want to do it. You’ve got Mitch teaching. I’m weird!
But you might like this: someone HATES me. It’s me they hate, not you!!! Lisa Dorenfest…on my latest post. Check it out. Now we’re HATE buddies!
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I’m watching the resistance and know it won’t last long!
As for Lisa, I feel vindicated! Lol
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I know! That creep hates me! Now I know what it feels like! YAY!!
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Great revenge!
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HA!!
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It’s great Lucile, you have really enhanced the original! I love the lines of the sails and the outstretched arms. Would have been great to be there!
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Thank you, Debbie! You would have indeed loved to be here!Come in 5 years!
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Sounds like a plan!
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I won’t forget it.
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Awesome — that turned out beautiful! Wasn’t that a great way to save the image? 🙂
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Absolutely! I waited so long to make these photos but was surprised by bad weather and bad location! Saved by your skills! Thanks.
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I completely understand. We had the Tall Ships visit here en masse a few years ago and I went through many of the same challenges.
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As it was a 3 day event, I made around 1000 per day, so there is room for rescue operations! 😉
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Haha — that sounds about the same for me as well. 🙂
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The difference will be that you will surely have no throw away as opposed to mine.
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Ha! Sadly, you are mistaken and will have to remove me from that pedestal. 😀
I, too, have throw-aways. Sometimes (though it’s rare) an entire photo shoot can be a throw-away, like one I had last winter; it was a very gray and overcast day, and the light was flat. We hiked and enjoyed the outdoors for much of the day, and I shot about a roll-and-a-half of film.
However, when I processed the images, ALL of them were disappointing. The light was too flat and they all looked washed out. I haven’t trashed them yet, but they just don’t look salvageable at present. I’ll dig into them sometime during the upcoming winter months and see if I can work any magic with them, but I think it’s doubtful.
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I’m not mistaken and please accept that you’re too modest! You may have throw-aways but from a different league!
Film is more difficult though and I accept you made a good point here, Sir!
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I won’t deny that film is more difficult, especially when you shoot completely manually like I do (just hand meter a scene, focus, adjust the aperture and shutter speed, and compose the shot).
I try to remain as modest as possible; I often learn something from others that have less experience than I, so it keeps me humble.
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When I bought my first Nikon FM when I was at the university, and followed a one-year photography course, I only shot manual. That’s how I learned through my mistakes when equally learning to develop film at the lab.
As I stopped practicing when I got my first job, and came back to digital only, I became more reluctant to go full manual.
I know though that’s the best way to keep learning and improving. What you do is art, and of course, greatly helped by your superb experience. It’s ok to be modest, let us praise you! It’s one more quality to admire your work.
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Sigh… You’re hopeless. 😉
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😉
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Photo editing is such an art (and science) and you have this down! When I saw the first shot, I asked myself how is this a throw-away shot? Your edits are fantastic! Even the original photo is great composition. Gives me some confidence with some of my old shots taken earlier 🙂
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Terri, with guidance and good tutorials, we all can do this. Mitch has been a superb teacher and I’ve learned much more from him in the last weeks than months before.
He taught me to use Lightroom in ways I hadn’t done before.
But the knowledge can be applied in many other editing tools, so give it a try. You will be very happy to see so much improvement in photos you otherwise wouldn’t have used anymore.
Thank you for the lovely comment.
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Just because you take a shot and it doesn’t look good, doesn’t mean that it’s not salvageable. Other tricks to try are cropping in a LOT tighter, rotating the image, pushing it really dark or really light, etc.
The thing to keep in mind is that most current image processing programs — like Lightroom — don’t actually touch the original image… so you can post-process to your heart’s delight, completely trash the results, and start over again from scratch — as many times as you want! This gives you the ability to play, experiment, and grow your skills with absolutely NO impact to your original image. Don’t like the results? Toss it and start over! I do this exact thing on a daily basis (seriously).
So roll up your sleeves and start playing! 😉
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