This is the final week for the first month of the fabulous One Four Challenge created by Robyn over at Captivate Me. I took part in this challenge because beyond the original post process in Lightroom I always do and an occasional BW treatment in Nik Silver Efex, I very rarely get creative beyond that.
So this was my opportunity to push myself in an entirely new direction with my post processing, and it has been a real challenge. It felt a lot like my Week 3 entry was cheating because I only opened my first image into Nik Color Efex and chose a preset I liked. It was still a completely different style of image for me but didn’t feel like any real effort went into creating the image.
This week was TOTALLY DIFFERENT!!! This time I had a vision of how I was to process the final image 🙂
A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to attend a day workshop by Trey Ratcliff and he showed how he used different software programs in new and interesting ways (after that workshop I actually went and bought Photoshop, thats how amazing it was!). There was one particular technique he showed that I wanted to try on this weeks Challenge entry.
There is only one small problem…….. I have NO IDEA HOW TO USE PHOTOSHOP!!
Anyway, long story short there are two images for you this week, the first one is my WIP image after playing with it in Photoshop. The second image is my Challenge entry, with the PS image taken back into LR and tweaked a little bit further.
Image processed in Photoshop but its only halfway there
OK this is what happened here:
– imported my Week 1 image as the base image
– imported my Week 2 BW image as a layer
– used Hardlight blend mode to blend the two at around 74%
– toned the colour and saturation down a smidge
Final Image – One Four Challenge Week 4 Entry
Further processing in LR:
– created a large radial filter around the elephant and bough the exposure down a fair bit
– bought down clarity and vibrance a bit
– tweaked the sharpness down until the corners and edges just went a bit blurry
ALL FEEDBACK AND CRITIQUE WELCOMED!
Above are all 4 of my November One Four Challenge entries for your delectation 🙂
Learning to See Light 
PS is a mystery to me too. I use simple, free software. Some of this confuses me. It would be great to sit with someone who knows how to use PS software and learn one-on-one.
I paid to have someone show me some of the more useful parts of Lightroom a few years ago, and that was well worth the cost. I purchased a post processing course from Eye Voyage and it was SO HELPFUL and completely changed my post pro capabilities and made me realise the true strengths of what LR can do when you know how to use it.
When I have some time I will probably do the same for PS as well 🙂
He looks great Stacey!!
Im so happy you made/took the time. Your vision is awesome and he totally shines!!
I love what youve done here… and can I say #4 is my fave, hands down. Awesome!! 😀
Wow thanks, wasnt really sure how the final image would be recieved but the important thing was I had a go 🙂 And did new things!
I love that you did that and it so worked!! 😀
love the subtler tone of the sky in this one!! All wonderful!!
Thankyou, was a real learning experience for me 🙂
Really beautiful. I loved your BW version, that elephant just sparkled! But, what a cool idea to put the two images together. I have never heard of that. There is just the right amount of shine and subtlety to this latest image. It is really great!
Thanks Carrie, that was the technique I had seen Trey use, to use a BW layer to add extra texture to the image in a different way. I tried to create a new BW image but my PS couldnt find my Nik plugins so I had to use the one I had already done. Got a bit stressful as I have no idea how to use PS at all 🙂
Number 4 is my favourite… not too shiny, not too goldy! I can relate to your comments about getting a bit stress as you try things out…
Thanks, I was a bit worried it might be a bit to pale in the colours compared to the others. I was getting stressed cos I couldnt make PS do what I wanted it to do, and I couldnt find the right version of Nik to try to reinstall so I could get it into my plugin folders! Still a problem to tackle but will have to research online to find the fix – what did we ever do before the internet!
Wow… I think this turned out really nice! Interesting method and PS is also a mystery to me but I am happy that I more or less know my way around in LR, although I probably don’t use it’s full potential yet.
Thanks, I was a bit concerned as its quite different to my usual way of working. LR is actually pretty powerful and so much more affordable than PS 🙂
I love your last image and it’s nice when all that effort pays off. You’ve chosen a wonderful original image and all your versions look really beautiful. I am glad you had fun and hope you’ll continue to participate.
I certainly intend to particpate tho Dec could be a challenge for me as I have a really big exam to sit in a month and I really really need to be studying instead of fluffing around trying to get PS to work LOL.
Stacey, week 4 is amazing. This is one of the rare times that I am in the majority but you blew it out of the water (hit it out of the park?) with this week’s version. Congrats!
Thanks was really not sure how this version would be recieved, it’s a very different style for me
I quite like the grungy image of the last week, emphasizing even more the metallic tone of the elephant that I have liked all the way through the month. Great.
Thanks Ben, it was a good image choice for my first go, no idea what I will use for next time