I am trying to find a way to improve my post processing skills. The aim here is to try to create beautiful photographs from crappy shots. Each photographer has his or her own technique unfortunately it seems that people like to keep these things secret.

You think you have an awesome style / technique? Do you think you can convert something that would normally be thrown away into something that looks interesting. Try applying it on the sample photo. You can use anything tool under the sun, do as heavy an editing job as you want.

It is fine if you want to keep your workflow secret, but it would be nice if you could share how you did it. The goal is to learn from one another

Here’s the challenge photo. Untouched, straight out of the camera.

Get the RAW file here: in NEF or full-size JPEG.

Let me know if you need it in a different format.

To start off, here is my attempt:

Lightroom:
adjusted white balance
adjusted tone settings (exposure, recovery, fill light, blacks, curve saturation)
increased sharpness

Photoshop:
[layer4] background duplicate set to soft light mode, around 15% opacity.
[layer3] background duplicate set to overlay mode, around 15% opacity.
[layer2] curve adjustment, mask for clouds. white point set to lightest area
[layer1] curve adjustment, mask excluding clouds. white point set to one of the flowers and black point set to one of the dark corners on the lower left area. s-shaped curve for increased contrast
[background] imported from RAW with Lightroom 2 adjustments

Looking forward to seeing some excellent results. Have fun!!!

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Got my new Nikon D90 DSLR camera two days ago to replace my Nikon D80. I am having so much fun with it! I am planning to do a write-up about it, but I should include some nice photos and videos and I haven’t had a chance to take some really good ones yet. Have been really busy with work and preparing for my trip to Zamboanga. I’m going to Zamboanga tomorrow to visit my aging grandfather. Will be staying there for a week.

For now, I leave you with this - a photo of my Nikon Speedlight SB-600 flashgun.

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So my free Flickr account is maxed out and I don’t want to pay for a pro subscription so I’m posting on my blog instead. These were taken with my Nikon D80 at different dates using different lenses. Click on the thumbnail to view high resolution version (warning: may get very large!).

Fifty

Night glow

Feast

Vroom vroom

We have room

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I’m lazy. So I’ll let my photos tell the story. Ok?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dennisonuy

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So I went to Cebu to celebrate Sinulog this January 2008. Maybe I’ll write a full post of my experience soon but in the meantime check out my photos.

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I can has mouseburger!?!?

I recently adopted a stray cat and I have decided to name him Vedio. Vedio came into my life on the cloudy afternoon of November 3, 2007. I was on my way out of the delivery bay area of Festival Supermall when a tiny kitten came tumbling from the left out of nowhere and almost crossed my path. Without hesitation, I stopped the car, picked him up, and brought him in.
(more…)

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One really unique photography style that I’ve run into in the past is tilt-shift photography. Basically this involves tilting the lens of the camera so that focus is applied on a certain area of the view frame. When applied to a large scene you get a panoramic effect equivalent to that of an aerial shots or miniature models.

As a kid I really enjoyed looking at my dad’s Madurodam catalog and I have always been amazed by the level of detail provided on such small scales.

Here’s a a good, short article on it as well as an NY Times featurette.

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